Nate Oats sent a warning to his team through the media on Monday that the road game at Georgia was a perfectly set-up "trap game" after an emotionally taxing win over Tennessee in Knoxville on Saturday.
It was clear from the opening tip that Alabama players - and coaches - didn't heed that advice.
Alabama got beaten up on the glass again and allowed Georgia sophomore wing Kanon Catchings to go for a career-high 32 points as the Bulldogs pulled off a 98-88 win in Athens.
The Crimson Tide got off to a slow start again, falling behind by double digits in the first half and heading into halftime trailing by seven. Alabama had opportunities to make a run and overtake Georgia, but couldn't quite hit the big shots it needed. And when it did, some tough shotmaking by Catchings and others would answer the bell.
It was a disappointing effort for an Alabama team that arrived in Athens on an eight-game winning streak. It was a performance that Oats hopes serves as a wake-up call.
"It needs to be a wake-up call," Oats said. "If you have a slow start and you got guys that aren’t locked in, ready to play on both sides of the ball, don’t attack the rim and don’t play strong on offense and don’t get stops or box out or rebound on defense, it’s gonna be hard to win. You’re gonna give teams that are very good a lot of life.
"If you can’t turn around from a tough, mentally, physically exhausting game on Saturday and have yourself mentally ready to go on Tuesday, then we got a lot of growing up to do.”
Nate Oats says Alabama has a lot of growing up to do after loss to Georgia
This Alabama performance wasn't all that surprising, but it was nevertheless frustrating. It also served to put on full display the very real flaws this team has heading into March Madness.
Alabama isn't good enough defensively. No amount of yelling and screaming by Oats is going to change that at this point. The personnel isn't good enough, and the coaching is lacking on that end of the floor, too.
The rebounding problems have been a season-long issue, too. Alabama was fortunate to escape Knoxville on Saturday with a win that lessens the sting of this loss. The Vols were more dominant on the glass than the Bulldogs, which still beat the Crimson Tide 40-30 in rebounding and 24-9 in second-chance points.
Labaron Philon (26) and Latrell Wrightsell (19) had strong individual offensive nights, but too many unforced errors - particularly in the first half - plagued the Tide's offense.
This wake-up call should have Alabama re-focused and ready to go for Saturday's regular season finale against Auburn, but no amount of wake-up calls is going to change the fact that this team's ceiling probably caps out in the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.