TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— Being a top-10 team in any sport has its perks, but it also often comes with the consequences and frequency of overlooking opponents.

March Madness is built on this principle. And speaking of college basketball, the No. 4-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide has already succumbed to this practically inevitable concept when it fell to Ole Miss at home on Jan. 14 in what head coach Nate Oats described as a “disgusting” loss.

Ole Miss was undefeated in SEC play at the time but still didn’t have the respect that some of the top-ranked teams in the conference had. Alabama came off the loss to the Rebels with big wins against Kentucky and Vanderbilt, but now the Tide face LSU, who is 1-4 against the conference this season, on Saturday night. Alabama may be the heavy favorite, but Oats has no plans to fall into the overlooking trap once again.

“We’re going to have to see how mature we are to see what kind of effort we bring for the entire 40 minutes tomorrow,” Oats said during Friday’s press conference. “That’s what I’m most curious to see. I hope that our guys are taking these guys seriously. Obviously, we’re going to be a better team going in. That’s what everybody is going to think, but that doesn’t really matter. How many times do you watch college basketball and this team is supposed to win––they’ve got more wins, their record’s better––and if you don’t come to play, then none of that matters.

“I hope we’re mature enough, with enough seniors, and our leadership is good enough to know that these guys are more than capable of scoring it. They’ve got a lot of scores on the floor. And if we don’t take care of the ball and make it real easy for them to score off our turnovers lately, we’ve got a problem.”

Oats admitted to Alabama’s defensive issues of late as the Tide is 333rd in the country in points allowed per game (78.8), but this is a game he’s aiming to see a whole 40 minutes of cohesive defense as he’d “like to see that one time.” That said, this will not be an easy task.

“LSU is capable of beating us at home,” Oats said. “They’ve out-rebounded teams frequently enough and we’ve had an issue with some rebounding at times this year. They’ve gotten to the free-throw line, I think they’re 10-0 when they’ve shot more free throws than their opponents. We have to be able to guard without fouling––we’ve had an issue with that. So some stuff we’ve had issues with they do well.

“Our transition defense is going to have to be better. Our turnovers, we gotta make sure we’re taking care of the ball and getting quality shots up. I’m very curious to see whether we got enough leadership to play 40 minutes on the defensive end tomorrow or not.”

So, who are the LSU players that Oats expects his team to not overlook? Well, he first mentioned guard Cam Carter, who is fourth in the SEC in scoring when looking at just conference play. Oats said a plethora of other veteran Tigers “can definitely score the ball” and that they have “real rim protection” with forward Daimion Collins.

“You’re going to get your shot punched because you’re not being focused on playing the correct way,” Oats said. “Also, they’ve got transition out the other way, so they’re capable of scoring the ball if we don’t guard. If we don’t take care of the ball and turn it over, now all of a sudden you’ve got yourself a problem.”

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