Nate Oats expects Alabama to be at full strength for season opener
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Alabama head coach Nate Oats provided updates on two injured guards, Mark Sears and Davin Cosby, who missed the Crimson Tide’s pair of preseason tune-ups.
“We should have everybody available on Monday,” said Oats following Friday’s practice. “Sears and Davin didn’t play in the Wake Forest exhibition. They’ve been foregoing practice pretty much all week. As long as everybody stays healthy these next two practices, we should have all 12 guys available to play Monday.”
Sears made an immediate impact last year at Alabama after returning to his home state. The Ohio transfer started every game and was the team’s second-leading scorer behind Brandon Miller. The Muscle Shoals native averaged 12.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game and shot 40.6 percent from the field but has been dealing with a groin injury.
Cosby joined the Crimson Tide in January as an early enrollee and practiced with the team, but he did not play during Alabama’s 2023-24 season, redshirting for his first collegiate semester. A four-star guard out of Richmond, Va., Cosby was the nation’s No. 117 overall player and No. 18 shooting guard in the class of 2022, according to the On3 Industry Rankings.
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Neither player saw the court in the Tide’s two preseason games – an 85-81 loss to TCU in a closed scrimmage in Birmingham and an 88-80 loss to Wake Forest in a charity exhibition in Winston-Salem, N.C. Two previously injured UA players, Mouhamed Dioubate and Mohamed Wague, did play in the latter, returning to game action after offseason surgeries.
“It’ll be good to see Aaron (Estrada) and Mark play together in the backcourt. Can they feed off each other?” Oats said. “Latrell (Wrightsell) has been good. Rylan (Griffen) has been a lot better. I think our backcourt will be much improved from what we saw in the scrimmage and the exhibition with everybody being healthy.
“And then our frontcourt versatility and depth – Wague’s starting to come around. He’s only been able to practice full-go for a couple weeks now. But him and (Nick) Pringle will both be able to play, and we’ll be able to go small with Grant (Nelson) playing in there some and even Jarin (Stevenson) maybe playing at the five some.”
Alabama will play host to Morehead State on Monday, Nov. 6 (7 p.m. CT on SEC Network+).
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