Alabama Basketball "Back to Ground Zero" After Embarrassing Loss to Oklahoma

The Crimson Tide lost its first game since Dec. 17 — by 24 points. Where does it go now?

College basketball is an odd sport.

On Tuesday, the Oklahoma Sooners lost by 27 points to No. 11 TCU. On Saturday, the Sooners defeated No. 2 Alabama — which was on a nine-game winning streak dating back to Dec. 17.

“[Oklahoma was] ready to go,” Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats said. “I didn't think we were. They jumped on us from the beginning — we never really got back in it. […] I don't think we’ve been playing great for a couple of weeks. We’ve definitely lost our edge a little bit. They got us at the right time. We’ve got to figure out how to get it back.”

After just 40 minutes of basketball on a court, Oklahoma is feeling good about its NCAA Tournament chances — the Crimson Tide is back to the drawing board after being beat down by an inferior opponent.

“Hopefully a loss will help us wake up a little bit,” Oats said. “This is a big game. I think this has significance for postseason seeding. […] We didn’t do very well.”

“Coach Oats has been on us recently — he’s been telling us something like this was due to happen,” guard Rylan Griffen said. “We didn't really listen. We didn't come out ready to fight. […] We [felt] like we were untouchable. […] Now that we see that [we’re not], we need to come back out with an edge on our shoulder.”

After three straight poor offensive performances, the Alabama defense broke as well on Saturday afternoon in Norman.

“This wasn't a typical showing by us,” Oats said. “Our effort’s got to be better. Our defense was nowhere close to where it needed to be to compete in this game.”

Now the question must be asked — are there concerns about this Crimson Tide team that looked invincible a couple of weeks ago? What’s the issue?

Oats put it on himself.

“I didn't do a good enough job of getting these guys ready to play,” Oats said. “I got to figure out a better way to let these guys know what we got to do, get them more motivated to play a little harder. […] It falls back on me as a head coach.”

The defensive issues on Saturday were obviously a huge problem. But the dropoff has a lot to do with the ineffectiveness of Brandon Miller.

In the last three games, Miller is averaging just 13 points per game on 37.1 percent from the field.

The good news for Miller and Alabama is that it has a relatively easier stretch coming up before its two biggest games of the season. The Crimson Tide has Vanderbilt and Florida at home as well as a trip to LSU in its next three games. Then, Alabama is at No. 4 Tennessee and No. 15 Auburn in back-to-back games on Feb. 11 and Feb. 15.

For the Crimson Tide right now, it’s got to be all about focusing on Vanderbilt — and determining what it’s going to take to get back to the level it was playing at two weeks ago.

“All the stuff we said we wanted to be […] we’re kind of right back to ground zero,” Oats said. “We got to figure out how bad we want to be that again.”

See Also:

Nate Oats: "We've Lost Our Edge"

No. 2 Alabama Blown Out By Oklahoma in SEC / Big 12 Challenge