Nate Oats 'prays' Brandon Miller will be available for Alabama against Maryland in March Madness

Alabama men’s basketball head coach Nate Oats on Friday said he “prays” that star freshman Brandon Miller will be available to play for the Crimson Tide in their Round of 32 matchup against Maryland on Saturday. Miller played through a groin injury and didn’t score as Alabama defeated Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the Round of 64.

Miller leads Alabama in both scoring (19.1 points per game) and rebounding (8.2 per game) and is the centerpiece on a team that secured the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. As Oats put it on Friday, there is no guarantee that Miller is in the lineup on Saturday.

“I think he’s smart enough to know if he can go or not and help us. If he can’t, the good thing about our team is we’ve got a lot of depth. … we’ve got different options. Pray we don’t have to go to all those,” Oats said. “I hope he’s good enough and healthy enough to play based on how much work him and Clark are putting in, I think he will. But it definitely would limit us. Shoot, he might be the best player in the country. It would be nice if we had him.”

Miller, even if he isn’t fully healthy, but able to play, would be a formidable matchup for any opponent. Oats is happy to have even a limited Miller in the lineup.

“Even if he’s not 100 percent, he’s still a pretty good player at 75, 80 percent,” Oats said.

In the tournament opener for Alabama, Miller was held scoreless and as the Crimson Tide cruised to a blowout, he was spending most of his time on the bench getting some treatment.

Miller was having his left thigh tended to by trainers on the bench, and CBS sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson noted he also had a heating pad on it at various points.

“Brandon Miller scoreless in this one and it’s been extended minutes on the bench, and we might not see him because of the score right now, but something of note he has had a heating pad on that left thigh for most of this half,” Wolfson reported on the air. “Certainly something to watch. Alabama telling me it’s not something to be concerned with, but it is something certainly for us to keep an eye on.”

All eyes will be on Miller and his health with a trip to the Sweet 16 on the line.