Nate Oats Sees Texas A&M Game as Potential 'Tipping Point' for Rest of Season

The Alabama head coach emphasizes the importance of effort when outlining the keys to beating the SEC-leading Aggies.

Alabama head coach Nate Oats gets animated after a play in the second half of the game against Missouri on Jan. 27, 2026. | Sarah Munzenmaier/Alabama Crimson Tide on SI

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama basketball is in an unusual place.

The Crimson Tide is currently outside of the AP Top 25 for the first time since Jan. 22, 2024, with Sunday's blowout loss to Florida ending Alabama's 42-week streak on this prestigious list. UA is currently ninth in the SEC standings with a 4-4 record. For reference, it has finished outside of the top-5 just once since head coach Nate Oats' arrival, and that was his first season.

The SEC was on top of the college basketball world last season, as it sent a record 14 teams to the NCAA Tournament. But this year, there's a ton of parity across the board and the Crimson Tide has a long way to reach the peak of the conference. And speaking of the top, Alabama's next game is at home against Texas A&M, which holds the first-place spot with a 7-1 record.

This is the Tide's ninth of 18 SEC games. The midpoint of conference play is here, and according to Oats, this matchup could very well create perhaps a permanent trajectory for the remainder of the season.

"Yeah, it's huge," Oats said during Tuesday's press conference. "We're 4-4, we haven't played great, we've had some injuries, but that's a part of sports. So we've had to leave enough talent on the floor in each one of those four losses that we should have won and we had a chance to win and didn't make tough enough plays when we didn't make them.

"Yeah, it's getting close to the tipping point. We're either going to start playing better and go on a run here, or we're going to continue to play .500 basketball, and that's not what anybody came here to do."

So, how does Alabama land on the right side of the fence?

Well, Oats started his press conference reflecting on the loss to Florida. The Crimson Tide gave up 72 points in the paint and committed a season-high 18 turnovers and the Gators scored 25 points off them. All of UA's mishaps boiled down to one thing, and it's something Oats is begging for against Texas A&M.

“I was most disappointed in the difference in the effort shown, which is a little embarrassing to be associated with a game where the other team plays a lot harder than you," Oats said. "It’s been addressed. We’ve got to get it changed.

"I thought practice looked a lot better today. There was some intensity to it. I think our guys are not wanting to be on the wrong end of a dominating performance like we were Sunday."

Oats explained that Texas A&M's system is "based on playing hard, giving max effort." While Alabama hasn't put this on full display lately, the Crimson Tide head coach said that the Aggies' style is "perfect" for determining the tipping point.

"If we don't fix what we have to fix, we're going to get dominated again at home," Oats said. "The biggest thing we have to fix is what A&M does at a high level — play hard.

"We've got to play hard, play under control, keep our wits about us, can't have back-to-back turnovers. ... Our effort on defense, our turnovers on offense, us being willing to share the ball, take care of it and handle the physicality is going to be big in this game."

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