Alabama Basketball fell short Saturday afternoon in Knoxville. The 79-76 Tennessee win can be explained in several ways. From the perspective of many Crimson Tide fans, it was a game Alabama should have won but failed to win for disappointing reasons.
Stats tell only part of the reason why the Vols won. The Crimson Tide led by four points with 36 seconds left. In the game's last 30 seconds, the Vols scored seven points to none for the Crimson Tide. Grant Nelson, Jarin Stevenson, and Labaron Philon made late-game mistakes. Nate Oats made the worst mistake of all.
To Oats' credit, he took responsibility for the loss, "Tough way to lose. We've got to give Tennessee a lot of credit for not quitting. ... We didn't do a great job closing it. I'm taking most of the blame for the last 30 seconds. We subbed our bigs out and I shouldn't have. ... I should have called a timeout. That's on me." Oats is correct; the five-second call was a mistake by Labaron Philon, but Oats could have prevented it from happening.
Elaborating on his role in the loss, Oats also said, "Our players didn't fail today. I did. They outplayed Tennessee for 39-and-a-half minutes. I failed them in the final 30 seconds."
Nate Oats is not wrong, but there is more to the story. Alabama did not capitalize on Zakai Zeigler missing much of the first half with foul trouble. With Zeigler watching from the bench for 10 first-half minutes, Alabama only led at the break by four points. One reason why was the superb play by Tennessee's Jordan Gainey. The other reason was Alabama was 8-for-15 at the foul line.
Alabama was much better at the line in the second half, making 9-of-11 free throws, but 65.4% for the game does not often win close, road games against top teams.
Alabama outrebounded the Vols, 43-32, and pulled down seven more offensive rebounds than Tennessee. Turnovers were a wash with the teams making 12 each, and Tennessee gaining only a one-point advantage off turnovers.
Alabama Basketball loss came down to one play
The play for 39-plus minutes was so close to even, it can be said, the outcome came down to one thing. The Vols got one more field goal attempt than the Crimson Tide. That shot was an open, long-range three by Jahmai Mashack - and he nailed it.
The disappointing loss might mean Alabama does not gain a 1-seed in the NCAA Tournament. But, there are too many games left to jump to that conclusion. At worst Alabama Basketball will be a Big Dance 2-seed.