Alabama basketball coach Nate Oats announced that the team will honor all six seniors, including Aaron Estrada, who has exhausted his eligibility. Oats emphasized the importance of the upcoming game against Arkansas as a test of character. He expressed a desire for seniors with eligibility remaining to return next season. Rylan Griffen's injury status was updated to day-to-day. Alabama started with an all-senior lineup against Arkansas, with Griffen out.
Entertaining game in Tuscaloosa with under 8 to play. Alabama trails Arkansas, 60-56. Tide hasn't led at any point in the game.
Arkansas is up 15 at Alabama early 😳😳 https://t.co/qGE8upQ3wA
Alabama and Arkansas tip off at the top of the hour. The Crimson Tide enters with the No. 1 offense in the country in terms of efficiency, according to @kenpomeroy.
Arkansas basketball is rolling with the sane starting 5 tonight. - El Ellis - Khalif Battle - Tramon Mark - Trevon Brazile - Chandler Lawson Tipoff against Alabama scheduled for 11 a.m.
Alabama starters vs. Arkansas: Mark Sears Latrell Wrightsell Aaron Estrada Grant Nelson Nick Pringle Nate Oats goes with an all-senior lineup with Rylan Griffen out.
Alabama starters vs. Arkansas: Mark Sears Aaron Estrada Latrell Wrightsell Grant Nelson Nick Pringle
Nate Oats on CTSN pregame show on Rylan Griffen: "We got to get him ready by hopefully SEC tournament, if not that, by the NCAA tournament. If Latrell can go full 30-plus minutes, that would be a great help for us."
Alabama basketball will honor all six of its seniors, but what most of them will do next year is unclear. "We're gonna save that all for after the year. But they're all more than welcome to come back. We love them all." 🔗: https://t.co/zcRA1AIUVZ https://t.co/mWZ70XWKFG
Nate Oats on Rylan Griffen: "We got his MRI results back yesterday. The calf strain -- the MRI results were a lot better than what we had feared they might be. He's on a day-to-day basis right now, just working through with Clarke [Holter] as many hours as he can be in the…
Nate Oats said he will save talks with seniors who can return for after the season, but said, "We'd love to have them all back." Mark Sears, Grant Nelson, Latrell Wrightsell and Nick Pringle can all use a COVID year and come back.
Nate Oats: "We just decided to honor all six of our seniors." The only Alabama senior who is out of eligibility is Aaron Estrada.
Nate Oats said Alabama will honor all six of its seniors on Saturday. "We just decided to all six guys that are seniors." The only one that has exhausted his eligibility is Aaron Estrada. "We didn't want to put guys in positions to have to decide whether to honor them [or not]."
Nate Oats says he thought his players let the Tennessee loss affect effort against Florida, then their offensive struggles affected their defensive effort. "We didn't look good. We played bad." Says Saturday is a "character game" against a "surging" Arkansas team.
Nate Oats: "To me, Saturday's a character game. ... We have to come out and obviously play better on defense."