Through 9 straight wins, Alabama rose to the No. 2 rating with barely a scare. Before losing 93-69 to Oklahoma on Saturday, solely a type of earlier 9 wins got here with a single-digit successful margin.
That, as coach Nate Oats defined within the aftermath in Norman, didn’t inform the complete story.
“To be honest with you, I don’t think we’ve been playing great for a couple of weeks,” Oats mentioned. “We definitely lost our edge a little bit and they got us at the right time.”
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Alabama (18-3) escaped Wednesday’s scare with Mississippi State, 66-63 after trailing by 11. Slow begins have been clearly a difficulty within the two video games this week and freshman Rylan Griffen added some perspective to the psychological method.
“There was a point where we kinda thought we were untouchable,” Griffen mentioned, “but today, we came out and lost. Coach Oats has been warning us about something like this happening. We need to come back with an edge on our shoulders and start the games off better.”
The Crimson Tide hadn’t misplaced since Dec. 17 when Gonzaga left Birmingham a 100-90 winner. None of the 9 opponents who adopted managed to attain 70 factors however the Sooners hit that mark with 11:55 to play Saturday.
That loss to Gonzaga led to a team assembly the next day the place Oats challenged the team to explain how they’d wish to be identified. Gritty, blue collar, unselfish, max effort have been among the many labels thrown out that Sunday in Tuscaloosa.
“Well, we weren’t the toughest team,” Oats mentioned Saturday. “We weren’t the most blue collar. We didn’t play the hardest tonight. Like all the stuff we said we wanted to be that I thought we got back after the Gonzaga loss, I think we’re right back to Ground Zero. I think we have to figure out how bad do we want that again.”
Alabama will face the identical Vanderbilt team it beat 78-66 final week in a Tuesday night time rematch in Coleman Coliseum. Tip is about for 7:30 p.m. CT.
Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.
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