BIRMINGHAM — Unflinching is one word to describe Nate Oats’ leadership of Alabama basketball. On nights like Saturday against No. 1 Arizona, that adjective can be swapped out with stubborn.

It’s hard not to wonder what that 96-75 final score would’ve looked like had Oats called a timeout to regroup the Crimson Tide when Arizona (9-0) ran away early in the second half. As Wildcat freshman Brayden Burries pounded away with two threes and a couple of layups for 15 of his game-high 28 points, Alabama struggled to cough up just five points.

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No. 12 Alabama (7-3) could’ve huddled to figure out a solution to contain Burries, but Oats stood on the sideline arms crossed. His face, contempt with disappointment, suggested he was either sitting between belief that the Crimson Tide could find a way to win and perform like it did in the first half, or the idea of just letting his players feel just how much a lack of toughness costs.

Based on Oats’ response to reporters when asked why he didn’t pause the game, he was thinking the latter.

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While Oats has admitted in the past, most recently when Alabama blew a lead to Tennessee in the last 30 seconds of a 79-76 loss, that he should’ve called a timeout, he repeated an answer he’s given before − when Alabama fell 104-82 to Florida in the SEC Tournament.

“Am I going to call timeout to tell them to play harder?” he asked. “Call a timeout and make adjustments?”

Oats was firm.

“I’m not going to call a timeout and tell them to play harder,” Oats said.

In Oats’ eyes, his players “should be competitors.” Simply put, if the adjustment is effort, that’s something Oats believes “they need to figure it out on the fly.”

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Despite Burries’ attack, Oats didn’t find that adjusting the defense is where Alabama would find its answer to bounce back.

“I didn’t think there was any defensive adjustments to make,” Oats said.

Not seeing any adjustments to be made implied that reevaluating how Alabama handled 7-foot-2 center Motiejus Krivas on the offensive glass, giving up four rebounds in just a few minutes to the Lithuanian as Arizona took over on the scoreboard wasn’t something that could be solved on a clipboard.

“The adjustment was to play harder,” he continued.

Emilee Smarr covers Alabama basketball and Crimson Tide athletics for The Tuscaloosa News. She can be reached via email at usatodayco.com.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Why Alabama basketball HC Nate Oats didn’t call timeout in Arizona loss