Nate Oats acknowledges need to trim down Alabama's rotation

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — After losing Latrell Wrightsell to a season-ending injury and adding two new players to the fold coming off an injury and a redshirt, Alabama sits with 11 available players as non-conference play winds down.

In the Crimson Tide’s last game against Creighton, head coach Nate Oats had given all 11 players minutes by the middle of the first half. Every player played at least four minutes, and nine of them played double-digit minutes.

Alabama now has a bit of a break in the schedule, coming out on the other side of its 7-game stretch against high-major teams in non-conference play. The Crimson Tide has three games left until SEC play starts, all three of them against mid-major teams that Alabama should be heavily favored over.

Oats acknowledged that he likely can’t keep playing an 11-man rotation once league play rolls around, but he wants to keep playing everyone that he can over the next three games to figure out how to properly allocate those minutes moving forward.

“It’s hard playing 11 guys. We’ve got to get the rotation trimmed down,” Oats said. “I’m not ready to trim it down yet. We’ll probably play three more games where we’re kind of going with 11 guys, and we’ll have to figure it out from there.”

After losing Wrightsell, Alabama added two players to the rotation. Transfer guard Houston Mallette came off his redshirt against North Carolina and has played in two games, averaging 8.5 minutes per game and 3.0 points in his two appearances. He’s made both 3-point attempts he’s taken since coming off his redshirt, and looks like he can be a huge help to this team from a shooting perspective.

The other addition was Chris Youngblood, a transfer guard who missed the first nine games recovering from ankle surgery and made his season debut in the last game against Creighton. In that game he played 16 minutes, scoring five points on 2-of-6 shooting.

Oats noted how these next three games will be very important for getting Youngblood back into playing shape.

“Obviously we’ve got to get Chris playing a few more minutes and continue to knock the rust off him. We know what he’s capable of and what we need out of him. He’s a great kid. I thought he had a good practice today,” Oats said. “The issue is, it’s not just the ankle, it’s when you don’t play for 6-plus months or whatever he’s been out, everything’s got to get in shape. Your conditioning’s got to get back up to speed, other part of your body, your knee, your hip’s got to be able to move, all of it.

“We’re trying to get him back up to speed and focused all this on his ankle, but some of this stuff can’t be worked basketball wise until his ankle was better. Now that his ankle’s pretty much better we’ve got to get everybody else in shape. It’s gonna take him a little bit to get back, so we’re gonna try to get him some more minutes.”

Youngblood was expected to compete for a starting role in the offseason before his injury, and how he progresses in the coming weeks will be vital for figuring out his role on this team now that he’s healthy again.

The upcoming schedule has shaken out well for Alabama, and the next three games are a great opportunity not only to pick up some wins, but to figure out how these new pieces fit in with the existing roster and for them to be able to mesh ahead of a remarkably difficult SEC schedule.

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