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Alabama coach Nate Oats basically said he was embarrassed by his team’s play in a home loss to Mississippi when the Crimson Tide scored only 64 points.
He faulted himself for not having the team ready to play and for his players for playing atrocious basketball.
The Alabama coach was in a far giddier mood Saturday after the Crimson Tide won 102-97 at Rupp Arena handing UK its first home loss of the season.
“Great playing here at Rupp. The crowd is great, I love the environment, and I like the basketball people here,” said Oats after the win. “Coach (Mark) Pope has done a really good job rejuvenating everybody. This is the first home loss and they’ve been playing great at home. They are a wonderful team and have so much to look forward to for their season.
“Our loss on Tuesday (to Ole Miss) wasn’t great and didn’t feel great but sometimes you need a loss to learn some lessons.”
That’s basically what Pope had said about UK’s losses to Clemson, Ohio State and Georgia — and he certainly insinuated the same after this loss.
Oats paid attention to what legendary Alabama football coach Nick Saban did after losses before his retirement following the 2023 season.
“If you study coach Saban and his playing history, his teams would take a loss early on and build from there throughout the year. They would focus and lock in on their mistakes and what they did wrong,” Oats said. “So I feel like that is the best path for us and we can only go up from here.
“This was a completely different team than the one that played Ole Miss. If we learn lessons we need to, that is the game we cannot forget. We just have to make sure this isn’t a one-game deal, we need to continue to do the things we’ve done.”
Oats told his players that they did not deserve to beat Ole Miss the way they played. The message hit home.
“We started with guys dedicating themselves and putting more effort in when it comes to reps and getting stronger,” Oats said. “It’s not rocket science, you spend time in the gym and you make your shots. Spend time in the gym, you make free throws.”
Alabama went 29 of 34 at the foul line, an 85.3 percentage that was much higher than the Tide’s season average. They also went 13 of 34 from 3, a 38 percent mark that was much better than other recent games.
“It was a really good team that we beat and I think we did a really good job,” Oats said. “I mean they obviously lost today but we’re a good team, this is not going to be a bad loss for them when all is said and done. They’re a very good team.”
