Alabama just knocked off No. 8 Auburn to forge a tie for first place in the SEC.
But coach Nate Oats is looking for improvement as the Crimson Tide (13-6, 5-1 SEC) prepare to face LSU (11-8, 3-3) on Saturday night in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Oats called the 79-75 home victory against Auburn a “big win” that the team needed, “but we’ve got to get better at a lot of things here.”
Alabama faced an early eight-point deficit against Auburn before turning things around.
“We’ve got to figure our starts out,” Oats said. “We have not had good starts here for a long time.”
The slow starts haven’t been fatal for the Tide, who have won seven of their last eight games. Their last four losses, dating to Dec. 9, came against opponents ranked No. 4 (Purdue), No. 8 (Creighton), No. 4 (Arizona) and No. 6 (Tennessee) at the time Alabama faced them.
Oats said Auburn “punched us in the mouth out of the gate,” but he was pleased by his team’s response to the punch.
“I thought we showed some grit and fought through some adversity,” he said.