Alabama Basketball has 'A Lot to Prove' with No. 4 Baylor in Town
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — In just his third year as head coach at Alabama, Nate Oats brought in a preseason top-25 team riding the success of last seasons's SEC championship team with some key players returning and a talented group of freshmen and transfers coming in.
Alabama got off to a good start in the non-conference with several quality wins over teams currently at the top of their leagues and top-10 teams like Gonzaga and Houston. The Crimson Tide opened SEC play with back-to-back wins over Tennessee and Florida and sat with an 11-3 record overall.
Since the road win at Florida on Jan. 5, Alabama is 2-4 with losses to two teams at the bottom of the SEC standings with the most recent coming on Tuesday against a Georgia team that was previously winless in the SEC.
This Crimson Tide team has shown that they're capable of beating the best of the best, but can also lose to anyone when they don't give their best effort. With the defending national champions in No. 4 Baylor coming into Coleman Coliseum on Saturday for the SEC/Big 12 challenge, the one thing Oats most wants to see from his team is mental toughness.
"We’ve got to rid the entire program of the complacency and the arrogance that seemed to have crept in maybe on what we did last year and at the beginning of this year, which is not a good spot to be," Oats said on Friday. "I think losing to 0-6 Georgia may have humbled enough people in the program to get us to a point where we can play with an edge from now on."
Generally, Alabama has played its best this season when facing top opponents, and Oats hopes that aspect continues on Saturday. Yet he also wants consistent effort no matter the opponent. For the players like Noah Gurley, that is the mindset going into the rest of the season.
"Yeah it’s a big game, but it’s still a game," Gurley said. "It only counts for one win or one loss— that’s been our problem, trying to weigh games. We’re just viewing the rest of the season as an opportunity to get better no matter the opponent.”
After the Georgia loss, Gurley said the team had an honest talk amongst each other in the locker room. He thinks it helped them get closer and that they're more motivated to do better going forward.
Oats also said that the team has had a few meetings since the game, including a players-only meeting.
"Some guys admitted that maybe we’re playing to the level of our competition, and we don’t play with a chip on our shoulder like we used to,' Oats said. "Well, after we’ve lost the games we’ve lost, I hope we have a chip on our shoulder every game from here on out because we’ve got a lot to prove moving forward.
"Seems like that Gonzaga and Houston win, those two wins are a long time ago in the rearview mirror. We need to get some quality wins here in late January, February going into postseason.”
And Saturday is the perfect opportunity for a quality win. The SEC/Big 12 Challenge marks nearly the halfway point in the conference schedules and gives teams a slight respite from facing the familiar SEC foes. Not that this is much of a break for Alabama with a top-five team coming in, but like previously mentioned, this team has stepped up against top opponents.
Alabama is 3-2 in the history of the SEC/Big 12 Challenge with all three wins coming at home and the two losses on the road. The Crimson Tide and Bears met in Waco as part of the challenge in 2019. Last season, Alabama lost on the road to Oklahoma, which snapped a 10-game winning streak at the time.
Senior guard Keon Ellis said it's not just this game against the Bears that gives the Crimson Tide an opportunity to reset— it's every game moving forward on the schedule.
"It just comes down to basketball," Ellis said. "I don’t think the whole non-conference thing has an effect. I think we’ve just got to approach it as just another game that we gotta use to get better at and learn. This game and other games can help us going forward.”
Keon Ellis against Georgia
Alabama Athletics
Alabama Athletics
Alabama Athletics
Much was made in the preseason about Alabama's difficult non-conference schedule, especially the fact that three of last season's Final Four teams were on the slate. So far, the Crimson Tide is 2-0 against those teams (Gonzaga and Houston) with Baylor being the third on Saturday at 3 p.m. It's an opportunity to right the course, but also prove that they have the edge that Oats has been looking for.
"I’m looking forward to testing ourselves against the best again, and I think we’ve proven we can play with the best teams in the country, and that’s what we’re looking to do," Oats said.
