What does Alabama men’s basketball have to play for? That’s the question Nate Oats said he’s been asked following an undefeated 15-0 home record, an outright regular-season Southeastern Conference title, and a likely top seed in the NCAA Tournament.

On Friday, speaking to the media ahead of the No. 2 Tide’s (26-4, 16-1) game at Texas A&M, Oats noted there are still issues to handle for a potential program-best 17th SEC win. As for sitting any starters or limiting minutes, Oats demurred the idea quickly.

“I like to watch a lot of NBA,” Oats said, “there’s load management in the NBA. There are only 31 regular-season games in college. I don’t believe in load management in college basketball.

“We’ve talked repeatedly about playing our best basketball at the end of the season. We need to be better tomorrow than we were on Wednesday. There’s plenty of areas to improve.”

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Alabama is coming off a thrilling 90-85 win over rival Auburn, but shot 43.9% from the field and made eight of 31 3-pointers. For the third game in a row, the Tide started slow and went into halftime trailing by multiple possessions.

Brandon Miller leads the team with 32.9 minutes per game, unsurprisingly considering the freshman is one of the best overall players in the country. Mark Sears (30.2 minutes a contest), Noah Clowney (26.8), Jaden Bradley (21.3) and Charles Bediako (20.1) are the only other players averaging more than 20-plus minutes. The rotation is rounded out by a surging Jahvon Quinerly, Rylan Griffen, Nimari Burnett and Noah Gurley.

As he usually does during practices or games, Alabama strength and conditioning coach Henry Barrera approached Oats with a few metrics on the team’s overall stamina during today’s practice. Oats reviewed the data ahead of Saturday’s 11 a.m. tipoff against the No. 24 Aggies (22-8, 14-3) and decided to cap the number of reps for a few players.

In close games against South Carolina, Arkansas and Auburn — which the Tide won by 10 points combined, including two overtime periods — Oats kept the bench short, utilizing seven or eight bodies. Those groups, however, changed due to varying circumstances. Against the Tigers, both Bediako and Griffen were ejected midway through the second half and earned some inadvertent rest.

“It’s more kind of giving everybody a chance to play and you see who’s playing well that particular night,” Oats said. “… In some ways it’s nice we got all the depth we have, in some ways it’s a little harder because you don’t have that tight seven- or eight-man rotation that you just know that’s what you’re going with.”

It’ll be Oats’ first trip to College Station, Texas, and Reed Arena with the Tide. The 2020-21 contest was canceled due to inclement weather and was never made up.

While the game isn’t as interesting as it seemed to be a week ago, Texas A&M would’ve had a chance to claim a share of the regular-season trophy had Auburn upset Alabama, Oats still wants to see a faster start, improved shooting, and likely no injuries ahead of the postseason.

“Texas A&M is second in the league for reason,” Oats said. “They’re a really good team. They played really hard and they’re tough. We have to be a little tougher. … I want to see us play against a tough team and see how we react.”

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].