There are some losses that are just difficult to accept.
On Saturday night, Vanderbilt’s defense held Alabama to an effective field goal percentage of 37.3%. Normally, when your opponent is shooting that poorly, you should win, but that was complicated by the fact that the Crimson Tide had an offensive rebounding rate of 42.6%. That’s... not good. Alabama is a pretty good rebounding team, but that’s inexcusable. While I hesitate to question the effort of the players (these are, after all, unpaid college student-athletes, not professionals), that’s the kind of thing that makes some people question their effort.