Nate Oats’ Alabama team will enter the NCAA Tournament in a funk. The Crimson Tide has dropped 3 of its last 4, with the only win coming at home in overtime against an Arkansas team that finished under .500 for the season and went 6-12 in conference play.

Going back to late February, Bama has lost 4 of its last 6 contests. In 3 of those losses, Alabama opponents scored more than 100 points. Kentucky started UA’s stumble to the finish line with a 117-95 thumping in Lexington on Feb. 24. Florida won 105-87 in Gainesville on March 5 and 102-88 Friday night to send the Tide packing from the SEC Tournament.

After Friday’s loss, Oats acknowledged that defense has been Alabama’s Achilles heel throughout the season. The Crimson Tide coach said his team struggles to put together a complete defensive effort.

“These guys are going to have to decide how bad they want to win in the NCAA Tournament, how much we want to continue to play defense for 40 minutes,” Oats said in his postgame press conference. “If we play defense for 40 minutes, we can play with anybody in the country. If we decide to take 24 minutes off from the defensive end, it’s going to be hard to beat anybody in the NCAA Tournament.”

Oats sees frustrations on offense having a negative impact on the other end of the floor. It can lead to momentum for the opponent. Florida took over Friday night’s game when it ended the 1st half on a 21-2 run in the final 6 minutes.

“I talked to them after the game,” Oats shared with reporters. “Like, adversity happens. You miss a shot, ref misses a call, teammate misses you being open. I mean, you can see it. Intensity is not there on defense. Bad defensive possession, they score. We don’t come back pushing the ball with pace on offense. Makes the next offensive possession harder. Just a snowball effect.

“It goes both ways. You play really hard on defense, you get stops, transition, we score in really long transition. You don’t play hard on defense, you can’t get out in transition as much, we’re not as good. Snowball went on and on and on for, shoot, at least 24 minutes today.”

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Can Alabama get it together defensively? It’s now or never

The NCAA Tournament reminds basketball fans every year just how difficult it is to win 6 games in a row against good teams.

Fans of an NCAA Tournament team might rather get a “bad game out of the way” in the conference tournament before the Big Dance. Alabama, though, isn’t a hot team breaking up a winning streak. The Crimson Tide could have used a strong SEC Tournament showing to get back to playing good basketball.

For better or worse, Oats says it’s all about the team’s defensive focus and effort. Asked if it’s harder to turn things around in March, Oats said it was a good question, but didn’t agree. He called on his team to play for Aaron Estrada, whose college career will conclude at the end of Alabama’s season.

“I mean, it’s hard to change at any point during the year,” Oats said in Nashville. “Shoot, if we don’t change, we’re not going to be playing too many more games at this point. They’re going to have to decide how much more basketball they want to play together. This will be the last time this group gets to play together.

“I felt bad for Aaron. I felt he played pretty hard most of the day. Next time we lose, he’s done, his career’s over. He’s been a great teammate. He’s helped the program a lot. I would hope these guys would want to try to play a little harder for him at least.”

We’ll find out next week if the latest wake-up call inspires the Tide to play better defense.