Alabama men’s basketball already had a growing target on its back as a top-five team in the country, and Sunday’s arrest of bench player Darius Miles for capital murder could provide fodder for opposing fans to try to rattle the players that remain on the team.

Nate Oats said Friday there were no issues with the Vanderbilt crowd during an emotional Tuesday night game in Nashville, but confronted the possibility that might not hold true as Alabama continues its SEC road schedule beginning Saturday at Missouri.

“I’ve talked to our team about that,” Oats said. “Basically I told them this: if people want to be ignorant, and say things that are completely out of line — and in this case, I would think, this isn’t a case where somebody got into some trouble. These are serious matters. There’s a five-year old, Kaine, that doesn’t have a mother anymore.

“This is not, to me, something that students should be joking about. If somebody does happen to say something, I just told our guys, you’ve got to be strong enough, tough enough. We’re here to play basketball. We know who we are, what we’ve done. We’re not — if they’re yelling things at us, they’re completely out of line. Ignore them. Move on. For those guys that will be in the pros, some fans say outrageous stuff to professional athletes at times.

“I hope it doesn’t happen anywhere. I hope people have enough decency to recognize — I mean, we have talked to our guys, though, about just ignoring it. Let’s focus on the task at hand. Let’s focus on what we can control.”

The same holds true for social media, Oats said.

“In a game, you have to say it, with your face right there, in person,” Oats said of anyone taunting Alabama. “On social media, all these people want to start a new account up, don’t have to say what your name is. You can say whatever you want, because nobody is going to find out who you are if you don’t put your name on it. We’ve told them that from Day 1.

“Our guys have a bad game and people want to criticize them. Like, nobody has any idea of what we’re going through in our shoes during these instances. It’s a hard situation to be in. If some idiots on social media want to come after you, they’re showing how ignorant they are, in my opinion.”

The message is consistent with Oats always telling his players to control what they can control.

“We really have no control some fans if they say some ignorant stuff,” he said. “We have full control over our reaction to it. We have full control over how hard we play in the game. We have full control of how we pull together. Let’s just just worry about the stuff we can control and ignore all the other stuff.”

Vanderbilt coach Jerry Stackhouse after Tuesday’s loss to Alabama crumpled up the box score sheet in his postgame news conference and emphasized how the game did not matter in light of the Tide’s circumstances playing it.

“We did not have an ounce of [taunting] at Vanderbilt, that I know of,” Oats said. “I heard nothing about anybody. Class act at Vandy, and that stems from their leadership. You listen to Stackhouse after the game. I thought he was as great as you could be. I’ve always had a ton of respect for Jerry. I thought his remarks after the game were incredible.

“He understands we’ve got two sides here. We’ve got the victim, and we’ve also got Darius’ family. Everything is turned upside down for them. He’s part of our family. We’re tore up, too. You’ve got both sides, too. It’s not trying to attack our guys. In that situation, we’re praying for Darius and his family as well.

“We have addressed it with our guys, and I hope the different schools we go to, the leadership there is making sure that they’ve got that under control, as well.”

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