Nate Oats and Alabama head home in rapid repair mode with another Top 25 SEC opponent up next and the Crimson Tide trying to avoid a three-game losing streak.
Oats snapped his clipboard and strained and stressed through the second half Wednesday, but No. 2 Alabama came away with a second consecutive defeat, 98-110 at No. 15 Missouri.
Alabama may be ranked fourth in the nation, but its scoring defense (80.3 points per game) checks in as one of the bottom 25 in the nation, among the more than 350 Division I men’s basketball programs.
Lassoing opponents has been even tougher during the slide the Crimson Tide seek to end with No. 17 Kentucky coming to Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Saturday night.
Alabama (21-5, 10-3) lost 94-85 to No. 1 Auburn on Saturday and by a dozen at Missouri on Wednesday. The Crimson Tide have given up 80 points or more in seven of their past nine games.
Alabama never led and trailed by as many as 20 in the debacle against Missouri. Those Tigers shot an efficient 60.3 percent from the field. The 110 points are the most the Crimson Tide have allowed this season.
“That obviously was not one of our better defensive games,” Oats said. “You have got to give (Missouri) a bunch of credit, they came out ready to go. … Getting our guys ready to go is part of my job as head coach, and I did not do a good job of it.”
Alabama star Mark Sears scored a season-high 35 points on 12-of-20 shooting and knocked down five 3-pointers. Sears averages a team-best 18.5 points per game.
The setback leaves the Crimson Tide tied for second in the SEC with No. 2 Florida, but two games behind Auburn. Prior to their showdown last week, they were tied with their state rival atop the standings.
“I think they wanted this game a little bit more,” Oats said of Missouri. “That is disappointing because we had a lot riding on this game. We were still in control of our own destiny with the SEC Championship, if we had won out. We no longer are.”
Kentucky (18-8, 7-6) is looking for a split of the regular-season series after falling 102-97 at home to Alabama on Jan. 18. Grant Nelson had 25 points and 11 rebounds, while Sears added 24 points and nine assists for the Crimson Tide. Otega Oweh scored 21 points for the Wildcats.
Oweh tallied 20 points in Wednesday’s 82-61 home victory over Vanderbilt. That was his eighth 20-point effort of the season. He’s scored in double digits in all 26 games, while averaging a team-best 16.2 points per game.
Amari Williams also had a huge game against Vanderbilt with 17 points, six rebounds and four blocks. He was a perfect 6 of 6 from the field and made all five of his free-throw attempts.
Williams has scored in double figures in six of the past seven games. The transfer from Drexel said he is more aggressive than he was early in the season.
“I feel like at the start of the year, I was not used to the physicality and kind of trying to figure it out still, but now that I’ve figured it out, I realized how I can bang up against some of the other bigs,” Williams said. “I took advantage of it and it’s working out well.”
Kentucky is playing short-handed as point guard Lamont Butler (shoulder) has missed two straight games and five of the last seven. Off-guard Jaxson Robinson (wrist) has sat out the last three games.
“Lamont is a really special point of attack defender,” Wildcats coach Mark Pope said. “So, we can’t replace that. That’s just a massive challenge for us to try to figure out.”
A major sticking point for Kentucky is its 2-5 road record.
“Now we’ve got the epic challenge of all challenges going to Alabama and seeing if we can deal with that insanity down there,” Pope said.
Alabama won seven in a row before back-to-back losses. After playing Kentucky on Saturday, the Crimson Tide schedule finishes with No. 21 Mississippi State (Tuesday), at No. 6 Tennessee (March 1), home against No. 2 Florida (March 5) and at No. 1 Auburn (March 8).
–Field Level Media
