Alabama currently leads 38-30 over Grand Canyon at halftime in the NCAA Tournament. However, in order to close it out in Spokane, they’ll have to do it without an important guard in their rotation.

Latrell Wrightsell Jr. will not return to the contest against the Lopes due to a head injury that he reaggravated. He hit his head after falling following a close out on three-pointer and did not return after going to the locker room. Word then came down with the broadcast then showing Wrightsell in street clothes in the back of the arena while meeting with his teammates.

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Alabama guard Latrell Wrightsell Jr. suffers head injury against Grand Canyon, ruled out for rest of game

"Rylan is gonna have to play more minutes. Sam Walters is gonna have to play more minutes," Nate Oats told TBS at halftime.

🔗: https://t.co/mglYRAilX2 pic.twitter.com/7Lj9FnkVx1

— Charlie Potter (@Charlie_Potter) March 25, 2024

As he headed into halftime, Nate Oats said it’s now up to some other players to step up without him.

“Rylan (Griffen) is gonna have to play more minutes. Sam Walters is gonna have to play more minutes,” Oats said to TBS. “Rylan’s been playing really well and I thought Sam was good in his minutes. We’ve gotta get him some more minutes so we can get Mark (Sears) and Aaron (Estrada) a little bit of a break.”

Wrightsell suffered a concussion towards the end of the regular season and missed four games because of it. He also left in Alabama’s first game in the tournament against Charleston due to a bloody nose.

Wrightsell started for the Tide against Grand Canyon this evening. In his minutes before exiting, he had two points but only after missing three of his first four shots, including both of his three-point attempts.

The Tide had earned their largest lead of the game heading into the break. Still, in order to secure their spot in the Sweet 16, ‘Bama will need some of their guards to take his place and play well in doing so.

Alabama bench, Nate Oats receive technical fouls

Alabama has had a decent first half in the second round of the NCAA Tournament against Grand Canyon. However, one aspect of the game has clearly frustrated the Crimson Tide with them having earned two technical fouls.

Early on in the game, Nate Oats earned a technical foul as he thought the officiating was not where he wanted it to be. He then spoke on the broadcast at the media timeout right after and expressed that displeasure on TBS.

"There are two different refs but they got to have consistency within the crew."

— Alabama head coach Nate Oats is NOT happy with the officiating early on 😬😬 pic.twitter.com/NfNRARukPu

— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) March 24, 2024

“Yeah, I mean the calls down here aren’t equal to the calls down there,” said Oats. “Like, we got soft, touch fouls and we get twice back to back. We get fouls and there’s no call.”

“They’re two different refs but they’ve got to have consistency within the crew,” Oats said. “So, yeah, I’m not happy with it.”

The second technical foul then came when Nick Pringle slammed a clipboard in response to another call later on in the first half.

Nick Pringle got a technical for slamming a clipboard on the bench pic.twitter.com/kNI2SwseJA

— Connor O'Gara (@cjogara) March 25, 2024