Nate Oats had a short media session after Alabama Basketball went down 110-98 to the Missouri Tigers. A fire alarm in the arena ended the press conference less than three minutes into it. It did not stop Oats from saying everything that needed saying. "They were great, we weren't very good."
Missouri outscored Alabama 12-0 in the first two and a half minutes. With four minutes left in the first half, the Tigers led by 20. To their credit, Alabama as Kevin Scarbinsky said, "didn't roll over." Having no quit is commendable, but it is not near enough when a team has no answers.
The Crimson Tide could not defend the paint. The result was Missouri's Mike Mitchell scored a career-high 31 points. He shot 73.3% from the floor for the game. Bama's bigs (Omoruyi, Stevenson, Nelson, and Sherrell) combined to score 18 points and six of those came on made three by Stevenson and Sherrell. Mark Sears was outstanding, scoring 35 points, along with five assists. Sears did have four, first-half turnovers but none in the second half.
No college basketball team should score 98 points and lose by 12 points -at least not a team that is supposed to be a championship contender. And certainly not a team that shoots 54% for the game, including 42% from three. All that is on Nate Oats and a clock is ticking on his need to remedy the problem soon.
Other Perspectives on the Alabama Basketball Loss
The Missouri Tigers are a good team who beat Illinois early in the season and beat Florida in Gainesville. The Tigers lost by just four points to Tennessee in Knoxville. They beat Mississippi State in Starkville by 27 points.
It is also quite hard to beat a good team that shoots 47 free throws as Missouri did. Alabama shot 21 and made a higher percentage than the Tigers, but were outscored at the line by 16 points.
Nate Oats changed the starting lineup with Labaron Philon starting in place of Jarin stevenson. It mostly did not work, with Chris Youngblood having a terrible night shooting 3-for-11, including 1-for-7 from three. It mostly did work with Philon getting 14 points, along with 2 assists and two steals., and only three turnovers in 29 minutes.
More losses may come. This final run was always going to be brutal. But it is February and not mid-March. Alabama lost four of its last six games last season, before the NCAA Tournament. There is still time to get the Alabama Crimson Tide back on track.
Note: Game stats provided by Stat Broadcast