Hello and Roll Tide!

Tonight begins what could be the most exciting Alabama basketball season in school history, as Alabama hosts UNC Asheville. This year’s team has Alabama fans and the national media raving about the potential of what could be accomplished on the hardwood. Alabama went to the program’s first Final Four last year and this year’s team has its goal set even further with hopes of winning a national championship. This team checks off all of the boxes to make a deep tournament run: tournament experienced players, highly recruited young talent, a 2+ deep roster at every position, and a playing style that fits the offensive capabilities of the players. Without injuries, this team WILL be a team to watch come March. Below are Depth/Roster notes, a 2024-2025 preview, 2024-2025 Storylines, and Exhibition results. Let’s go!

Depth Chart:

· PG: 1. Mark Sears 2. Labaron Philon

· SG: 1. Latrell Wrightsell 2. Aden Holloway 3. Houston Mallette

· SF: 1. Chris Youngblood 2. Derrion Reid 3. Mouhamed Dioubate 4. Naas Cunningham

· PF: 1. Grant Nelson 2. Jarin Stevenson

· C: 1. Cliff Omoruyi 2. Aiden Sherrell

Returning Players:

· Mark Sears (21.5ppg/ 33.6 min): 2024 Second Team All American, 2025 Pre-Season First team All American

· Grant Nelson (11.9ppg/ 25.6 min)

· Latrell Wrightsell ( 8.9ppg/ 23.7 min)

· Jarin Stevenson (5.3ppg/ 16.6 min)

· Mouhamed Dioubate (2.9ppg/ 7.7 min)

Incoming Players:

#2 Rated Recruiting Class (per 247 Sports Composite)

· 5 Star Derrion Reid- #10 Overall Player/ #2 SF

· 5 Star Aiden Sherrell- #23 Overall Player/ #5 Center

· 4 Star Labaron Philon- #35 Overall/ #4 PG (2022-23 Alabama Gatorade Player of the year)

· 4 Star Naas Cunningham- #46 Overall/ #13 SF

Transfers:

· 5th Year Clifford Omoruyi: (10.4ppg/ 26.9 min/ 8.3rpg/ 2.9bpg) Transferred from Rutgers and was all Big 10 Defensive Team

· Sophomore Aden Holloway: (7.3ppg/ 20 min/ 30.2 3P%): Transfer from Auburn and former 5 Star

· 5th Year Chris Youngblood: (15.3ppg/ 30 min/ 41.6 3P%) Transfer from South Florida and was Co-AAC Player of the Year

· Senior Houston Mallette (14.7ppg/ 31.5 min/ 41.5 3P%) Transfer from Pepperdine and was 2023-24 WCC Honorable Mention Selection

Subtractions from the 2023 Roster:

· Aaron Estrada (13ppg/ 31 min) : Graduated (Spent summer with Pistons as undrafted free agent)

· Rylan Griffin (11.2ppg/ 26.3 min): Transfer to Kansas

· Nick Pringle (6.8ppg/ 18.2 min): Transfer to South Carolina

· Sam Walters (5.4ppg/ 12.3 min): Transfer to Michigan

· Mohamed Wague (3.1ppg/ 8.5 min): Transfer to Oklahoma

· Davin Cosby (3.6ppg/ 7.8 min): Transfer to Wake Forest

· Kris Parker (DNP): Transfer to Villanova

Injury Report:

· Chris Youngblood: Ankle- out until mid December

· Grant Nelson: Adomen-out until beginning of November (DNP in exhibitions and questionable for season opener)

· Latrell Wrightsell: lower leg-out until beginning of November (DNP in exhibitions and probable for season opener)

· Aiden Sherrell: lower leg- out until beginning of November (DNP in exhibitions and questionable for season opener)

2024-2025 Preview:

Preseason Rankings: Fans and the National media expect great things this season. Alabama opened as the #2 team in the country in both the Preseason AP poll and Coaches Poll. This is the highest Alabama Basketball has been ranked entering a season (previous best was #7 during the 90-91 season). KenPom ranks them at the #4 overall spot with the #1 Adjusted Offensive Efficiency and #30 Adjusted Defensive Efficiency. Joe Lunardi projects Alabama as a 1 seed in his “way too early” bracket. Strength of Schedule: Nate Oats has never shied away from competition and this year’s schedule is no different. Alabama is set to play 13 teams ranked in the Preseason top 25. They are set to play 2 of those ranked teams twice (Auburn and Kentucky). Alabama plays 4 more teams (Arkansas State, McNeese State, South Dakota State, and Mississippi State) that are expected to be in the tournament. Bama has already played two tournament teams in preseason exhibitions (Wake Forest and Memphis). Nate Oats Alabama Legacy: Nate Oats will be going into his 6th season with the Tide and has made the Tournament 4 of the 5 seasons. This offseason Oats commented that this is the most talented team that he has coached. His goals are simple: Win the SEC regular season, win the SEC tournament, and win the NCAA Tournament. Will Nate be able to repeat a Final 4 appearance from last year or will the tide fall short of expectations?

2024 Storylines:

How will Oat manage such a deep roster?: Alabama has a problem that most teams would love to have, the roster is full of talent. Nate Oats suggested redshirting some players as it will prove difficult to play 13 guys every game. They have a combination of experience (5 5th year players and 1 senior) and young talent (# 2 recruiting class and 3 sophomores). The 2024 recruiting class includes 5-star Derrion Reed and 3 top 50 4-stars. The 2023 class of sophomores includes Tourney breakouts Jarin Stevenson and Mo Dioubate. Alabama added 4 highly productive transfers in the 2024 class to join this squad. With this much talent, how will the rotation look once this team is healthy? Nate will likely play a big rotation early in the season until he can figure out what lineups produce the best. Chris Youngblood will be sidelined with an injury until mid-December. Youngblood is a projected starter, so his absence will give other guys an opportunity to step up and secure a spot in the rotation. The lineups will change throughout the season depending on who we play. There is enough depth to play big/small lineups depending on the opponent. Alabama has the roster/talent to match up with any team in the country.

How will Alabama handle an extremely tough out of conference schedule?: Alabama opens up with 3 mid-major foes that have 2 projected conference winners (Arkansas State coached by former Alabama assistant Bryan Hodgens and McNeese State coached by former LSU coach Will Wade). After that, Alabama plays @ #14 Purdue and Illinois in the CM Newton Classic in Birmingham. While unranked, Illinois made it to the Elite 8 last season. Once Thanksgiving week rolls around, Alabama will play in the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas facing #4 Houston, #25 Rutgers, and Notre Dame. Soon after, Alabama will play at #9 North Carolina in the SEC/ACC challenge and #15 Creighton at home. Alabama finishes off the non-conference schedule with 2 mid-major home games and an away game @ North Dakota state (homecoming game for Grant Nelson’s). This team will be battle tested and has the opportunity to enter conference play with some major wins on their resume. Alabama will look to maintain their top rank by winning a majority of these games. Worst case, Bama loses a majority of these tough games, yet the team will have valuable experience for March. Regardless of the outcome, Nate Oats will put this team in a great position to compete in March.

Will the defense improve with new coaching?: Last year, Alabama ranked #111 in defense leaving room for improvement. Oats is known for a high scoring offensive team and he preaches “Blue Collar Basketball” which emphasizes defensive intensity. Last year Alabama allowed 81.2 points per game and had 3 teams score over 100 points against them. Many top college basketball analysts wrote off Alabama at the beginning of the tournament due to this but something changed. Alabama played excellent defense throughout the tournament leading them to the Final Four. This offseason, Oats replaced former assistant coach Austin Claunch with Brian Adams. Adams is a former college player and has 10 plus years of NBA coaching experience. His last job was an assistant coach for the Detroit Pistons. Oats said at this year’s SEC media day that when interviewing coaches, he told them “If you can’t coach a top-5 defense in the country, don’t bother applying.” Latrell Wrightsell said at media day that practices have changed with Adams coaching and the team is emphasizing defense throughout practice. Will Adams be able to turn around the defense this year? If he does, this team will be dangerous.

Exhibition Results:

Wake Forest Exhibition Game: Alabama defeated Wake Forest 98-77 on 10/18/2024 at Boutwell Auditorium in Birmingham. Auburn transfer Aden Holloway led Alabama with 20 points (5/12 from 3) and Mark Sears added 19 (4/7 from 3). True freshman Labaron Philon had 13 (3/6 from 3) in his first game with the Tide. Even with 4 players not playing, Alabama had a deep rotation and everyone got a chance to play. Alabama out rebounded Wake Forest 44-35 with a 14-6 advantage on the offensive glass. The offense was able to execute Oat’s up-tempo style to a tee. The defense seemed much improved but Alabama still needs to limit turnovers. Overall, this was a great showing in the exhibition game. True Freshmen Derrion Reid got the Hard Hat award. Also worth noting Davin Cosby (Alabama Transfer to Wake Forest) received his Final 4 ring before tip-off.

Memphis Exhibition Game: Alabama defeated Memphis 96-88 on 10/28/24 at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville. Mark Sears led the way with 20 points (3/5 from 3) followed by True Freshman Labaron Philon (2/5 from 3). Cliff Omoruyi had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. The Tide opened up hot offensively leading 49-29 at half. Memphis didn’t back down and cut the lead to 6 points late in the game. The Tide held on to win by 8. Fouls did not count in this match so several players on each team had over 5 fouls. This led to 96 free throws attempts. The Tide shot 30-48 from the charity line, something to watch as Bama Hoops has historically struggled at the line. Turnovers were a major problem as they seem to have regressed since the exhibition with Wake Forest. Nate Oats said the start of the second half was “Immature” and that this was a good learning lesson moving forward. Labaron Philon won the hard hat award.

UNC Asheville Preview (Bama -27.5): The Bulldogs finished last season 22-12 and 12-4 in the Big South, placing second in the Conference. They eventually lost in the Big South conference tournament to Longwood who received the NCAA tournament bid. Last season the bulldogs averaged 78.9 ppg (51st) and allowed 73.1 ppg (218th). Their top scoring player Drew Pember graduated but Coach Mike Morrell said that he is excited about his returning players: Fletcher Abee returns as the veteran leader of the team; Josh Banks was an All-Conference player and the team’s second leading scorer; Greg Gantt is expected to return from injury. Mike Morrell also noted that there are 8 new players (6 transfers and 2 freshmen) so this team is combining experience with young talent. Due to Hurricane Hellene, the bulldogs haven’t been able to practice at home and relocated to Charlotte.

Bamarosternewsjdq prediction: 92-72

As always, reachout with any questions or comments. If you know someone who would like to join, send their email my way.

-Jake