Tuesday night's blowout loss to Florida Gators has the Tide going in the wrong direction going into March Madness. Alabama has lost 3 of the last 4, is out of contention to win the SEC Regular Season title, and is now in danger of possibly not even getting the double bye in the SEC tournament next week. Recently this team has lost its offensive identity, and points are getting hard to come by. it's frustrating that in the most important part of the college basketball season Alabama is falling apart at the seams.
Alabama had a lot to play for going into Tuesday night, but from the get go played very lackluster. There wasn't the hunger you'd expect to see from a team that still had a chance to win the SEC regular season title or at least be the number two seed in next week's SEC tournament. Florida came out with a lot of energy on their senior night and got complete revenge on the Tide. Their defense stifled the Tide's outside shooting which translated to a poor effort on the defensive end for Alabama.
At this point, the reality is unless the threes start falling for the Tide their stay in Nashville and the NCAA tournament the following week are going to be very brief. The defensive effort of this team seems to match the three-point shooting success. It was bad against Kentucky and was just as bad against Florida. Very little has gone right for the the Tide on the road this season, so at least the rest of the games are at home, or in a neutral location. If the Tide can regain the confidence, they showed most of January and February it could turn into a fun March but at this point, it is completely up to the players.
Nick Pringle and Grant Nelson have to stay out of foul trouble. When the three-point shots aren't falling this team has to drive the lane for layups or at least earn trips to the free-throw line. Mark Sears can't be the only one consistently putting up points because as we saw tonight that isn't a recipe for success. Alabama is at its best when there are four or five guys in double digits and they are getting transition baskets. There is still time to turn things around but the clock is running and I am hoping this team feels the urgency of March going forward.