Nate Oats knows he messed up.

He bungled the last 30 seconds of the game against Tennessee. He regrets what he did, and he made that clear after No. 5 Tennessee hit a buzzer-beater to beat No. 6 Alabama 79-76 on Saturday at Thompson-Boling Arena.

“I was not good for the last 30 seconds today,” Oats said. “I feel like I failed these guys.”

Alabama held a 76-72 lead with 36 seconds left in the game. It looked primed to win.

Then Chaz Lanier made a layup. Everything unraveled from there.

Grant Nelson fouled him on the layup, giving Lanier a chance to make it a three-point play. But before the free-throw, Oats subbed out Mo Dioubate and Cliff Omoruyi (two of the best rebounders on the team) for Mark Sears and Chris Youngblood.

Then Lanier missed the free-throw, and Jarin Stevenson committed a foul that gave Jahmai Mashack a chance to hit two more free throws.

All of a sudden it was a tie game with 30 seconds left.

“I should have left the guys in to make sure we secured it before we went to the offensive end,” Oats said. “We foul in the rebound at the free-throw line, and they make 2-for-2. You’ve got to give them credit. We’ve got to do a better job making our free throws.”

That wasn’t the end of the mishaps for the Crimson Tide (23-6, 12-4 SEC).

Alabama would have one final possession. And even when the Tennessee defense stifled it, the Crimson Tide was still going to have one more chance with about two seconds left on the shot clock to inbound a pass.

But Labaron Philon didn’t get the ball in on time and committed a five-second violation. It turned the ball over to Tennessee (24-5, 11-5).

Oats could have prevented the turnover.

“I should have called timeout,” Oats said. “Coaches can call timeout on the underneath out of bounds play. At four, I should have called it. I thought we were getting it in. That’s on me.”

Even the players he had on the floor could have been different in the final seconds. He put Omoruyi and Dioubate back on the floor and subbed out Sears and Youngblood.

“We probably could have had better guys in,” Oats said. “Get a little bit smaller at the end with 3.8 on the clock to make sure they didn’t get the ball up the floor.”

But Alabama didn’t, and Mashack went down the floor and hit the 3-pointer to win.

“We were still up four with 30 seconds to go,” Oats said. “Too many coaching mistakes in the last 30 seconds.”

Nick Kelly is an Alabama beat writer for AL.com and the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X and Instagram.