Takeaways from Alabama Basketball's Road Loss to Florida
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Alabama basketball lost for the third time in four games on Tuesday night, getting dominated 105-87 in its rematch with Florida.
It was another road game where the floodgates opened in the second half, and a potentially respectable game turned into a 2-point deficit quick and never looked back.
Mark Sears had 33 points, his second-highest scoring game of the season, but a lot of it came when the outcome was seemingly already decided.
The loss moves Alabama to 12-5 on the season, essentially eliminating it from contention for even sharing an SEC title with one game to play in the regular season.
Here are my thoughts from the game:
1. Fatigue clearly set in.
Nate Oats put it simply during his postgame press conference.
"It looked like we were tired tonight," he said.
And honestly, how could they not be? Five games ago, Alabama lost Latrell Wrightsell, who had been playing some of his best basketball, and completely thinned out the backcourt.
Since then, Alabama played an overtime home game against Florida, a road game against Kentucky, a road game against Ole Miss that needed a 14-point comeback, a home game against a top-5 team in American in Tennessee, and finally another road game against Florida.
"We've got to do a better job. We're off tomorrow. We need to get rested, get with the trainer, get a bunch of treatment," Oats said. "Make sure we're not going too hard Thursday, Friday. Get their bodies, minds fresh and ready to play Saturday, and to try to make a run in Nashville."
After playing this game 72 hours after the Tennessee game, which was emotional and hyped up to no end, it's understandable that Alabama would be this fatigued. Sears and Estrada have been playing absurd minutes with Wrightsell out, and even he was being eased back into action tonight, playing just eight minutes.
When players are fatigued, it's harder to play defense, harder to run in transition, harder to hit shots.
The good news is that Alabama has three days until it plays again on Saturday, and then if it wins and can secure a double-bye in the SEC Tournament, will be off for five more days before it plays again in Nashville.
There's a chance for a lot of time to rest up and get as healthy as possible before tournament play begins, and by the looks of things tonight, the team desperately needs it.
2. Defense started strong, but quickly faded.
For a second, it looked like Alabama's strong defense had carried over from the Tennessee game. For the first 15-or-so minutes of the game, Alabama guarded hard, forcing Florida into a lot of tough looks offensively.
The offense wasn't even playing well, which I'll get to soon, but despite that it was still in the game thanks to a strong defensive effort.
Alabama actually led Florida 25-23 with about five minutes left in the half, and then the Gator offense caught fire, scoring over 20 points over the last five minutes before the break.
"It's one of those deals where our guys have to understand that there's a defensive mindset that has to be there every play no matter what happens on offense, or on defense," Oats said. "You can play great defense and they hit a tough shot, a call goes against you, whatever, you can't let that frustrate you. You can play great defense for four or five minutes, offense isn't going well, you have a couple turnovers, miss some open shots, that can't frustrate you if you're really a defensive minded team."
Oats nailed it right there. Alabama, as it has all season, has let the game and its flow dictate its effort on defense.
The capability is there, and we've seen it, especially when the crowd gets behind them in a home game or the shots are going in or the other team misses a few shots. But the inconsistencies, or really, the consistent negatives, have come from an inability to shake off setbacks and lock in on the defensive end for 40 minutes.
Is there any fixing it? Probably not, since it's already March. It is what it is at this point, and may ultimately be this team's undoing in tournament play, but only time will tell.
3. The offense has hit a major slump.
In the past two games, Alabama is a combined 14-for-60 from 3-point range.
That's an absurdly bad clip for a team who has multiple shooters shooting over 40 percent from three on the year, is shooting well enough to rank in the top-25 in team 3-point percentage, and ranks No. 1 nationally in offensive efficiency.
So why can't this team make threes all of a sudden? Firstly, I think a lot of it boils down to fatigue, as I mentioned earlier. Tired legs mean missed jump shots, that's a lesson as old as time.
Nate Oats attributed some of this specific game's struggles to Florida's defensive game plan.
"I thought they did a good job running us off the line and being super physical, not really letting us get open," Oats said. "We don't want to take bad threes, so if you can't get some help, kick it to open shooters, or get open on some screens [...] it was just hard to create threes."
As far as the future outlook of this team's shooting goes, it's impossible to think they won't start falling again, and sooner rather than later.
Arkansas has an atrocious defense, and the game on Saturday is at home. Both of those things should go a long way, along with some rest, towards getting this team rolling from beyond the arc again. Then it's onto tournament play.
It may seem bad now, but remember how good this offense has been all season, and how elite it's been when it's clicking.
All it takes is one hot night, some confidence rebuilt, and from there it's a chain reaction that could take this team immensely far. Will it happen? Again, only time will tell with this group.
