Nate Oats on Alabama's effort in home loss to Ole Miss: 'It's disgusting'
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – No. 4 Alabama dropped its first SEC game of the season and its third contest of the 2024-25 season on Tuesday night with its 74-64 loss to No. 21 Ole Miss.
The Crimson Tide and Rebels entered the matchup as two of the three SEC teams undefeated in conference play, along with Auburn, and head coach Nate Oats praised Ole Miss for coming into Coleman Coliseum ready to play. But his team, he made it clear, did not.
At halftime, when Alabama held a 36-32 lead but turned it over 11 times and only recorded one offensive rebound, Oats said his team was “sleepwalking” in the first 20 minutes. The Tide was out-scored 42-28 in the second and turned it over a season-high 21 times.
In a ranked matchup to remain atop the SEC, Oats wasn’t happy with the No. 4 team’s effort.
“It’s disgusting, to be honest with you,” Oats said.
“With the amount of fifth-year seniors we have and the leadership that should be shown on this team, to have guys come in ready to play, it’s – look, it starts with me, because I’m supposed to be the one motivating these guys, and I obviously didn’t motivate them very well to make sure they’re ready. So I’m gonna have to look in the mirror and see what I did, didn’t do.
“I’m gonna have to have a good talk with some of these seniors that are supposed to be on leaders and figure out why we weren’t ready to go tonight because it’s very disappointing. It’s disgusting, and it’s frustrating.”
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In addition to the turnovers, Alabama (20-47) attempted 23 fewer shots from the field than Ole Miss (27-70), only recorded four offensive rebounds – after entering the conference clash as the nation’s 11th-best team in offensive rebounding percentage – and shot 25 percent from three (5-20). That’s not a winning formula in a tough league like the SEC.
Oats gave credit where credit was due after the Crimson Tide’s first loss since December but also voiced his displeasure with the performance multiple times in his press conference.
“It’s not like we lost to a bad team,” Oats said. “This is a really good team. They’re in first place. Them and Auburn are tied now for first place in the league.
“We didn’t lose because they were just a far superior team tonight. I felt like we lost because they came ready to play. They brought energy. They brought effort. And we did not. That’s a frustrating way to lose.”
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