Alabama's Defense Disappears after Opening Minutes in SEC Tournament Loss to Florida
NASHVILLE, Tenn.– Alabama got off to a red hot start at the SEC Tournament, causing Florida head coach Todd Golden to call a timeout less than two minutes into the game. Because of the strong start, the Crimson Tide held a lead for a majority of the first half.
Then, as has been the case the last few weeks of the season, when shots stopped falling on offense, the Alabama defense disappeared. Florida eliminated 3-seed Alabama from the SEC Tournament with a resounding 102-88 victory inside Bridgestone Arena on Friday night.
It was the third time in the last eight games that the Crimson Tide has allowed an opponent to score 100+ points. During that stretch, Alabama is allowing 93.5 points per game.
After jumping out to an 8-0 lead, Alabama was ahead until the 4:42 mark in the first half, when the Gators took their first lead on free throws from Walter Clayton Jr. Those were part of 21-2 run by Florida over the final 5:24 to take a 15-point lead into halftime.
"We just gotta be better," Alabama forward Grant Nelson said after the game. "We started the game alright. But once we hit that six-minute mark in the first, I think we gave up a 21-3 run. We can't let that happen. I can't get in foul trouble like I did."
Freshman forward Jarin Stevenson put it plain and simple.
"I just feel like we let up," Stevenson said. "We got too comfortable, let up on the defensive end. We had some offensive struggles, and we just didn't bounce back. I feel like we gotta do better at that."
Florida finished 50% from the floor, and another defensive issue reared its ugly head as Alabama struggled to defend without fouling. The Gators went to the free throw line 36 times.
Nelson feels like Alabama can still be a good defensive team.
"We've shown it in spurts," Nelson said. "We showed it for a little bit against Arkansas. We showed it to start the game tonight. We haven't shown it for 40 all year. We've got to start at practice– lock in and build every day."
Already trailing by double-digits, Alabama wasn't shooting well coming out of halftime. This led to easy Florida buckets as the deficit continued to widen.
Senior guard Latrell Wrightsell Jr. feels that's it's more of a mental issue than a physical issue for Alabama. The team has the physical tools for the most part, but the players have to decide how hard they want to play on both ends of the floor.
"We have to be mentally tough to not make a shot and still be able to get a stop on defense," Wrightsell said. "That's the biggest thing on defense right now. Coach Oats has been challenging us on the mental toughness. He came in here after the game if we want to win this thing, we've got to be mentally tough. In March Madness, you'll probably see a different team– mentally tough, mentally better."
Time is running out for the Crimson Tide to figure things out.Alabama will have less than two days to find out its NCAA Tournament seeding and destination and around a week to figure out if it wants to play defense or not and extend its season as long as possible.
Nate Oats pointed out that this team is in a similar spot defensive metric-wise compared to the 2022 team that also got bounced in the first round of the SEC Tournament. That team also lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
"We have a week to decide if they can guard for 40 minutes or not," Oats said. "If we can, we can make a deep run in the NCAA tournament."
