No. 20 Alabama may have one key guard back in the mix Monday night, but the Crimson Tide still have another health question hanging over them as Oakland comes to Tuscaloosa.
Nate Oats said Aden Holloway will be available for the matchup after serving a five-game suspension that began with a March arrest on drug charges later dismissed. Holloway’s return gives Alabama a proven scoring threat right away, after he averaged 16.8 points and 3.8 assists last season and led the team by hitting 43.8% of his 3-point tries. His 74 made 3s ranked third on the squad.
The bigger uncertainty is Amari Allen, who sprained his right ankle late in Friday’s 101-86 win over Arkansas State. Allen had just put together the fifth triple-double in program history, finishing with 16 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists, but his status for Monday has not been settled. He said after the game that he expected to play.
“We’ve got a big game on Monday we’ve got to get ready for,” Allen said after Friday’s win. “Just shake it off. I feel fine right now.”
Oats said the staff will keep working with team trainer Clarke Holter over the next few days.
“We’ll have Holloway back, so if Amari can’t go, good time to get Holloway eligible to play,” Oats told reporters. “Would be great to have them both, but we’ll have to see what Amari can get done with Clarke on the rehab these next three days.”
Allen has taken on a bigger role this season, and the numbers show it. Through two games, he ranks second on Alabama in scoring at 14.0 points per game and leads the team with 8.5 rebounds.
Boise State transfer Drew Fielder is the team’s top scorer at 15.5. Allen’s 11 assists against Arkansas State were a career high, and his rebound total matched his best.
For Allen, the expanded responsibility has come with a learning curve, but he says it fits.
“I like it a lot,” Allen said. “It’s my first time at this level to be a primary ball-handler.
There’s going to be a lot of learning moments and some mistakes (will happen), but I love it. I feel I’m getting better at it day by day.”
Oakland arrives with a brutal travel schedule already wearing on it. The Golden Grizzlies are in the fourth stop of a five-game trip that started with an 84-68 loss at Michigan on Nov. 2, then continued with back-to-back West Coast games: an 81-63 defeat at Stanford on Friday and a 90-67 loss to UC Santa Barbara on Saturday.
After that latest loss, Greg Kampe laid out the grind ahead: a bus ride to Los Angeles, a red-eye flight to Atlanta that was scheduled to land at 7:15 a.m. Sunday, then another bus trip to Tuscaloosa. He said the team would sleep in the afternoon and practice Sunday night.
Against UC Santa Barbara, Oakland was outrebounded 35-25 and gave up 18 3-pointers, matching the school record on 29 attempts. Still, Kampe didn’t sound ready to bury the effort.
“Other than the final score, I was pretty pleased with our effort,” Kampe said, pointing to the back-to-back games. “What we did was kind of insane. I am exhausted, and I didn’t play. ...
“It is what it is and I think we competed, but our bodies weren’t where they should be and did not help them get open as the game went on.”
Nassim Mashhour scored 19 points and hit four 3-pointers, while Chris Fields Jr. added 13 points and 11 rebounds for his second double-double of the season. Fields leads Oakland in both scoring at 18.0 points per game and rebounding at 9.0.
And the road doesn’t let up after Alabama. Kampe said the Golden Grizzlies will wake up Tuesday at 4 a.m., bus back to Atlanta and then fly to Idaho for Wednesday’s game at Boise State.
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For a team trying to sort out depth and roles down the stretch, the timing matters as much as the injuries themselves. Alabama has been forced to keep waiting on two players who were expected to be part of the conversation, and the uncertainty around their availability lingers even as the season moves on. The encouraging part is that both backs are still in the mix, but the next step depends on how quickly they can get back to full strength. [Read more 🡒]