On Saturday night, on its home court, Alabama lost to an unranked team. Nate Oats did not mince words after the game, saying, "We're not good enough now to win any big games." Except that Alabama hosting the Texas Longhorns was not a big game for both teams.
Texas needed the road win badly to avoid starting the SEC regular season 0-3. After losing on the road to Tennessee in midweek, Sean Miller challenged his players to be tougher and compete harder. They did that against Alabama, and the Crimson Tide was no match.
Texas took two 11-point leads in the first half. Alabama, with the help of four straight free throws, followed by a possession, trailed by only one at halftime. In less than five minutes of second-half play, the Longhorns had their lead back to 11, which grew to 13 points at the 13:04 mark. Alabama tied the game at 74-74 with 5:41 left. The Longhorns exercised their will again and stymied an Alabama comeback to win 92-88.
In the first half, Alabama had no defensive answer for Tramon Mark. On three different teams, Alabama has seen a lot of Mark over the years. The familiarity was of no value. For pretty much the entire game, Alabama had no defensive answer for Jordan Pope. Before Saturday night, Pope had been in a recent shooting slump. He scored 28 points on the Crimson Tide. Tramon Mark had 18 points.
The Longhorns out-rebounded the Crimson Tide 48-38. Aden Holloway, Labaron Philon, and Houston Mallette combined to shoot 14 threes. The only two makes came from Holloway.
Soul searching time for Nate Oats and Alabama Basketball
Nate Oats took some deserved blame, saying. "I gotta look in the mirror and look at what I'm doing to not get winning effort out of these guys." He is correct. There may be more problems than effort. Against Alabama's deep bench, even with Latrell Wrightsell Jr. out for the game, basically, only provided production from Taylor Bol Bowen. Houston Mallette, Noah Williamson, and Keitenn Bristow combined for two points and five rebounds. Also off the bench, Jalil Bethea scored just three points in three minutes of play.
Bottom line for Alabama Basketball; it is soul searching time in Tuscaloosa.