TL; DR
The Alabama Crimson Tide came out smoking on Saturday night, lost focus for a while, and then had a late spurt, to defeat South Dakota State 78-65. The Jackrabbits played a game last night in Ohio, and probably didn't have their legs under them. Bama improved to 7-1 while SDSU fell to 3-5 on the season.
This was probably not the 40 minutes of “maturity” basketball Coach Oats wanted to see, but 25 minutes of focus was enough to put down the ‘Jacks. And, when SDSU clawed their way to a one-point lead, the defensive intensity returned.