Any way you slice it, losing at home to your biggest rival in a game billed as one of the biggest in SEC history - a true No. 1 vs. No. 1 matchup - is a major disappointment. No, it doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things for Alabama's standing in the NCAA Tournament. They'll still be a projected No. 1 seed in bracket projections this week.
But it does severely impact Alabama's ability to accomplish one of its major goals: an SEC regular season title. Alabama is now a full game behind Auburn and faces the toughest six-game stretch in the country from here.
To have a realistic shot at earning a piece of the SEC Championship, Alabama will need to go 4-1 over its next five. That would likely set them up with an opportunity to beat Auburn on the road - a lofty task - to earn a share of the regular season crown.
Auburn has three home games in a row coming up but following that they have a difficult two-game road trip with a short Saturday-to-Tuesday turnaround. They play in Lexington against Kentucky before going all the way to College Station to face Texas A&M. The Tigers are certainly good enough to win both of those games, but it would take a herculean effort to do so.
Alabama will have to be close to perfect in order for one Auburn loss to matter, though. There's no time for the Crimson Tide to lick its wounds in the aftermath of the disappointing loss. According to Nate Oats, how Alabama responds will be a test of maturity, one of his favorite phrases.
"I told our guys afterwards, when we got beat at home by Tennessee last year and on GameDay, I thought we had a major letdown, said Oats. "The leadership on the team didn’t rally us together enough to be ready to go on the road and play well at Florida. We got trounced pretty good on the road."
Alabama's loss to Auburn reminiscent of loss to Tennessee last year
It's easy to draw the parallel between Alabama's game against Tennessee at home last year with GameDay in town to Saturday's loss to Auburn. Alabama came into the game with Tennessee with a 12-3 conference record and a realistic shot at the regular season title. A win over the Vols at home would have been a big step toward that.
Alabama went ice cold from the floor and shot 38% from the field and 24.3% (9-of-37) from three-point range. Against Auburn, Alabama shot 38% from the floor and under 20% (5-of-26) from three. Just like Tennessee last year, this Auburn team was too good to beat with a poor shooting performance.
Alabama responded poorly to that loss and went to Gainesville on Tuesday following the Saturday loss to Tennessee and got trounced 105-87. The Crimson Tide has a similarly challenging road game coming up on Wednesday as they take on Missouri in CoMo.
Alabama can still accomplish all of its goals. But they can't afford to drop a second straight game.
“We’ve got better leadership this year, said Oats. "We’re not in full control of our own destiny to win outright. We are in full control of our own destiny to at least get a tie with the league moving forward, because Auburn’s now a game ahead of us, and we got Auburn at their place. So we’ll see what type of maturity and leadership we have by how we come in on Monday."