TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Kira Lewis was a few seconds late to the postgame press conference.

When the sophomore guard joined head coach Nate Oats and teammate Galin Smith following Alabama’s 90-69 win over Mississippi State on Wednesday, he was wearing a white hard hat with a crimson A on each side and a huge smile stretched across the guard’s face.

“Kira won the hard hat, as you can see. First time he’s got it,” Oats said. “I thought it was the best game he’s played in a while. He was efficient with his shots, getting to the rim.”

Lewis wasn’t the team’s leading scorer in the win over the Bulldogs, but he did lead the Crimson Tide in blue-collar points, which is why he was given the hard hat after the SEC home opener. Since the exhibition game with Georgia Tech, Oats and his staff have awarded the hard hat after each game, Lewis being the latest. Herbert Jones has worn it the most.

And the desire to don the headwear has developed into a competition amongst the players.

“We actually have somebody monitoring (the points) throughout the games,” senior guard James Bolden said. “When we come in at halftime, the points will be on the board, so we can see where we’re at at halftime. We just go out there and try to make it a competition between each other, and ultimately it makes us better on defense.”

Oats elaborated, “We want to make everything competitive around here, both within the program and then obviously the most important thing is we compete when we go against somebody else. The more important thing is what’s the team total.

Alabama junior wing Herbert Jones wearing the team's hard hat.

“We’re trying to get 120 and we haven’t gotten that yet recently. But if you’ve only got 40 up there at the half, we’re not playing hard enough. Then, say, you have 40 and Herb’s got 20 of them, well some other guys need to get going. We’ve got to get some deflections and we better take charge, better go get some rebounds. So, I think it’s good for them to get feedback.

“It’s really a measurable way to show you how hard you’re playing. Is it exact? No, there’s no exact science to say how hard you’re playing. But it’s what we’ve used to figure out if you’re giving us max effort or not.”

Some stats that don’t show up in the box score result in blue-collar points, like taking a charge. Players like Jones and Bolden routinely put their bodies in front of driving opponents in order to try and draw a foul, and plays like that are what the first-year coach likes to see.

“It’s huge because you get the other team playing at your pace and then you soon as we step in to take a charge when they’re trying to play at our pace, the coach is up and yelling, ‘Slow, slow,’ which is fine,” Oats said. “… I told our team, we want to be top 10 in the country in pace of play on offense, and we want to be one of the slowest in pace of play on defense.”

The hard hat has been a huge success among the Crimson Tide players, and soon, a few fans will be able to have their own versions. At Alabama’s next home game against Auburn on Jan. 15, the first 500 students through the doors will be handed free replica hard hats.

Time will only tell if they will be as happy as Lewis was to receive the postgame honor.

“It meant a lot because Coach challenged me to be a hard-playing guy, do some of the stuff he says to do,” Lewis said on Friday. “So, me just getting steals, getting rebounds, trying to play hard all the time and win the award was a big achievement.”

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