Saturday in Baton Rouge was an unsurprising disappointment for Alabama Basketball. The Crimson Tide lost to LSU in overtime, 80-77.
Playing hard on both ends of the court was not a problem in the loss. Two weaknesses doomed the Tide and one was easy to predict. LSU is a good team at forcing turnovers. Alabama is often sloppily loose with the basketball. The result on Saturday was 21 Crimson Tide turnovers and 23 LSU points off turnovers.
Commenting after the game, Nate Oats said,
"Our turnovers are a major issue right now. … If we take care of the ball, we probably win the game in regulation.Tough loss. I thought our guys played a lot harder than we did Wednesday night."
In addition to the turnover problem, the Crimson Tide shot just 38% from the floor and only 27.5% from outside the arc. Jaden Shackelford missed all eight of his three-point attempts. Darius Miles was 1-for-4; Noah Gurley and Juwan Gary each missed their one three-point attempt. Jahvon Quinerly made 4-of-11 threes; JD Davison, 3-of-7 and Keon Ellis, 3-of-8.
Ellis led the Crimson Tide in scoring with 19 points, followed by Quinerly’s 16 points and Davison with 12.
What gave the Tide a chance to win was a 42-33 rebound advantage, including 17 offensive rebounds, and free throw shooting. The Tide was 20-for22 at the foul line.
Alabama Basketball and wasted possessions
Nate Oats also spoke about attention to detail making a difference,
"Executing stuff out of timeouts, turnovers, it all comes back to bite you when you wish you had a couple of possessions back there at the end of the game."
One example was a late-game shot clock violation by the Tide. After a dead ball, in front of its own bench, the Tide had four seconds to get off a shot. It failed to do so with the ball in Davison’s hands. Rather than an individual failure, his four teammates and the Tide coaching staff are also to blame.
Such mistakes make it hard for Alabama basketball fans to disagree with opinions like the one in the tweet below.
I like Nate Oats but this probably won't go down as his best season as a head coach.
— Thomas Casale (@TheTomCasale) March 5, 2022
Alabama does more dumb things than any team I've watched. And it's been happening all year long.
It has been happening all year long. A team that does not value possessions can often beat itself against equal or even lesser opponents.
The now 19-12 Crimson Tide will not lose much in NCAA seeding from the LSU loss. Depending on the tiebreakers, after Saturday’s games, the Tide may slip to an SEC Tournament 6 or 7 seed.