Alabama’s turnover problem has made some games closer than they should’ve been and it has also been a factor in each of the Tide’s three losses.

“There’s got to be some in-the-moment consequence for dumb turnovers, which we just don’t tolerate.” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said during Friday’s press conference. “When we do have a longer time to practice because we didn’t practice the day before…[maybe we have to] mix a little bit more of that stuff in.”

Nevertheless, Oats and company have been practicing decision-making in the gym when it comes to keeping possession of the ball for quite some time.

“It starts with our skill work in the summer, when we do a lot of advantage basketball drills where maybe guys on the hip beat them, because we’re going to be able to create an advantage frequently,” Oats said. “So then are we able to play off the advantage and make those quick decisions?

“We’ve got a point-five rule, where once the advantage is created, you only have half of a second to make your next decision. It’s got to be a shot or one more, or we call it a ‘Go Catch.’ Can you play off of those? We put the guys in those situations where the advantage is already created and we do them all summer long. So you got to make those reads. Time after time, thousands of reps all summer long.”

Oats explained that it’s difficult to replicate these decision-making drills during the season as Alabama has a short amount of time to figure it out in between games. But when turnovers are made in practice, he revealed how it’s disciplined.

“The last few weeks, a guy has a certain type of casual turnover, a couple of different things we’ve labeled that we’re just not going to accept,” Oats said. “Just in practice, go to the bike and go pretty hard for a certain amount of time, and then they can get back to practice.”

Oats admitted that the turnovers “have been coming down” during practice and in some games, but Alabama will need to find some consistency if it wants to come out on top of the daunting SEC in a couple of months.

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