The 2022-23 Edition of Alabama Basketball Shows Up Night In, Night Out
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — On Monday, Alabama head coach Nate Oats said that if the Crimson Tide didn’t show up ready to play against the Ole Miss Rebels, it would lose.
“It definitely could be a trap game if we’re not mature enough to handle it,” Oats said. “Ole Miss is a good team. They’re gonna be right in the thick of it in SEC play. […] If we’re overlooking Ole Miss to get to Kentucky, we’re 100 percent going to lose against Ole Miss.”
Oats’ squad did not overlook the Rebels (8-6, 0-2 SEC), as No. 7 Alabama defeated Ole Miss 84-62 at Coleman Coliseum on Tuesday night.
A year ago, the Crimson Tide frustratingly lost a handful of games it shouldn’t have — based on effort alone. Last season, Alabama lost games to Iona, Memphis, Davidson, Missouri, Mississippi State, Georgia, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt. And time and time again, Oats acknowledged the lack of intensity and care that some players had at times.
After a disappointing loss to No. 11-seed Notre Dame in the first round of the NCAA tournament, Oats decided that would change. After a team full of competitors in 2020-21 won SEC regular season and tournament championships, there was a strong drop-off last season.
At this moment, it seems Alabama (12-2, 2-0 SEC) is back to taking every opponent seriously.
“We’ve got a mature group, even though we’re playing a lot of freshmen,” Oats said. “You’d think with guys like that, they’d pay more attention to fans and whatever — maybe look past this game to Kentucky. […] I think just having some veteran guys around helps, but the young guys listen — and the young guys are pretty mature themselves.”
Oats pointed to Jahvon Quinerly and Noah Gurley as two guys that keep the rest of the bunch on the task at hand.
The Crimson Tide opened as 12.5-point favorites against the Rebels, who lost to No. 8 Tennessee by just four points on Dec. 28.
Alabama covered that spread and much more, shrugging off Ole Miss from the start of the game. The Crimson Tide opened up a double-digit lead early, and led the Rebels by 21 at halftime. Alabama led by as many as 27 points. It wasn’t going to mess around and let Ole Miss compete, even with Kentucky coming in on Saturday afternoon.
For this Crimson Tide team, iron sharpens iron — in more ways than one. Last year, Oats didn’t have as many weapons at his disposal. Now he does.
“It helps having some competition,” Oats said. “We weren’t this deep last year. This year, if you’re not playing hard and not playing well, we’ve got plenty of options. Last year, we were kind of stuck with guys that weren’t playing hard. We tried to play some walk-ons to spark it a little bit. This year, we’ve got 10 guys in the rotation that are all playing well. We don’t have to play you if you aren’t playing as hard this year.”
And it’s all a mindset. Last year’s team had plenty of talent, but individual wants stood in the way. This year, the entire team wants more — and it starts in the locker room.
“Our teammates motivate us,” Brandon Miller said. “We just really go off each other and just play as hard as we can to get wins like this.”
“We hold each other accountable,” Jaden Bradley said. “We all want to see each other be successful, so we just try to stay positive.”
Confidence is very high in Tuscaloosa. If Alabama can keep this same mentality all season, the Crimson Tide could make some serious noise in March.
See Also:
No. 7 Alabama Basketball Blows Out Ole Miss to Open Home SEC Slate with Win
