Alabama men’s basketball took a tough loss Tuesday against Clemson in the ACC/SEC Challenge at Coleman Coliseum. The Tigers rode an excellent shooting night, where they hit 52% of their three-point attempts to an 85-77 win.

“I thought their physicality bothered us on both ends,” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said after the game.

Alabama fell to 5-2 on the season. The Crimson Tide will return to action Monday against Arkansas State, but before that, here are three takeaways from Tuesday’s loss.

Defense kept struggling

Oats has made no bones about how much the Alabama defense needs to improve. The Crimson Tide has had trouble stopping anybody, and the flaw has hindered a team that has been strong offensively.

In the first half, things looked better. Clemson scored .943 points per possession in that half, a marked improvement from UA’s usual defensive effort..

But the change didn’t last. Alabama got out to a lead to start the second, but the Tigers came storming back.

“Our defense,” Alabama guard Mark Sears said when asked what went wrong after the second half lead. “Defense, it’s something that we’re really focused on and we’re gonna get that fixed. No matter how long it takes, we’re gonna get that fixed.”

Alabama gave up 1.625 points per possession in the second half. It finished the game having surrendered 1.269.

That’s not going to work for Oats.

“I can assure that for the next, until we figure it out, practices, week, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, is gonna be about 90% on the defensive end,” Oats said. “Our offense has enough firepower and we’ll make enough tweaks to get where our offense needs to be, but we gotta get some defensive-minded guys that can play for 40 minutes on the defensive end.”

Shots weren’t falling

Alabama’s offense started ice cold against the Tigers through the first half. Scoring has been the Crimson Tide’s strong suit all season, but it just wasn’t there early on.

UA started 0-for-9 from three before Sam Walters finally sunk one from deep. Alabama ended the first half having made just 28% of its shots from the field.

Things improved slightly toward the end of the half, with Alabama taking a brief lead. However, the Tigers got it back and went to the locker room up 33-32.

The second half got out to a much better start, spurred on by a three-pointer from Rylan Griffen. Alabama held a 42-40 lead by the under-16 timeout, which later grew to 53-46.

But after that, the offense couldn’t dig Alabama out of the hole its defense created. The Crimson Tide finished having made just 34% of its attempts from the floor, 31% from three.

After the game, Oats and players weren’t thrilled with the output, but they all noted that the real issue lies on the other side of the floor.

“No matter how good our offense is, if we can’t get our defense fixed, we can’t win games,” Sears said.

First start

Nate Oats made a change to his starting lineup for Tuesday’s game. In place of Nick Pringle, Oats inserted Mohamed Wague at forward.

Wague ended up playing 15 minutes, putting up six points, three rebounds and a steal.

“I love Mo,” Oats said after the game. “Plays hard, he’s about the right stuff. He’s always got a smile on his face. He’s studying it. He did good in his minutes.”

Oats said Wague remains a bit foul-prone and needs to convert his shots better from the field. He also noted that the 6-foot-10 junior missed the entire summer with a foot injury.

“Everything with Mo you need to take with a grain of salt because he didn’t get the reps he needed to all offseason because of the surgery he needed to have when he got here,” Oats said. “But he’s a great kid with a lot of athleticism and he’s got the right heart, the right mindset. He’s gonna give us some quality minutes throughout the year.