Crimson Corner: For Alabama Basketball, It's Time to "Recalibrate"
If you followed Alabama basketball's run in the 2020-21 season from the beginning, then Tuesday night might have felt a little bit familiar.
Inside FedExForum just steps away from Beale Street in downtown Memphis, the Crimson Tide was handed its second loss of the season by the Memphis Tigers. In the 92-78 shellacking, Alabama trailed at one point by as much as 19 points midway through the second half.
Turnovers and foul trouble were both responsible for the Crimson Tide's demise, and both wounds were self-inflicted. In total, the Tigers turned Alabama's 20 turnovers into 29 points and shot 20-of-25 from the free-throw line.
After the game, Alabama coach Nate Oats said it was time for his team to recalibrate.
“I’d rather not lose, so I think it’s better if you can take your lessons off wins,” Oats said. “We got what we deserved tonight, I know that. We didn’t come ready to play, we didn’t play as hard as them, they played a lot harder than us. We chart — we call ‘em our blue collar points, kind of effort stuff — we charted the opponent’s and ours both and they were 20 points better on the effort stuff tonight so hopefully it’ll recalibrate some guys.
"I wish we were mature enough to where we didn’t need it but if we can’t get recalibrated after this one then we got more issues than we thought.”
Last season, Alabama basketball went through a similar 'Come-to-Jesus' moment early on in non-conference play. After starting the season 4-2, the Crimson Tide entered Coleman Coliseum for its seventh non-conference game against the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers. Though Alabama was highly favored to win the contest, it fell 73-71 and sent waves of embarrassment throughout both the team and its fans.
While Memphis is a better program than its Western Kentucky counterpart from one season ago, the loss for Alabama can still serve the same purpose: a spark that forces the team to recalibrate.
After the loss to Western Kentucky, Alabama won its next 10 games, including every conference game leading up to the Big 12/SEC Challenge against Oklahoma. While the Crimson Tide lost 66-61 to the Sooners, Alabama still finished the final stretch 7-2 — losing just three games for the rest of the season after its loss to the Hilltoppers.
So far this season, Alabama is 8-2 with two non-conference games remaining ahead of the start of SEC play. This Saturday sees in-state foe Jacksonville State come to Coleman Coliseum and then 10-0, No. 23 Colorado State arrive in Tuscaloosa next Tuesday.
While a loss at Memphis was certainly not something that Alabama fans wanted to see — especially after taking out No. 3 Gonzaga and No. 14 Houston in back-to-back games — the loss can still serve some purpose.
Oats pointed to leadership issues on the Crimson Tide's roster as a way to recalibrate heading into the final stretch of non-conference play.
“We’ve got to get some leadership in the locker room to make sure that the team’s ready to play,” Oats said. “I think coaches can say only so much and we’re supposed to address stuff and it means a lot more when it’s coming from players inside the locker room. So we’ve got to find some leadership on this team to step up and address the team. I didn’t think we practiced particularly well yesterday, I didn’t think the shootaround today was great. If somebody’s seeing things head that direction, they need to step up and say something. They can’t just come to the coaches all the time. The best teams are usually player-led, player-coached teams. We gotta get a little bit more of that.
"I think we’ve got some guys that play hard enough and bring it every day that they’re capable of speaking up that maybe they’ve gotta be willing to speak up and be a little bit more vocal.”
Should Alabama win its final two non-conference games, it will finish its non-conference portion of the season with a 10-2 record — far better than its 6-3 start to the 2020-21 season. Crimson Tide fans needn't be reminded about how the rest of the season ultimately played out after the loss to the Hilltoppers.
While it might be easy to throw ones' hands up in despair, it should be remembered just how impressive of a turnaround this program has shown over the last several seasons under Oats. Defeating Gonzaga and Houston — both Final Four teams from last season — and with still plenty of opportunity ahead of them in a loaded SEC schedule and top-ranked Baylor on the horizon in the Big 12/SEC Challenge, the Crimson Tide still has ample opportunity to climb its way back up the rankings.
If and when that success happens, the tumble at Memphis will be looked at as no more than a speed bump, just like Western Kentucky is now looked at from a year's worth of separation. If history serves as an example, Crimson Tide fans shouldn't throw their hands up in the air just yet.
