'I've Got to Look in the Mirror': Nate Oats Dissatisfied With Win Over Oklahoma

No. 18 Alabama took down Oklahoma 83-81 on the road on Saturday, but like the Mississippi State game from a few days before, it took some time for the Crimson Tide to gain control.

At the under-12 media timeout, the game was tied at 21. At the under-8 and under-4 breaks, it was gridlocked at 28 and then 33. But the Sooners found a way to end the first half on an 11-0 run, and things looked grim for the Crimson Tide.

Fortunately for Alabama, guard Labaron Philon Jr. and forward Aiden Sherrell combined for 31 of the team's 50 points in the second half, and UA narrowly escaped Norman, Okla. Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats commended his team's comeback effort during the postgame press conference, but he was dissatisfied with the journey to the final score.

"I've got to look in the mirror and see what I got to do better as a coach to get our guys a lot more ready to play to start these games," Oats said. "I did think of inserting Houston (Mallette) in the starting lineup, and I didn't think it was as much about who came out of the lineup. It's just putting Houston in there for pretty much any of them outside Aiden Sherrell, just to get our energy where it needed to be. And he got it where it needed to be to start that second half.

"So, huge run to start the second half. I thought if we could play that hard the first 20 minutes, we wouldn't have been down 11. But I've got to figure out what we've got to do to get us playing harder for 40 minutes and not wait until we get down."

Oklahoma ended the first half on a 20-5 run, and while Oats is not close to being the most frequent timeout caller, the Crimson Tide took two early ones following a lost appeal and the other coming from a trap that nearly resulted in a 5-second violation.

"We did it at Mississippi State on the road. We waited until we were down 14, and then we turn it up and go on a run. So we've got to do a better job. I've got to do a better job as a head coach, getting these guys motivated to give us better effort for 40 minutes."

Another way that Alabama could've easily avoided a road upset against its SEC foe was by hitting its free throws. The Crimson Tide converted eight of 15 attempts from the charity stripe during the brutal home loss to Texas, and it went a gruesome 15 of 26 (58 percent) against Oklahoma.

"We're missing free throws," Oats said. "We've got to do a way better job at the free-throw line. For us to miss all the free throws, have the tough call when trying to foul and make sure they don't get a three off and them calling on the shot [with seven seconds remaining], we've got to do a better job as coaches executing that.

"But we did enough to get a win, and now we've got a week off. We've got to go back, get healthy, get ourselves ready to go for these last 13 conference games."

No. 18 Alabama (13-5, 3-2 SEC) now turns the page to its next matchup at home against No. 24 Tennessee (12-6, 2-3 SEC) on Jan. 24 at 7:30 p.m. CT.

'I've Got to Look in the Mirror': Nate Oats Dissatisfied With Win Over Oklahoma

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