Alabama men’s basketball hasn’t done much to inspire confidence of late.

The Crimson Tide have lost back-to-back games and four of the past six, the latest being a 99-94 loss to No. 5 Florida on Wednesday at Coleman Coliseum.

Nate Oats was asked how concerned he is about Alabama (23-7, 12-5 SEC) after the recent losses.

“We knew it was going to be a tough stretch,” Oats said. “I thought we would do a little bit better. I thought we would at least play with more effort. I’m more not panicked we’re losing. It’s more concerning how we lost. Getting outrebounded by 15 and not getting the 50-50 balls. I think Florida had more pop and more energy than us. That’s concerning to me.”

Alabama was always going to be tested during the final stretch the regular season. Starting with the Auburn game at Coleman Coliseum on Feb. 15, every game was going to be against a ranked opponent. That included No. 1 Auburn, No. 15 Missouri, No. 17 Kentucky, No. 24 Mississippi State, No. 5 Tennessee and No. 5 Florida. Those were their rankings at the time the Crimson Tide played them.

Alabama beat Kentucky and Mississippi State, both solid wins at home. But then the Crimson Tide squandered a four-point lead with 36 seconds left to lose to Tennessee on the road this past Saturday before putting together an uncharacteristic day on the boards against Florida on Wednesday.

Alabama has been outrebounded four times this season, the latest being the Florida game. Before that, it was Illinois with a seven-rebound edge on the boards over the Crimson Tide.

“We’ve just got to continue to come out and play with energy,” Mark Sears said. “It felt like they had played with more energy than us in the second half. We’ve just got to do a better job with that and hold each other accountable with that.”

Nick Kelly is an Alabama beat writer for AL.com and the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X and Instagram.