TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The Alabama men’s basketball team isn’t off to an ideal start.

The Crimson Tide has a 1-2 record after a 93-79 loss at Rhode Island last Friday, and first-year head coach Nate Oats sees a glaring deficiency that needs to improve moving forward.

“The biggest problem’s our turnovers,” Oats said Sunday. “We like to play fast, we’re playing fast. Our skill level’s probably not where it needs to be. It’s also only their third game in this system. They’ve got to get used to it. Definitely, we’re not used to playing at this speed here before.

“... We’re one of the worst teams right now in the country at turning the ball over. We’ve got to get more guys used to handling the ball, more guys used to playing downhill, more guys used to playing in an attacking mode and making those reads, playing as fast as we’d like them. Some of that’s a new system, some of that’s just I’ve got to do a better job teaching them how to play the way we want to play.”

Alabama turned the ball over 22 times against Rhode Island, including 13 in the first half, and the Rams turned them into 33 points. Despite the turnovers, an 0-for-10 start from beyond the 3-point line and a 22-point deficit in the first half, the Tide was able to claw back into the game -- its first road game of the season -- and cut the URI lead to five points in the second half.

But it was too little too late.

Oats wasn’t pleased with how his team responded to adversity early on at Rhode Island. Had UA had an answer, it likely doesn’t trail by 17 points at halftime, which means its second-half surge could have resulted in a lead change instead of just making things interesting.

Alabama men's basketball coach Nate Oats

“I hate losing,” Oats said. “We’re not used to losing. We lost four times all last year. To have lost twice already, that doesn’t sit well with me. You don’t sleep well. But at the same time, you’ve got to remind yourself and I’ve got pretty good assistants that remind me, like, it’s new. Our first year at Buffalo, if you go back and look at that first November and December, that didn’t go well either. So, sometimes putting a new system takes a little bit longer for the guys to know it.

“I certainly don’t want to walk in blaming them. They’re the ones on the floor, but we’ve given them a new system to run. They’ve got to learn it. So, I’ve got to take as much ownership as I possibly can while holding them accountable for everything we can hold them accountable for. The effort stuff, I’m not happy at all, and I let them know about that.

“Some of the turnovers, yeah, we’ve just got to get used to playing this way. Some of them, though, they’re just careless, and we’ve got to get better.”

The road doesn’t get any easier for Alabama, who hosts an undefeated Furman on Tuesday night at Coleman Coliseum (7 p.m. CT on SEC Network+). But Oats would rather face a tough non-conference slate than cruise to SEC play and get exposed later in the season.

The Tide will look to clean things up and bounce back in its first game of the Battle 4 Atlantis.

“I do think we’re growing, we’re getting better,” Oats said. “We got better in practice today. We’ll continue to get better, and if we continue to do that every day, we’ll be in a decent spot come January.”

SCOUTING FURMAN

-- Furman enters the contest at Alabama with a perfect 4-0 record, including a 2-0 mark in true road contests. The Paladins have played impressively through the early part of the season, outscoring opponents by 24.3 points per game (82.8-58.5), while shooting 52.6 percent from the field, 36.0 percent from three-point range and 77.8 percent from the charity stripe.

-- Furman Jordan Lyons, the only senior on the 2019-20 roster, was voted to the Preseason All-Southern Conference team and the Paladins were tabbed to finish third in the 2019-20 league standings by both the coaches and media. The team returned four starters from last season’s team that finished with a school-record 25 wins (25-8) and reached the NIT for the first time since 1991.

-- Lyons is one of four Paladins who average double-figure scoring entering Tuesday night’s contest. Junior forward Clay Mounce at 15.5 points per contest leads the way, while sophomore forward Noah Gurley is just behind at 15.0 ppg. Lyons (13.8) and sophomore forward Jalen Slawson (10.0) are also averaging in double figures. Mounce, a 6-7 forward, tops the team in three-point shooting (10-of-19, .526) and steals (2.3 spg), while Slawson tops Furman in rebounding (6.5 rpg) and field goal percentage (16-of-23, .696).

-- Head coach Bob Richey is in his third season at the helm of the Furman men’s basketball team and his ninth as a part of the Paladins program (spent six seasons as an assistant coach). The 36-year old head coach has impressed since taking over the team as he owns a record of 52-18 (.743) overall mark which includes setting the program mark for wins in a season in each of his first two years (23 wins in 2017-18 and 25 victories in 2018-19).

INJURY UPDATE

Graduate transfer guard James Bolden didn’t take part in the media viewing portion of Sunday’s practice. Oats said Bolden will be a game-time decision due to a nagging injury.

“It’s the same deal. It’s his wrist and hand,” Oats said. “He didn’t practice today. He’ll be kind of a game-time decision again, and I would think we probably will hold him out and see if he can get a little more healed up. We may just sit him Tuesday to see if we can get him rested enough to play against (North) Carolina. We probably won’t know until Tuesday afternoon after shootaround.”

Contact Charlie Potter by 247Sports' personal messaging or on Twitter (@Charlie_Potter).