Views From Alabama's Fifth Straight Loss to Tennessee: Photo Gallery

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — No. 17 Alabama men's basketball fell to Tennessee 79-73 at home on Saturday night.

Former Alabama Crimson Tide center Charles Bediako sued the NCAA earlier this week with hopes of gaining collegiate eligibility. After being granted a temporary restraining order by a Tuscaloosa judge, he was made available to play for Alabama against the Vols and finished with 13 points (5 of 6 shooting), three rebounds, two steals and two blocks in 25 minutes. However, this is a 10-day restraining order, as a hearing is scheduled for Jan. 27.

Alabama head coach Nate Oats has thrived against the SEC throughout his tenure, but the same could not be said when facing the Volunteers. Saturday night's defeat brought Alabama's losing streak against Tennessee to five games. It's the first time that the Tide has dropped this many games to the Vols since 1968-72, as the last win over them was Dec. 29, 2021.

Alabama now descends to 3-3 in SEC play, which ranks ninth in the conference.

"Obviously not the outcome we were looking for, but you've got to give Tennessee a lot of credit, they had a week off, they came ready to go," Oats said during the postgame press conference. "Defensively, we weren't as good as I thought we needed to be."

"With the 3-point lead, it felt like it should have been a lot bigger. We had taken care of a few things on the defensive end in the first half, and all of a sudden it disappeared immediately in the second half. Went from down three to six pretty quick."

"We've now lost back-to-back home games. We had a great crowd. I thought they were unbelievable, thank them for coming out and giving us exactly what we needed. But we didn't give them a good enough show like we should have. So I'm frustrated, but we got to get ready to play Missouri, it's a quick turnaround."

"I thought he (Charles Bediako) was good. I thought he meshed well with our guys. He found Labaron Philon on those lobs and for the dunk. It was great. You had the little slip, you go out of bounds, but for a guys that's only been here a few days to fit in with the team. He hadn't actually played with any of these guys before, even though he had been in our system before. I thought he was good, he almost scored us some blue collar points, he's got to get a few more rebounds for us, but he knows it."

Take a look at some pictures from the matchup: