Alabama basketball was riding high back on Dec. 11. An 83-82 win over No. 14 Houston was its second straight over 2020 Final Four teams when paired with a convincing 91-82 win over Gonzaga.
Still, there were signs of trouble in that wild win over the Cougars in Coleman Coliseum. The Crimson Tide was manhandled on the boards as Houston scored 23 second-chance points while finishing with a 43-34 rebounding edge.
Things went south from there as Alabama peaked at No. 6 in the rankings before dropping two of the next three games.
The Crimson Tide (9-3) are down to No. 19 as it welcomes 14th-ranked Tennessee to Coleman Coliseum for an 8 p.m. CT Wednesday SEC opener.
The Vols are 9-2 on a three-game winning streak that includes a 77-73 beating of No. 6 Arizona the last time out. Their only losses came to Texas Tech and No. 5 Villanova and carries momentum into Tuscaloosa.
The biggest issue for Alabama is on the defensive end of the floor as the Tide’s been outscored by an average of 77-74 in the last three games.
“We’ve scored enough on offense and our efficiency has been good enough to win the games,” Alabama coach Nate Oats said. “It’s just our defense isn’t where it needs to be. The attention to detail, messing up stuff we’ve gone over in the practice and the scout. Guys just aren’t focused in, locked in. What they need to do with the effort, it’s not there all the time.”
Alabama isn’t getting enough turnovers on the defensive end as it has given away 79 possessions compared to the opponents’ 71 in the past three games.
Also count the high number of blow bys on Oats’ list of grievances. Davidson’s offense wasn’t built for that in the 79-78 Tide loss on Dec. 21 but Tennessee has the guard play and athleticism to get into the lane.
Some of the rebounding issues are tied to opposing guards getting into the lane, Oats said. That forces a bigger body to step up to defend the rim and lose position for a possible miss.
In terms of physicality, Oats admitted there’s room for concern with how opposing teams have bodied Alabama in recent games.
“It’s not just our bigs but our bigs have been pushed around a little bit, beat up a little bit and given up a bunch of offensive rebounds,” Oats said. “Our guards have at times as well … It’s not all getting pushed around on the glass. It’s guarding correctly so we’re not in rotations.”
Help won’t be coming soon from injured forward James Rojas. He tore his ACL over the summer and the aggressive projected recovery timetable of SEC play won’t happen since he hasn’t practiced live yet.
“We need him back as soon as we can get him,” Oats said, “because he’s obviously one guy who isn’t soft. He’ll take a fight to the opponent. I think he’d shore up a lot of rebounding issues because he’s not going to get pushed around. We all know how Rojas plays.”
None of the issues are beyond repair, Oats said, since much of it comes down to effort.
“I don’t think it’s a personnel issue,” he said. “Some teams aren’t good defensively because they have slow or unathletic skill players who just aren’t very good on the defensive end. We’ve got guys who can guard when their minds are in the right place and I think we’ll see that moving forward.”
Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.
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December 29, 2021 at 07:58PM
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Nate Oats lists off the troubling issues from Alabama’s 3-game downturn - AL.com
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