Alabama leads the nation in scoring — and off-the-court drama. They played a former pro — Charles Bediako — for five games before the NCAA stepped in, and now their second-leading scorer, Aden Holloway, gets arrested right before the NCAA Tournament. Can they put it all behind them on Friday?
TAMPA, Fla. — It's safe to say that no team has dealt with more off-the-court drama this year than Alabama. And it's really not even close.
The high-flying Crimson Tide, who lead the nation in scoring with 91.7 points per game, also might be first in the country in bad headlines. They've done so much crazy stuff all season, so much so that even their own SEC commissioner, Greg Sankey, has fought against them.
Rolled Tide.
The midseason drama all circled around 7-foot center Charles Bediako, a former Alabama player who turned pro and then decided to come back to to play college basketball, defying NCAA rules. He got a Tuscaloosa judge to say it was OK, and he played five games for the Crimson Tide.
Most everyone around college basketball was incensed that he played, further proof that this sport has become the Wild, Wild West. First the transfer portal and NIL, and now players defying the NCAA rule book, knowing one friendly judge can get them back on the court.
Sankey even sided with the NCAA when they appealed the local judge's decision. They won, and Bediako was declared ineligible. He continued to fight in the courts, but finally gave up last week.
With all that drama behind them, the Crimson Tide — a No. 4 seed in the Midwest Region who's playing in Tampa on Friday and, hopefully, Sunday — thought they were good to go entering the postseason.
But that didn't last long.
Last week, junior guard Aden Holloway — Alabama's second-leading scorer at 16.8 points per game — was arrested in Tuscaloosa, charged with possession of more than two pounds of marijuana. The school has taken action, and he hasn't practiced with the team.
But this is Alabama, so he hasn't yet been ruled out for this weekend. Coach Nate Oats discussed his situation on Thursday.
"You know what, I'm not sure where that's all going to go. We'll kind of address things as they come up,'' Oats told reporters at Benchmark Internation Arena in Tampa. "For right now, the team is just preparing to play with who's at practice, and he's obviously not there. We'll prepare to play without him and address that matter if it comes up.''
Alabama plays No. 13 seed Hofstra on Friday at 3:15 p.m., the second game of the afternoon session. Hofstra is 24-10 and won the CAA Tournament last week. They're a guard-led team and has won 11 of its past 12 games.
Alabama could certainly use Holloway, so it's going to be interesting how this will play out. This a a serious legal situation, but Oats is backing his player, and doing all he can for him.
"Yeah, I've met with him in person, talked to him on the phone multiple times,'' Oats said. "Look, I'm an adult. I've made mistakes. We all have things we'd like to do differently. Now is not the time to ignore a kid that you've built a real relationship with. Now is the time he needs more love from the adults in his life than at any point.
"When I got into coaching, way back when I first got out of college and I was a Division III assistant making no money and then I went to a high school job in the Detroit area for 11 years, I basically coached for no money for 16 years, so you'd better be doing it for the right reasons because you're losing an awful lot of money spending all the hours, money, time traveling to kids for official visits.
"Now I've got to remind myself I'm a high school coach that's caught some breaks up here (at Alabama). But I don't want to lose why I got into this thing in the first place. You get into it to help impact young men's lives. Well, if you disappear when they make a mistake, I'm not so sure that's a genuine relationship you've built.''
Oats likes to treat his players like family, and that won't change when they're in trouble either, he said.
"I've got three daughters. They've made mistakes. You don't disappear on them when they need your help,'' Oats said. "I won't be disappearing on him. I talked to him (Wednesday) morning on the phone. I talked to him the night before that. I've talked to him every day so far. I'm going to continue to talk to him, love him, help him through this, and we'll see where it all takes us.''
Oats said that if they have to go without Holloway, they can deal with it. He said Alabama has plenty of depth at the guard position, and multiple players have stepped up throughout the year.
He's also not about to look past mid-major Hofstra, because Oats was a mid-major success story himself at Buffalo become coming to Alabama. He won NCAA Tournament games in two different years, beating No. 4 seed Arizona as a No. 13 seed in 2018, and beating Arizona State in 2019.
Speedy Claxton is Hofstra's coach, and he's a former Hofstra star who played 10 years in the NBA. He knows the game. And he knows what's going through Oats' head, too.
"I have great respect for Nate. He comes from the mid-major ranks. He was at Buffalo, had great success,'' Claxton said. "I know he's not going to overlook us because he had success when he was at Buffalo. being in
"I truly respect what he's done at Alabama. He's done an unbelievable job there. Definitely looking forward to matching up against him. Honestly, I want our guys to embrace everything, and enjoy the moment because this is truly special for myself, the program, the university, the community. It's been a long time since we've been here. I want my guys to embrace the moment.''