Alabama basketball entered Tuesday’s matchup with Ole Miss flying high off a road SEC win at Texas A&M. When the night at Coleman Coliseum ended, the Crimson Tide had lost 74-64, and what is allegedly one of the top teams in college basketball had some serious questions.

Afterward, Nate Oats seemed most disappointed in his team’s effort.

“It’s disgusting to be honest with you,” Oats said. “With the amount of fifth-year seniors that we have and the leadership that should be shown on this team, to have guys not come in ready to play. Look, it starts with me, because I’m supposed to be the one motivating these guys and I obviously didn’t motivate them very well to make sure they’re ready. So I’m gonna have to looking the mirror to see what I did, didn’t do.

“Have to have a good talk with some of these seniors that are supposed to be our leaders and figure out why we weren’t ready to go tonight, because it’s very disappointing and it’s disgusting and it’s frustrating.”

Alabama hasn’t been shooting as well as Oats thought it would entering the season. In prior games, the Crimson Tide got enough offensive rebounds to cover over the weaknesses, snagging 23 against Texas A&M.

Not against Ole Miss. The Tide managed a paltry four offensive rebounds.

That stat concerned Oats after the game. He even subtracting one from his team total, noting that Jarin Stevenson was credited with a rebound while missing a dunk and hanging on the rim in the first half.

“Maybe the most disappointing thing of the night in my opinion was our lack of effort on the offensive glass,” Oats said. “I don’t know if our guys didn’t realize, that’s what been keeping our offense going.”

Alabama also turned the ball over 21 times, compared to just seven for Ole Miss. The Rebels took advantage, scoring 19 points off the turnovers.

Chris Beard’s team came in with a plan to slow down and turn over Alabama, and it worked perfectly.

“They put a lot of pressure on us,” Stevenson said afterward. “We committed some turnovers, felt like that hurt us a lot.”

Alabama’s cold shooting continued against the Rebels as well. The Tide made 20 of 27 field goal attempts and went 5-for-20 from three, and missed seven free throws.

The frenetic pace Oats likes his offenses to run at didn’t work either. One of Ole Miss coach Chris Beard’s points of emphasis came to fruition.

“You start by saying ‘Hey, probably not gonna be our way if this game’s in the 90s or 100s,’” Beard said after the win. “So we gotta control the tempo. You do that by taking care of the basketball, by shot selection, by building a wall on defense.”

Now, Alabama has to bounce back fast. It won’t be easy coming up, as Alabama heads to Kentucky on Saturday to face the No. 8 Wildcats.

In the meantime, Oats wanted his team to do some soul-searching.

“You gotta earn the right to play well,” Oats said. “Like, are you spending enough time in the gym, working on your game outside of practice, or are we having to beg you to get in the gym?”