A year ago, the record for Alabama Basketball in its 10 games before the NCAA Tournament was 5-5. Also like last year, the 10th game and the fifth loss was against the Florida Gators. Alabama regrouped and climbed back to a historic Final Four appearance.
In this season's most recent 10 games, Alabama was again 5-5. Just as last year, the fifth loss came against the Gators in the SEC Tournament. Florida won that game 102-88. On Saturday afternoon in Nashville, Florida won 104-82.
Alabama fans have long hated the Gator Chomp. Against Alabama, the Gators earned all the chomping they want to enjoy.
After the game, Nate Oats said, "I didn't think we competed hard enough for rebounds, we didn't do a good enough job on defense. ... we're going to have to regroup and see how bad we want to make a run again in the NCAA Tournament."
Did Florida want the win so much more than Alabama to result in a 22-point Alabama defeat? Or, was 'wanting it more' only a contributing factor in a game in which one team was undeniably better?
It is possible that Nate Oats and his coaching staff don't have a clear answer. In his post-game review Oats said, "We're gonna have to really determine how bad (Alabama) wants to make a run, because it's truly player led more than anything. The effort and the toughness I saw in the second half tonight, like that's not going to get us very far (in the NCAA Tournament)."
Oats was also asked why he did not call a timeout after Florida went on a 17-2 run. His answer was "I asked them, did you need me to call timeout to tell you to play harder? ... We'd already said we needed to do that. ... they need to figure out if they want to be the hardest-playing, toughest team on the floor or not."
Alabama Basketball - Jekyll and Hyde
Instead of answers to allay the doubts of fans, Alabama must be explained as a Jekyll and Hyde team; sometimes outstanding and sometimes awful.
As an NCAA Tournament 2-seed, Alabama can make another run in the Big Dance. What the Crimson Tide cannot do; is have an opponent shoot 51% (44% from three) while Mark Sears, Labaron Philon, and Aden Holloway score a combined 21 points as they did against Florida. The trio shot 25% against the Gators.
The NCAA Tournament Selection Sunday show will be on CBS at 5:00 PM CST.