After being upset multiple times last season by teams near the bottom of the SEC’s standings, Alabama has swept away its lower-level conference competition so far this season.

By the NCAA’s NET metric, the Tide has played three Quadrant 3 games against SEC opponents and has won by a combined 119 points. That includes a 22-point win over Ole Miss, a 40-point blowout of LSU and its 57-point, record-setting rout of Vanderbilt earlier this week.

But all three came in Coleman Coliseum, where Alabama is undefeated this season and 36-4 over the past three seasons. The Tide will not have the benefit of its home crowd when it faces LSU again Saturday, this time in Baton Rouge’s Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

“We obviously beat them by a pretty wide margin here, but they’ve been a lot better at home,” coach Nate Oats said Friday.

LSU (12-10) has lost its past nine games, including its past eight in SEC play. At 1-8, the rebuilding Tigers are tied with Ole Miss and South Carolina for last place. They are 0-5 on the road but 9-4 at home, including a 60-57 win over Arkansas on Dec. 28.

Alabama (No. 4 in NET) is favored by 12.5 points on Caesars Sportsbook for the 3 p.m. CT tip off against LSU (No. 139 in NET). A week earlier, the Tide was favored by six points on the road at Oklahoma and lost by 24 points, its largest defeat since 2016.

Alabama responded to its thrashing by Oklahoma by trouncing Vanderbilt on Tuesday night, 101-44, but Oats is cautioning his players against slipping again.

“Our guys got to understand … can we be mature enough and disciplined enough to bring the same energy after a big win as we did after a big loss? That what remains to be seen,” he said. “I hope our guys have matured a little bit and do that.”

Oats pointed to Alabama holding a 37-point halftime lead over LSU in Coleman Coliseum on Jan. 14, only to win by 40 points after an almost-even second half.

“The last thing I told them in video this [Friday] morning was the second half score was 47-44,” he said. “It’s great we came out and hit 14 threes in the first half and looked great. We didn’t play very well in the second half. Our defense wasn’t good. It was pretty much an even game the entire second half. And we’re playing on the road this time. I think we’ve got to play better, to be honest with you. We can’t come out and relax for 20 minutes.”

LSU’s roster was almost entirely turned over after coach Will Wade was fired last offseason amid an NCAA investigation, and first-year coach Matt McMahon has leaned on Murray State transfer KJ Williams (17.1 points per game) and Illinois transfer Adam Miller (12.0) for scoring.

“You look at the second half, they attacked us in ways that hurt us,” Oats said. We’ve got to make sure Williams isn’t getting any threes off. We’ve got to make sure Miller isn’t getting any easy looks off. They’ve got some shooters that can make shots. One way to get upset is to give shooters open looks. We can’t be giving shooters any open looks.”

Williams and Miller combined for only four points in the second half in the teams’ last meeting, but Cam Hayes (10 points), Derek Fountain (9 points) and Justice Williams (9 points) all found holes against Alabama’s defense.

Alabama has not played a ranked team since Jan. 11 but has current No. 25 Auburn and current No. 2 Tennessee looming over the next 10 days. Before that, it will host Florida — which defeated Tennessee earlier this week — next Wednesday night.

“We’re trying to tell our guys that we need to be better in the second half of conference play than the first half,” Oats said.

Mike Rodak is an Alabama beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @mikerodak.