'Everybody's Playing for Their Lives': Alabama Shows Complacency in Loss to Ole Miss

NASHVILLE — Alabama basketball doesn't lose to Ole Miss very often, but when it does, it isn't pretty. In fact, head coach Nate Oats has a better way of saying it.

"It's disgusting, to be honest with you," Oats said after falling to the Rebels on Jan. 14, 2025. "It starts with me...I felt like we lost because they came ready to play. They brought energy. They brought effort. We did not. That's a frustrating way to lose."

Fast forward to Friday evening, 15-seed Ole Miss defeated 2-seed Alabama 80-79 in the SEC Tournament quarterfinal. The Rebels pulled off two upsets in as many days leading up to this one, while the Crimson Tide had a double-bye and nearly a full week without playing a game.

And yet, Alabama never even had the lead.

Oats acknowledged the possibility of facing Ole Miss during Wednesday's press conference, but naturally, he discussed 7-seed Georgia and 10-seed Texas a bit more. Either of these teams were more likely to face the Tide than the Rebels, but head coach Chris Beard and company took both of them down.

"Yeah, it wasn't just the young guys," Oats said during the postgame press conference. "Some of our older guys didn't give us the effort we needed in the first half either.

"The whole team needs to understand this stuff is not easy in March. Everybody is playing for their lives. Ole Miss, as soon as Ole Miss loses, their season's over. So they're trying to win the whole thing, which we try to tell the guys. With the way they're playing, they're giving themselves a chance."

This seemed like an easy win. Alabama beat Ole Miss earlier in the year by 19 points. But the Rebels proved that no matter how low a seed you are, if you're hot, you're dangerous against anybody.

"Guys were thinking because we were able to rest for six days, we were going to be able to run these guys out of the gym," Oats said. "It didn't happen. You run people out of the gym when you get stops on the defensive end.

"When you're not playing hard enough to get stops on the defensive end, it doesn't matter if they're playing their third game in a row and you're fresh, you end up with a loss, which is what we ended up with tonight. It's not just the freshmen that need to learn how to win in March.

Complacency seems to be the main theme of every paragraph written above. It's clear that Alabama overlooked Ole Miss, and a dominant win from just a month ago seemed to still be in the players' heads at the start of the game before they had to play catch-up the rest of the way.

"Maybe we underestimated them as a team," Alabama forward Amari Allen said. "I don't think that was the case, I think we just came out lackadaisical. They built that lead, we couldn't cut it down and they hit some tough shots in the end."

"At the end of the day, rest is obviously good. We're coming in with fresh legs and it didn't do nothing. They came in with momentum and they looked fresh, too. They're probably not going to make the [NCAA] Tournament, so this (could've been) their last game and they came out fighting. They didn't look like they played two games in two day before. To be honest, it looked liked we played for the two days before."

Alabama guard Latrell Wrightsell Jr., the longest tenured player on the team who was also a part of the program's first Final Four appearance in 2024, took a different approach to the complacency question.

"Being that leader and me being where I've been in this program in that I've won at a significant rate, my mentality to just come in and hold everybody else accountable wasn't the best," Wrightsell said. I could get better at just being an advocate for everyone. This is something that they live for. They need these games. When you come into the tournament, nothing is given to you, everything has to be earned. We should've came out and earned that game and I think my mentality wasn't the one to start that off.

So, as Selection Sunday looms and Alabama's NCAA Tournament path will be revealed, what do the next few days look like for Wrightsell as a leader?

"A lot of watching film to see what we did wrong, but also changing our mindset," Wrightsell said. "Having everyone change their mindset about their approach to the game, no matter if we're playing the No. 1 team in the country or the 40th team in the country."

Sign up to our free newsletter and follow us on Twitter/X, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Threads and Blue Sky for the latest news.