GAINESVILLE, Florida:Tuesday night, Alabama basketball suffered its third straight loss after falling to Florida 105-87 in a rematch.

Another road game saw the floodgates open in the second half, quickly turning what could have been a decent contest into a 2-point deficit that never looked back.

With 33 points, Mark Sears had his second-highest scoring performance of the year, although a large portion of his points came at a time when the game seemed to be won.

With one game remaining in the regular season, Alabama’s loss drops its record to 12-5 for the season, effectively eliminating it from the running for an SEC championship.

These are my impressions after the game:

1. Clearly, fatigue set in.

It was said simply by Nate Oats in his press conference following the game.

He remarked, “It appeared like we were exhausted tonight.”

How could they not be, really? Latrell Wrightsell had been playing some of his finest basketball, and his loss five games ago left Alabama with a completely thinned out backcourt.

Since then, Alabama has faced Florida at home in overtime, Kentucky on the road, Ole Miss on the road in a game that required a 14-point comeback, Tennessee at home against a top-5 team in the country, and Florida on the road once more.

“We must perform more effectively. Tomorrow is our day off. We must have some relaxation, see the trainer, and receive a lot of care,” Oats remarked. “Make sure we don’t push ourselves too hard on Thursday or Friday. Get their bodies and brains in shape so they can play on Saturday and attempt to win in Nashville.”

It seems sense that Alabama would be so exhausted after playing this match 72 hours after the highly anticipated and intense Tennessee game. Wrightsell has been out, so Sears and Estrada have been playing ridiculous amounts of minutes. Even he was only given eight minutes to play tonight.

It is more difficult for athletes to play defense, run in transition, and make shots when they are tired.

The good news is that Alabama’s next game is scheduled for this Saturday. If it wins and earns a double-bye in the SEC Tournament, it will then have five days free before hosting its next game in Nashville.

Before tournament play starts, the squad has a lot of time to recuperate and get well, and based on tonight’s performance, it appears that they really need it.

2. Defense got off to a great start but faltered fast.

It appeared for a little while that Alabama’s formidable defense from the Tennessee game had continued. Alabama played excellent defense throughout the opening fifteen or so minutes of the game, which forced Florida to take many difficult offensive looks.

Even though the offense wasn’t playing well—a topic I’ll discuss shortly—it was still competitive because of a valiant defensive effort.

With five minutes remaining in the half, Alabama was actually ahead of Florida 25-23. However, the Gator offense erupted, scoring more than 20 points in the final five minutes of play before halftime.

It’s one of those situations where Oats said, “Our guys have to realize that no matter what happens on offense or defense, there’s a defensive attitude that has to be there every play.” “Even if you play excellent defense and they make a difficult shot or a call goes against you, you can’t become upset over it. If your team is truly defensive-minded, you may play excellent defense for four or five minutes, but if your offense is struggling, you’re making a few mistakes, and you’re missing some easy shots, that shouldn’t get to you.”

Oats hit the nail on the head. Alabama’s defensive effort has been determined by the game and its flow, just like it has the entire season.

We have witnessed that they are capable of doing so, particularly when their home club is winning or when their opponents are missing a few shots. However, the inability to bounce back from setbacks and concentrate on defense for 40 minutes has been the source of the inconsistent results, or more accurately, the constant bads.

Is it possible to fix it? Given that it is already March, most likely not. As of right now, it might prove to be this team’s downfall in tournament play, but only time will tell.

3. The offensive line is struggling mightily.

Alabama is a combined 14-for-60 from 3-point range in the last two games.

That is an incredibly poor shooting percentage for a club that has players who are shooting over 40% from three this season, is ranked first in the nation for offensive efficiency, and is shooting well enough to be in the top 25 for team 3-point percentage.

So why is this team suddenly unable to make threes? First off, as I indicated previously, I believe that fatigue is a major factor in a lot of these cases. An old lesson in athletics is that fatigued legs result in missed jump shots.

Nate Oats credited Florida’s defensive strategy for part of their difficulties in this particular game.

“They were quite physical and did a fantastic job of chasing us off the line, not really letting us get open,” Oats remarked. “It was just difficult to create threes. We don’t want to take terrible threes, so if you can’t get some help, kick it to open shooters, or get open on some screens.”

Regarding this team’s shooting prospects going forward, it’s hard to believe they won’t start to struggle again, preferably sooner rather than later.

The game is at home on Saturday, and Arkansas has a terrible defense. Along with some relaxation, those two actions ought to help this team start performing well beyond the arc once more. After then, tournament play begins.

Even if it seems awful right now, keep in mind how excellent this offense has been all season long and how great it can be when everything clicks.

All this team needs is one scorching night and some confidence to be restored, and things may go very well. Will it take place? Once more, we’ll see with this group in due course.