Nate Oats 'concerned' about Alabama's offense following Ole Miss loss

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama put together one of its worst offensive performances in a long time during Tuesday night’s 74-64 loss to Ole Miss at home.

The 64 points scored was easily a season-low, and an extremely uncharacteristic mark for a team that was leading the nation in scoring coming into the game with over 91 points per game. In fact, that total was the lowest an Alabama team has scored in a game since March of 2023, when the Crimson Tide lost in the Sweet 16 to San Diego State.

After the game, head coach Nate Oats was brutally honest, as he often is, about the state of the offense.

“I think we should all be pretty concerned, to be honest with you,” Oats said. “We’re not aggressive, other than on the rebounds. The guards didn’t come off attacking a switch like we tried to coach them to do. We’re not shooting the ball very well. But part of that is we’re not getting very good shots. I mean, we only shot 20 threes. Now, part of that was their switching because they’d switch and our guys wouldn’t be ready to attack the switch, and then you’re not pulling the help in.”

Just about everything that could go wrong for the offense did. Alabama turned the ball over 21 times. Those turnovers led to 23 fewer shot attempts than Ole Miss had throughout the course of the game. The Rebels limited the number of 3-pointers Alabama was able to get off, as the Tide made just 5-of-20 attempts from deep.

That 25 percent clip from beyond the arc was even lower than the team’s season-long clip of 32 percent, which ranks in the bottom-third of the sport.

But a bigger issue than all of those things in Oats’ eyes was the lack of offensive rebounds in the game. The stat sheet counted four total for the game, a few of those coming in the final minutes with the outcome already in hand. Alabama ranked No. 11 in the country in offensive rebounding percentage coming into this game, and was non-existent on the offensive glass all night.

“Maybe the most disappointing thing on the night, in my opinion, was our lack of effort on the offensive glass. I don’t know if our guys didn’t realize that’s what’s been keeping our offense going,” Oats said. “We haven’t been shooting it particularly well. We’ve had too many turnovers. Our offense hasn’t been great this year, but the offensive rebounding rate’s been really saving us in some of these games. And I believe the one offensive rebound in the first half on the box score, I believe, was given to Jarin on the missed dunk. I think they gave a miss field goal/offensive rebound/turnover. So I think essentially we had zero offensive rebounds in the first half, and then we ended the game with with three if you take the one off. You shouldn’t reward a missed dunk with an offensive rebound for hanging on the rim.

“So to go from 23 against A&M, who’s one of the toughest teams in the country – and Ole Miss is tough, too. Nothing to take away from. But you can’t go from 23 to three and expect to win the game.”

Still, Oats remained confident that the team and coaching staff can get the offense back on track, starting of course with the offensive glass.

“I think we will figure it out. I think Coach Pannone, Coach Bauman and myself spend most of the time on the offensive side, and we’ll spend a lot of time evaluating this one,” Oats said. “But we’re going to definitely have to get back to getting to the offensive boards. That’s been saving our offense. I don’t know if the guys just felt like they didn’t need to anymore or what, but that obviously didn’t work very well for us.”

The Crimson Tide’s next game is no easy one, going on the road to Rupp Arena to take on No. 8 Kentucky. That game, however, could serve as an opportunity for the Alabama offense to find itself again, with the Wildcats’ defensive efficiency on the season ranking No. 75 nationally per KenPom.

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