TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The Alabama men’s basketball team dropped its third game in a row on Tuesday as it lost to the visiting Tennessee Volunteers, 69-68, at Coleman Coliseum.

First-year head coach Nate Oats was none too pleased with another frustrating loss.

“It’s some of the same issues that we’ve been having,” Oats said. “I can’t put my finger on it. I don’t have an answer. The leadership to get us ready to play has been great, I think. When you look at our starts, we’ve had two really good starts to games and then we just -- I don’t have an answer for why we haven’t sustained the effort.”

The Crimson Tide held a sizeable lead in the first half, leading 39-24 with 1:49 left to play until halftime, but Tennessee closed the half out on an 8-1 run and narrowed the gap to four points in the first minute of the second half. From there, the Vols outscored the Tide, 33-28.

Turnovers once again plagued Alabama, as the home team turned it over 20 times, which led to 21 points for Tennessee. The Vols also attempted 24 more free throws (32) than the Tide (8) and shot 72 percent from the charity stripe (23-32) compared to 63 percent (5-8). UA wasn’t dominated on the glass but was outrebounded 42-33, including 24-14 in the second half.

Those three areas have to improve.

“It’s been a recurring problem with this team,” Oats said. “We don’t close the first half well. It seems like we come out ready to play. We’re talking, the players are talking about it in media timeouts. ‘Come on, we’ve got to close the half. We’ve got to close the half.’ And then it goes from 15 to eight, and then we reconvene and talk about some adjustments.

Alabama men's basketball coach Nate Oats

“We come out and turn the ball over right away on the inbounds play. Our turnovers have become a major problem. ... Rebounding, turnovers, fouling -- it’s become a recurring problem for us, and it was definitely a big problem tonight. Twenty turnovers, outrebounded by 10 in the second half and we kept putting them on the free-throw line.

“Until we get those three things fixed, it’s going to be hard to win any decent games against a good team. When all three of them go bad on the same night, it really makes it hard to win.”

Alabama will need to turn things around quickly as it gets set for road games versus Georgia and Auburn followed by a home contest against LSU. The Tide will again be shorthanded as Herbert Jones recovers from a fractured wrist that will keep him out three weeks.

Even with Jones’ absence and the recurring issues that reared their head Tuesday evening, UA lost by one in a game that featured so many mistakes. That’s why Oats and the Crimson Tide looked so defeated following the loss, because “ we needed this one bad,” Oats said.

“If we plan on having any chance of playing in the postseason, we can’t just lose every game when Herb’s out,” Oats said. “But it don’t get any easier. A road game at Georgia, they’ve got a guard that’s supposed to be a top two or three pick, from what I’m seeing.

“… We’ve got to figure a way to get some wins in. We can’t make excuses.”

Contact Charlie Potter by personal message or on Twitter (@Charlie_Potter).