"I'm embarrassed": Nate Oats makes honest admission about Alabama's poor defense against Kentucky

Saturday night ended on an embarrassing note for Alabama after the 117-95 loss to Kentucky. The holes in the Crimson Tide's defense were glaringly evident as the Wildcats took full advantage and put up one of the best offensive performances of this season. This loss broke Alabama's three-game winning streak and gave Kentucky the boost they needed after the loss to LSU.

Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats spoke to the media ahead of their tip-off against Ole Miss on Wednesday. Answering the question about ownership from the player for the defense, Oats said:

"I think they were embarrassed. It would be hard not to after giving up 117. I'm embarrassed that the team I coach was that poor defensively. It comes and goes with the ownership. You get embarrassed, you play really hard."

"I told them it's gotta become who you really are. You get motivated after a bad outing. So, you know, they are motivated right now because they just gave up 117. We'll see if we face a little adversity tomorrow, how long that motivation lasts. I do think enough of them care, but we'll see if they care enough to make a lasting change."

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The road ahead for Alabama

This is not Alabama's worst loss when compared to some from their previous season. The biggest and most recent one was on Jan. 28, 2023, when they lost on a 24-point difference to Oklahoma. Just three nights later, the Crimson Tide won 101-44 against Vanderbilt. This was the program’s largest margin of victory in SEC history.

Now, they are faced with a similar task of putting their minds together and working towards rewriting all their wrongs. After Saturday's loss, Alabama is tied for first place in the SEC standings on an 11-3 record. In the last four years, they have won the SEC regular season title twice and are looking to bring it home again.

Their winning record and overall performance this year are slightly worse than their previous winning seasons. But all is not lost for the Crimson Tide. They have four games lined up until March 9. After Wednesday's meet-up with Ole Miss, they will host Tennessee at the Coleman Coliseum in one week.

If the Crimson Tide manage to come out victorious from all these games, they will set themselves up for the grand championship tournament at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.