Nate Oats: "We've Lost Our Edge"

Alabama basketball's head coach hopes that the loss will help the team refocus before it returns to SEC play.

If Nate Oats and Alabama needed a wakeup call, Oklahoma just gave them one. 

The Crimson Tide played its worst game of the season against Oklahoma, losing 93-69 on the road, but for Oats, this performance was just as much an indication of the last few games.

"To be honest with you, I don't think we've been playing great for a couple of weeks," Oats said. "We've definitely lost our edge a little, and they got us at the right time. We gotta figure out how to get it back."

The most recent example of this was against Mississippi State, where Alabama was down at halftime and had to hold off the Bulldogs for a 3-point win at home. Knowing that, there were some thoughts that it would be another such performance. 

But not only was the deficit larger (17 points) but the Tide's energy and intensity was sorely lacking, from a poor defensive effort that lead to 20 Oklahoma points in the paint, to the isolation-heavy offense that didn't produce any positive results.

"I don't know," Oats said when asked about the team not playing hard. "We're on the road, so we didn't have energy from the crowd, but if you're relying on crowd energy you're playing for the wrong reasons. Two, I think we got away with it [against Mississippi State]. We were able to sneak out a win. Tried to tell our guys 'mature teams learn from a win.'

"We obviously weren't mature enough to learn from a win. Hopefully a loss will help us wake up a little bit."

Rylan Griffen led Alabama with 15 points on 5-for-8 shooting, including 3-for-4 on 3-pointers, to go along with seven rebounds. He was asked whether the game is one to forget or one to use as motivation.

"Personally, I want to use it for motivation," Griffen said. "Coach Oats has been on us recently, telling us something like this was due to happen, and we didn't listen. We didn't come out ready to fight."

Griffen also said that the team started to feel untouchable at one point, and that Oats gave warning of such a game happening.

After a blowout, there are two positives that come from this game. First, since it was out-of-conference, the loss has no bearing on SEC rankings, though Oats repeated how the loss affects the SEC/Big 12 Challenge and overall tournament seeding.

The second, Oats mentioned, was that two years ago, Alabama lost to Oklahoma, but that was the year the Tide went on to win the SEC. The loss wasn't anywhere near as bad, but maybe it could serve similar purpose.

"It kinda got us refocused for SEC play," Oats said.

Alabama will return to SEC play Tuesday, and its opponent will be Vanderbilt. The game will be played at Coleman Coliseum, tipoff will be at 7:30 p.m. CT on SEC Network.

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

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