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Alabama’s choke-job loss to Tennessee will reverberate for a while
By David Wasson
Published:
I’ve seen thousands upon thousands of basketball games in my life, which means I have seen some things. I’ve seen a team down to just 4 players in the final minute in a tie game beat a team of 5. I’ve seen double-digit comebacks within that same minute.
Buzzer-beaters? Heck, those barely get my pulse rate up anymore.
But just when you think you’ve seen it all, along came Saturday’s Alabama-Tennessee game in Knoxville – arguably the biggest end-game choke job I’ve seen in quite some time.
Listen, we aren’t knocking the Volunteers. Not by a longshot. Fifth-ranked Tennessee might’ve locked up a No. 1 seed in this month’s NCAA Tournament with the 79-76 victory – at 24-5 overall, the Vols are legit.
But getting to that total meant not that Tennessee outplayed the Crimson Tide so much as the visitors found it difficult to navigate the final 60 seconds of the game with both hands wrapped around their collective throat.
Alabama (23-6, 12-4) led by 1, 73-72, with 1:20 to play when Labaron Philon nicked a steal from Tennessee’s Zakai Zeigler and hit a layup to make it 75-72. Tennessee responded by driving unsuccessfully to the rack on its end of Summitt Court at Thompson-Boling Arena, only to come up dry.
Forced to play the free-throw game, Tennessee quickly fouled Philon with 36 seconds to play. Philon front-ironed his first attempt but swished the second for a 76-72 lead. At that point, ESPN listed Alabama with an 88.7% win probability.
The problem with probability rates, at least Saturday night, is that it clearly doesn’t factor in the ability for Nate Oats’ team to absolutely botch the ensuing end-game scenarios.
Tennessee’s Chaz Lanier drove for a quick layup with 30 seconds remaining to make it 76-74 – but he was also fouled at the same time by Alabama’s Grant Nelson, for reasons clearly escaping me. Lanier missed the free throw, only to see Alabama’s Jarin Stevenson foul Jahmai Mashack in the scrum for the rebound.
Two Mashack swishes later, and the Volunteers had tied the game at 76 with a 4-point trip down the floor.
OK, you say, still, Alabama had the last shot of the game – so how could the Tide possibly have screwed this up against a Tennessee team that hadn’t made a field goal since the 6:18 mark of the second half?
Ahem…
Alabama began its final-shot sequence with around 5 seconds to go, only for Tennessee to force Philon into a held ball situation – with the arrow going to the Tide and 3.8 seconds on the clock. Following an Oats timeout, Alabama was unable to get the ball inbounds from the baseline to force a 5-second violation.
To review: 30 seconds to play, having just coughed-up a 4-point lead, and Alabama didn’t even get a shot off before giving it right back to Tennessee.
Ouch.
And while it had to have felt a smidge like fait accompli on the Alabama bench at this point, precisely no one saw what was coming next…
Yes, that is Jahmai Mashack cooly traveling about 65 feet in 3.8 seconds to bury a 3-pointer and set off mass hysteria – not only at Thompson-Boling, but across the SEC. You’ll also notice Tennessee coach Rick Barnes trying desperately to call a timeout just before Mashack pulls up from 35 feet … then throwing up his hands in the international signal for “well, YEAH, that happened!”
The reason why Alabama gagging on air cost more than just another game in a slide that has seen the Tide lose 3 of their last 5 is this: Not only will Oats’ squad pretty much need to win the SEC Tournament to earn a No. 1 seed, but the Tennessee victory also clinched the SEC regular season championship for arch-rival Auburn.
“We didn’t do a great job closing it,” Oats said postgame in what is undoubtedly the understatement of the college basketball season.
“I’m going to take most of the blame. In the last 30 seconds, it’s on me. We subbed our bigs out before I should have. I shouldn’t have subbed them out until after we secured the rebound. So that was on me, and then I had a chance to call a timeout (on the inbounds play). And at 4, I should’ve called it. I thought we were getting it in. That’s on me. And we probably could’ve had better guys in, been a little smaller at the end.”
The loss ruined a 24-point night by Alabama’s Mark Sears, who has poured in 110 points over his last 4 games. Tennessee, meanwhile, scored its fourth consecutive win in the series and defended home court again from a Tide team that hasn’t won in Knoxville since 2021.
Where does Alabama go from here, set to enter a murderous final week of the regular season at home against No. 3 Florida on Wednesday and at top-ranked Auburn on Saturday?
There’s one thing that is certain: The Crimson Tide surely can’t snatch defeat from the jaws of victory any more successfully than they did against Tennessee.
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. He also hosts Gulfshore Sports with David Wasson, weekdays from 3-5 pm across Southwest Florida and on FoxSportsFM.com. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
