Alabama Just Landed A Recruiting Win Nate Oats Really Needed

Alabama secures a major win with the commitment of top-ranked 2027 combo guard Chase Lumpkin, setting the stage for future success.

Alabama basketball has its first commit in the 2027 class, and it’s a pretty major one.

Four-star guard Chase Lumpkin, a 6-foot-3, 190-pound combo guard from McEachern High School in Powder Springs, Georgia, announced his pledge to Nate Oats and the Crimson Tide on Wednesday, Sept. 9. The report first came from On3’s Joe Tipton and was later confirmed by Alabama’s NIL collective.

Lumpkin comes in as the No. 26 player in the nation for 2027, according to the source material. In the 247Sports Composite, he checks in as the sixth-best player at his position and the No. 3 player in Georgia.

Alabama won out over a strong final group that included Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisville, Michigan and USC. He had also drawn interest from other top programs, with Arkansas, Kentucky and Louisville among the schools mentioned in his commitment decision.

The Crimson Tide’s 2027 class had been waiting for a true restart after Anderson Diaz, Alabama’s previous lone commitment, reclassified in July to join the program for the 2026-27 season. Lumpkin now becomes the first real building block for that cycle.

There’s plenty for Alabama to like in his profile. Lumpkin has a 6-foot-8 wingspan and showed he can fill it up, averaging 17 points per game on the Nike EYBL circuit over the summer. Scouts view him as a true combo guard with a lot of versatility and even more upside once some mechanical issues are cleaned up.

His commitment also followed an official visit during the weekend of Alabama football’s home opener win against ECU on Saturday, Sept. 5.

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