Nate Oats: Alabama needs some ‘soul searching’ before beginning NCAA Tournament journey
By Mark Kern
Published:
Nate Oats and Alabama lost to Florida, 104-82, on Saturday in an SEC Basketball Tournament semifinal game. The loss prevents the Crimson Tide from making the championship game on Sunday and makes it highly unlikely they get a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
After the game, Oats said the Crimson Tide need to do some “soul searching” before the team starts what it hopes will be a long run in March Madness.
“We are going to have to do a little soul-searching to see how bad we want to make a deep run,” Oats said. “The effort that I saw in the second half wasn’t what I would have liked to see heading into the NCAA tournament. Our players are going to have to really determine how bad they really want to make a run.”
Oats was talking like he and his staff expect the Crimson Tide will be a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, which is still an outstanding accomplishment. A part of the issue in the second half was that star forward Grant Nelson left the game with a knee injury in the first half. At that point, the Crimson Tide were winning 42-41, but they were outscored 63-40 the rest of the way.
Oats sent a message to his team in that press conference, and only time will tell if the players are going to respond.
