Alabama basketball coach Nate Oats was none too pleased with his team's effort in a 74-64 home loss to Ole Miss on Tuesday night, criticizing both himself and senior leadership for a lackluster performance in which the Crimson Tide served up a season-high 21 turnovers and collected a season-low four offensive rebounds.
With a road game at Kentucky upcoming (11 a.m. Saturday, ESPN), Oats believes his team has responded in a positive way in practice.
"They owned it," Oats said of Alabama's seniors. "They didn't have the team ready to go. They know that they can't do it again. They're great kids. They're all, with the exception of Youngblood, they're all a little more quiet, reserved, not necessarily in their play ... they're a little more quiet and reserved (off the court). We can't have that. They need to speak up. They need to make sure their presence is felt."
UA's loss to Ole Miss snapped an eight-game win streak and marked Alabama's first loss in SEC play. UA is now in a four-way tie for third place in the SEC standings that includes Kentucky, with a 3-1 conference record.
"I think it did give us a wake-up call. I think we maybe overlooked Ole Miss a little bit, which, I don't know how that's possible," Oats said. "They were 3-0 (in the SEC) and had beaten good teams. ... I just told them, if you overlook anybody in this league, you're going to take an L."
Oat said UA's lack of offensive rebounding against Ole Miss had less to do with scheme or game-planning and everything to do with a lack of determination.
"It was an effort thing," he said. "When we go with the effort we need to, we get them. When we don't, we don't get them. We chart our crash rates, and they were some of the lowest of the season. So, we just didn't go. Now, part of it was, Ole Miss made a point to keep us off (the offensive glass), and they did a good job, but they've also given up a fair amount of offensive rebounds in some games before us."