BamaCentral Courtside After Alabama's 80-79 Loss to Ole Miss in SEC Tournament

NASHVILLE — 2-seed Alabama fell to 15-seed Ole Miss 80-79 in the SEC Tournament quarterfinal on Friday evening.

The Crimson Tide came into this one with the double-bye, meaning it hadn't played a game and got to rest for nearly a week. Meanwhile, the Rebels took down 10-seed Texas on Wednesday and upset 7-seed Georgia on Thursday.

Alabama lost to both the Longhorns and Bulldogs during the regular season, but the Crimson Tide didn't exactly have the Rebels being hot on its mind.

"Got to give Ole Miss a lot of credit. I mean, they're on a run," Alabama head coach Nate Oats said during the postgame press conference. "Coach (Chris) Beard has coached in a national championship game before. Good coach. Know what he's doing. They had a tough regular season. He's got them playing together, playing well.

"We tried to tell our guys this is a lot different team than what we saw in Oxford. They had us down in Oxford, too, then we figured some stuff, went on a run and beat them. This team is playing harder, more connected. Looked to me like we didn't think they were that much better than the first time we played them, despite the fact they just won two games."

And Ole Miss had Alabama's number immediately. Within the first five minutes, the Rebels led by multiple possessions, had a better field goal percentage, had more rebounds and gave away fewer turnovers.

Nevertheless, UA did make a comeback and cut it within one or two possessions on several occassions, but Ole Miss just continued to hit extremely difficult shots. It was mostly Alabama fans in the arena, and the Rebels silenced them quite a bit.

The Crimson Tide, which went 13-5 against the SEC during the regular season never had the lead against the Rebels, which went 4-14. That's a bit of a head scratcher, and Oats was just as concerned with that fact.

"A little disappointed with myself just being able to convince our guys how good this team was going to be," Oats said. "They came out, we didn't have an edge to us. They came out ready to play. They kind of killed us on the effort stuff. In the first half, everything was real comfortable for them. We didn't play hard enough. We ended up getting out-rebounded in the game, by a large margin to start. They got going.

Alabama can no longer control its fate, as the Tide will not play another game until after its NCAA Tournament path is announced on Selection Sunday. The Crimson Tide came into the SEC Tournament expected to be a 3-seed, but the early exit could push Oats and company down to a 4 or maybe even a 5-seed.

"Good thing for us is we played well enough at times during the year to guarantee ourself a tournament seed. But we're going to have to play significantly better. That will be one game and done in the NCAA tournament if that's the effort we're going to give in that tournament, as well."

Watch the above video as Alabama Crimson Tide on SI writers Katie Windham, Hunter De Siver, Joe Gaither and Theo Fernandez share their final thoughts and takeaways from Bridgestone Arena after 2-seed Alabama fell to 15-seed Ole Miss 80-79 in the SEC Tournament quarterfinal.

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