Nate Oats Shares Perspective About Tennessee Loss

"Honestly, if we had closed that Tennessee game, that would've been one of our best games on both sides of the ball. We were 30 seconds from closing," Oats said on Tuesday. "If that game spurs us on to be the best team in those situations and spurs us on to win some games in the NCAA Tournament, it may have been the best thing to happen to us."

Alabama enters the final week of the regular season with an impressive 23-6 overall record and is currently ranked No. 7 in the AP poll. However, it has hit some choppy waters over the last few weeks and Saturday's setback in Knoxville marked its third loss in the last five games.

Still, those bumps in the road are a testament to how tough the SEC has been all season long. It won't get any easier for the Tide to close the regular-season slate, as their final two games are a matchup against No. 5 Florida on Wednesday before a trip to No. 1 Auburn on Saturday.

Oats thinks that how they've maintained running a gauntlet of a schedule will be a huge benefit throughout the month of March.

"We're even more battle tested this year than we were last year, with a much tougher SEC," Oats said. "We've got two unbelievably tough games coming up here to close out the regular season. We'll be as battle tested as any team I've ever had going into the SEC Tournament."

As well positioned as Alabama is heading into tournament season, Saturday's loss has taken it out of consideration for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament for the time being. However, there is still plenty of ball to be played between now and Selection Sunday and the head coach relayed that all they can do is just handle their business.

"If we do what we're supposed to over the next week and a half, that one-seed will take care of itself," Oats said. "If we don't and we're a two-seed, we're going to have the same mindset going into the tournament as if we're a one-seed or whatever gets put in front of us. Let's make a run."