Everyone has heard about athletics being a matter of challenges being accepted as opportunities. Alabama’s basketball team had started off 4-0 in Southeastern Conference play, but when faced with the challenge at No. 6-ranked Tennessee in Knoxville Saturday, it was the home-standing Vols who took advantage of the opportunities. And the Crimson Tide came bearing gifts, generous to a fault in a 91-71 defeat.
Alabama turned the ball over 22 times, resulting in 23 Tennessee points, and also gave up 11 offensive rebounds leading to 17 second chance points to the home team.
Alabama, which has not fared well on the road against good teams this year, is now 12-6 overall and 4-1 in Southeastern Conference play, while Tennessee improved to 14-4, including 4-1 in the league.
There’s not a lot of time to fix what ails the Tide. Next up for Alabama is another ranked team when the Tide hosts Auburn at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday on ESPN.
“That was as dominating performance as anyone has put on us in a long time,” said Alabama Coach Nate Oats. “They were tough and physical and we weren’t ready for it. They are good. I didn’t do a good enough job of preparing us for their aggressiveness.
“You give up 22 turnovers for 23 points and 17 second chance points, 40 points, you’re not going to win many games.
“I give them a lot of credit. Coach (Rick) Barnes has a tough defense every year.
“We’ve got to go back, get a little tougher, figure out a way to take care of the ball better.
“It’s disappointing, but I told the guys we lost up here last year and still won the league. They exposed some of our softness when we lost up here last year and we got tougher, so we’ll see if we’ll show some character and come back and play tougher basketball.”
Asked about effort, Oats said, “Even if you play hard, if you turn it over 22 times you’re not winning the game against a team like this.”
Oats had praise for Tennessee, singling out Dalton Knecht (26 points), Jonas Aidoo (19), Zakai Zeigler (8), Santiago Vescovi 10), and Jordan Gainey (15 off the bench).
Mark Sears was Alabama’s only player in double figures, getting 22 points, but most of them coming after the issue was decided as he hit 7-13 from the field, only 1-3 on three-pointers (that coming with 2:31 remaining). On the other hand, he turned it over a season-high seven times.
Alabama came into the game with the nation’s number one offense – had a season-low 71 points
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