This is an opinion column.

A trickle of fans started to leave Coleman Coliseum with 4:30 left.

The dam broke a few minutes later. The place was almost empty at the buzzer and who could blame them?

No. 4 Alabama made the game’s promotional theme a punchline in a 74-64 step back to the Anthony Grant era.

Blue Collar Night?

Woof.

The Crimson Tide was outworked, outhustled, outcoached, out-everything’d on what should’ve been a festive welcome back to the packed student section. Instead, the massive arena that was mostly full at the tip was a ghost town by the buzzer.

Nate Oats was not so subtle in criticizing his team’s effort that broke an eight-game winning streak that dated back to late November.

“It’s disgusting, to be honest with you,” said Oats in a moment nobody could question the blunt honesty of those two words. “With the amount of fifth-year seniors we have and the leadership we should be showing, to have guys not come in ready to play? Look, it starts with me.”

Very fair.

Again, this was Blue Collar Night in Coleman Coliseum. The first 1,000 students through the door were given a blue-collar button-down like something from a mechanic’s wardrobe.

The jokes write themselves.

Oats’ blue-collar metric spelled it out.

Where the Crimson Tide tallied 129.5 points in Saturday’s win at Texas A&M, Oats said they had 72.5 against Mississippi. That’s a season-low, dipping below the 76.0 from the Purdue loss and the 90.5 in the loss to Oregon. The guests had 89.5.

“I told the guys in the locker room, we have to deserve to win,” Oats said. “And we didn’t deserve to win this game.”

Correct.

This was a season-low output in points (by a margin of eight). The 64 points were, in fact, the fewest Alabama’s scored since the 2023 NCAA tournament loss to San Diego State.

It was a low in shots attempted (47, three fewer than the previous low).

Another season-low: Five made 3-pointers

On the flip side, the 21 turnovers were the most by an Alabama team this season. Mississippi turned those into 21 points on the other end while giving away only seven possessions to the hosts.

Steals: Mississippi 14, Alabama 3 (the second-fewest of the Tide’s season).

But the ugly number that irked Oats the most was the offensive rebounding total. Alabama managed just four. Oats counts three because the only one on the first-half stat sheet came off a missed dunk attempt by Jarin Stevenson on a play he was then called for offensive goaltending.

Alabama had 23 offensive boards in the 94-88 win in College Station on Saturday, a number the visibly irked Oats had on hand.

While the offense has struggled for stretches this season, Oats said it’s that hustle on the offensive glass that’s saved them at times.

“I don’t think our guys realize that’s what been keeping our offense going,” Oats said.

The effort was missing all over the court from lazy passes that became turnovers to a fast-break 3-pointer that gave Mississippi its first double-digit lead at the 9:00 mark. Oats called a quick timeout when Matthew Murrell buried the 3 from the corner without a defender in sight.

But for a team averaging a national-best 91.1 points a game (96.3 in league play), holding a road team to 74 should be enough.

Instead, the preseason pick to win the SEC looked incredibly average in a building that hadn’t seen a Tide loss since last March 2.

Any momentum from the eight-game winning streak was flushed away on a low-energy “Blue Collar Night.”

Oats couldn’t emphasize his disappointment enough — a top-down failure that serves as a warning for a team eyeball-deep in league play in a chest-deep SEC. It travels to No. 8 Kentucky in a building that’s not been kind to the Tide and is reenergized under new coach Mark Pope.

So, not great.

Not fatal, either. But there’s not much room for error in this stacked conference.

Off nights happen. Some nights the shots don’t fall.

Effort, however, shouldn’t be an issue with a team as deep and experienced as this.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.