Alabama heads into its season opener with a little less than a full deck.
Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats said Monday that the team is “a little banged up” and not completely healthy ahead of Tuesday’s matchup with Sam Houston at Coleman Coliseum. No.
20 Alabama is set to tip at 6:30 p.m. CT on SEC Network+.
“We’re not fully healthy,” Oats said. “Anderson (Diaz) and Cole (Cloer) are probably the two we’re keeping an eye on the most.”
Oats said both freshmen have taken on more in practice lately, but their status is still unsettled. After treatment and another look from athletic trainer Clarke Holter, Oats said his best guess is that Cloer has a chance to play while Diaz likely will not.
“They’ve both been having an increased workload in practice,” Oats said of Diaz and Cloer. “Based on today, and obviously will have to get feedback from (athletic trainer) Clarke (Holter) on what he thought after today, is after they get treatment today, tomorrow morning, my guess would be Cole is probable for tomorrow, and I would doubt Anderson is ready to go. Clarke really wants to make sure his elbow is full strength before we put him in and get that compromised again.”
Alabama is already set to be without Aden Holloway, who is serving a five-game suspension tied to a March arrest. That ban covers three exhibition games and two regular-season contests. Holloway was also suspended during last season’s NCAA tournament.
If Diaz is unavailable as expected, Alabama would be down two players. If Cloer also can’t go, the Tide would be short three.
That matters most in the backcourt, where Holloway and Diaz both sit out. In that scenario, Amari Allen is expected to start at point guard.
Diaz and Cloer are both freshmen in their first year with the program. Diaz is a 6-foot-2, 182-pound guard who did not appear in the preseason. Cloer, a 6-foot-8, 205-pound guard who enrolled at NC State but did not play last season, saw action in the exhibition games against Furman and Ole Miss.
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