Alabama basketball suffered a disappointing home defeat to the Ole Miss Rebels 74-64. The Crimson Tide struggled offensively all night long with turnovers, missed shots, and generally a lack of interest and effort.
Alabama had a season-high in turnovers with 21 and the beginning of the game was a bad omen for things to come. Alabama turned it over on its first three possessions and six of its first seven.
Defensively, Alabama was plenty good enough, holding Ole Miss to 39% from the field and 29% from three. You should never lose a home game with those numbers, especially as a team with as much potential as the Crimson Tide has. But the turnovers were killers, and Alabama ultimately took 27 fewer shots than Ole Miss because of it.
Alabama looked like an exhausted team coming off the win over Texas A&M on Saturday in College Station. The Crimson Tide looked like a team that though it could go through the motions, and it would be enough against the Rebels. It wasn't.
3 Takeaways from Alabama's home loss to Ole Miss
3. The turnovers were a killer
We focused on it already, but it's impossible to harp on it enough. 21 turnovers is unacceptable regardless of where you play; it's especially unacceptable when you do it at home.
Alabama finished the game with more turnovers (21) than made field goals (20). Impossible to win that way.
Alabama looked completely unprepared for Ole Miss' defense, particularly their ball pressure and traps on the baselines. Seven of Alabama's nine players had multiple turnovers with Grant Nelson leading the way with five.
It was lazy passing, a lack of movement off the ball, and just generally sloppy play from everyone that contributed to the season-high mark in giveaways.
You have to credit Ole Miss for a terrific defensive gameplan, but a lot of the Crimson Tide's errors were self-inflicted in nature.
2. Alabama was not good enough on the glass to make up for more poor shooting
Alabama's struggles to shoot the basketball this year have been well-documented. But it hasn't bit the Crimson Tide in the behind because Alabama has been one of the best rebounding teams in the country. Against an undersized Ole Miss squad, that trend was expected to continue.
Instead, Ole Miss did an outstanding job keeping the Crimson Tide off of the glass. Alabama finished with just four offensive rebounds; a season-low.
Alabama came into the game 11th in the country with a 38.5% offensive rebound rate. That has rendered the shooting struggles completely irrelevant. With the Tide only coming up with four on Tuesday night, going 5-18 from three was highlighted.
If Alabama isn't going to shoot better, they have zero choice but to crash the boards and dominate. They couldn't do that against Ole Miss.
1. This is the kind of loss that could cost Alabama an SEC Championship
If you want to win an SEC Championship, you have to take care of business at home, first and foremost. Scoring the win over Texas A&M on Saturday night on the road was huge, but that win was rendered completely meaningless thanks to the egg Alabama laid at home.
Ole Miss and Auburn remain undefeated in league play as Alabama falls to 3-1. The rival Tigers did what a real contender does and protected their home floor by beating Mississippi State by 22 points even without their best player.
Recovering from this loss is possible. At the end of the day, it's a Q1 defeat. The Rebels are legit and will be a factor in the SEC race. But now for the Crimson Tide to stay alive early in the SEC race, they probably need to go on the road on Saturday and beat Kentucky in Lexington.
It'll take monumental improvement from the way they played tonight.