Grant Nelson injury update: Nate Oats offers concerning news on star forward

Alabama lost star player Grant Nelson in the first half of Saturday’s SEC Tournament game against Florida. Questions instantly were asked about his status for the NCAA Tournament, especially since Nate Oats revealed it was a knee injury. Robert Morris is first up for Alabama, set to play on Friday.

Oats provided an update on Nelson Monday evening, saying the forward is “questionable” for the first-round matchup. The hope is to at least get him back for a potential Sunday game against Saint Mary’s or Vanderbilt.

“We need to get him healthy,” Oats said via Hey Coach. “Not sure he’ll be ready by Friday. We’re hoping, at a minimum, he’d be ready by Sunday with the possibility of Friday… We dodged one. It wasn’t anything too serious with his knee but will for sure be questionable for that first game on Friday.”

Nelson is Alabama’s second-leading scorer and rebounder entering the NCAA Tournament, going for 11.8 points and 7.6 boards per game. Florida was able to pull away on Saturday once he left the court due to an injury. The Gators’ size and outside shooting proved to be too much.

Oats knows if a Final Four run is going to be made, Nelson is going to be needed. Maybe not against Robert Morris on Thursday afternoon but as Alabama progresses.

Jay Bilas believes losing Grant Nelson will ‘limit’ Alabama in Final Four pursuit

After the NCAA Tournament bracket was revealed, Nate Oats was honest. His expectation moving forward is to make the Final Four. Alabama has a veteran group a year removed from getting there and their head coach expects to be in San Antonio the first weekend of April.

ESPN’s Jay Bilas is not totally convinced Alabama can get there. He picked Duke to win the East region and went on The Paul Finebaum Show to discuss the Crimson Tide on Mondy. Health is a big storyline moving forward, mainly Nelson.

“Alabama hasn’t played great lately by SEC standards,” Bilas said. “But what I would tell you is that if they were in the ACC playing that way, they would have won all but one of those games. I think Alabama is very, very capable when healthy… Of the guys they’ve been playing with all year, if Nelson is not healthy, that takes away their best shot blocker, their best rebounder, and maybe their best driver outside of Mark Sears. It would limit them.”