The Alabama men’s basketball team was the second team out of the NCAA Tournament field and was announced as a No. 1 seed in the NIT on Sunday night. The Crimson Tide (18-15, 8-10 SEC) will host Norfolk State on Wednesday, March 20, in Tuscaloosa at 6 p.m. CT on ESPNU.

Fourth-year head coach Avery Johnson briefly spoke to reporters on a late-night teleconference following the announcement to react to the NIT bid and being left out of the NCAA Tournament.

“Obviously, when the NCAA selection show was concluded, we were all disappointed that we didn’t make it to the NCAA Tournament this year for the second time. Our players, staff worked extremely hard to try to achieve that goal, but unfortunately, with the combination of a bunch of tough losses this year, we were unsuccessful in making it to the NCAA Tournament.

“The NIT, it gives us another opportunity to practice. It gives us another opportunity to play real games in front of a live crowd and just really grow and develop and get better, especially with our young players, specifically our point guard Kira Lewis and the rest of our guys that are going to be returning next year. This gives us a jump start on next year’s preparation. It also gives us an opportunity to take care of our seniors like Riley Norris and Donta Hall, guys who have given their hearts to the program, to give them an opportunity to continue to play ball and get evaluated because you never know who’s watching.

“But this is a situation that we don’t have anybody else to blame. We’re playing in the NIT because we just weren’t good enough during the regular season, and we weren’t consistent enough. But this is an opportunity for us to play postseason. Like I said earlier and alluded to, continue to develop better habits, better leadership, better chemistry, more discipline, more communication, work on our defense. We took a step back defensively this year. We’ve got to be a better free throw shooting team. And we’ll be in situations where we’ll some real game situations where we can work on just becoming a better basketball team.”

Alabama men's basketball head coach Avery Johnson

Question: How would you address the mood of the players currently and how they’re approaching this tournament?

Avery Johnson: “Well, initially when we met, we met after the NIT selection show at around 8 p.m., and there was a little bit of a somber mood, of course, because a lot of our players wanted it for Riley Norris to make it to the NCAA Tournament. But we kind of explained to them why we’re in the position we were in and what do we do next? And why we should play in the NIT. And we talked to them about the why in terms of playing in the NIT and the benefits of it, and then we met with every player individually to get his thoughts on the season and moving forward because at practice tomorrow, we just need 100-percent buy-in. And everybody seemed like they’ll be ready for practice tomorrow. And I think after the individual meeting tonight, that helped lift some of their spirits a little bit.”

Q: You’re talking about the mood of this team. Given the obvious disappointment that they felt tonight, how do you avoid some of the lackluster efforts that seemed to plague this team all year?

AJ: “The main thing is we just talked about our approach in practice and we’ve just got to have more mental toughness throughout the entire practice, the right attitude, competitive spirit because a lot of your habits that you formulate in practice show up in games. So, a lot of the things that we talked about whether it’s being in the right position to take a charge in some of our close games -- one more charge, one more loose ball. Instead of going 10-for-24 from the free-throw line, if you go 18-for-24. So, when we practice our free throws in practice, it needs to be a focus time, and we have to have the right mindset and breathing techniques. So, I just think it just gives us an opportunity to continue to build and work on our game plan and scouting reports and all the little small details that matter. It gives us an opportunity to work on those things.”

Q: And given that y’all were the No. 2 overall seed in the NIT, how close do y’all feel you really were to getting into the NCAA Tournament?

AJ: “I thought we were probably one victory away, one more win, especially against the right opponent. I think if we would have split those games at home with LSU and Auburn, I think we’re probably in the tournament. We beat Kentucky, we’re probably in the tournament. Maybe if we don’t get at the buzzer by Georgia State or A&M, we could possibly be in. But we put ourselves in those situations. We were a very poor second-half team this year -- very, very poor. In +/-, I think we were like 240th in the country in +/- margin, so we’ve got to figure out what’s the issues. Obviously, you’ve got to take care of the ball. We weren’t a very good defensive team in the second half. We’ve got to look at and study it and analyze it and pull the onion back and pull the curtain back and everybody take a look at themselves in the mirror and see how we can just get better. That’s our only choice right now. It’s better that we’re playing in the NIT and not having accepted an invitation to the NIT and not have this opportunity to practice and play games.”

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

*** Take advantage of 30% OFF our Annual VIP Pass for the first year ***