Losing at Coleman Coliseum, especially to unranked teams, has become a very rare thing, so honestly losing to Texas Saturday night was kind of shocking. This is the same Longhorns team that earlier in the week benched their starters in a tough loss to Tennessee. Obviously, Sean Miller's message worked as they outhustled the Tide and got more from their guards. They outrebounded Alabama and the Tide couldn't stop Jordan Pope who dropped 28 points, or the guard duo of Dailyn Swain and Tramon Mark, who both dropped 18 points. Texas seemed to have a much better overall effort to get a huge road win in SEC play.
Alabama, on the other hand, has a lot to figure out after dropping its second straight game. Losing to an undefeated Vanderbilt team on the road without some key pieces is one thing, but to lose at home to Texas while being down a majority of the game and continually fighting to get into the game is a whole different thing. The three-ball was not falling for LaBaron Philon or Aden Holloway. Also, it is disheartening to watch nobody being able to step up and hit clutch free throws down the stretch. There is no reason to miss 10 free throws, which, of course, even hitting half would have at least won the game.
Now Alabama will need to refocus and not let the losses start piling up, as this team is going to get the best effort every time in SEC play, home or away. Going to Starkville and Norman this coming up week will tell a lot about this team, as obviously they are talented enough to win both, but will they? The effort will have to be better, the defense will need to be a little tougher, and hopefully, the free throws will have to be much more automatic than they were Saturday night. I am sure Nate Oats' practices this coming week won't be pleasant, but hopefully, messages will be received as this is the type of week that could set the tone for the rest of the season.