3 takeaways from Alabama basketball’s upset loss to Ole Miss

After a huge road win at Texas A&M earlier in the week, Alabama men’s basketball came back to earth in Coleman Coliseum Tuesday. The Crimson Tide fell 74-64 to Ole Miss, its first SEC loss, and home defeat of the 2024-25 season.

Nate Oats’ team looked broken on offense throughout the game, which dropped UA to 14-3 on the season, 3-1 in SEC play. The Tide goes back on the road next up, traveling to Kentucky Saturday.

Before that, here’s three takeaways from the loss.

Slow start

Entering the game, the matchup looked like another marquee SEC matchup. Alabama entered No. 4 in the nation, the Rebels No. 21.

But for the first several minutes, the quality of basketball was anything but marquee. The two teams traded turnovers for the first few minutes, with Ole Miss scoring the first two points of the game at the 18:43 mark.

At the first half’s under 16 timeout, the score was 4-2 in the Rebels favor. At the under 12, things had improved slightly, with Alabama down 14-10.

Eventually things started working a bit better for Alabama. Aden Holloway led the Crimson Tide in the first half with nine points, and UA went to the locker room up 36-32.

Still, 11 turnovers in the first half was far too many, and Ole Miss took advantage for nine of its first-half points.

Turnover problems

That turnover issue didn’t get fully settled after the halftime break. On the other side, Ole Miss kept playing fairly clean.

The Rebels took the lead with 15:33 left. By the under 12 timeout in the second half, Alabama was down 46-42, was mired in a two-minute scoring drought and had turned the ball over 18 times, leading to 19 Ole Miss points.

Entering the game, the most an Alabama team had turned the ball over under Oats was 24 times. The season-high was 20 against Rutgers.

All told on Tuesday, Alabama committed 21 turnovers. Ole Miss took advantage for 19 points.

Offensive failures

Alabama was supposed to be the No. 2 offense in the country. That’s how Oats has built the Crimson Tide throughout his tenure, and that’s how UA has played for the entire season leading up to Tuesday’s game.

The Tide didn’t show it at all against the Rebels. Oats’ team had an uncharacteristically rough game from the field, shooting 43% from the field and 25% from three-point range.

The shooting issues have been a problem all season, but seemed to have been remedied during Alabama’s trip to Texas A&M, with Oats noting that Mark Sears and Chris Youngblood getting going helped the cause.

Sears went 2-for-8 from the field for 11 points,, Youngblood 3-for-10 for eight points. Alabama put up a season-low in scoring and the Crimson Tide suffered a home upset.