Nate Oats weighing various options for final spot in Alabama's starting lineup

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Through nine games this season, Alabama has already started four different starting lineups.

From opening night the starting lineup was already different than expected, with assumed starters Grant Nelson and Latrell Wrightsell coming off the bench on a minutes restriction in the first two games. Alabama head coach Nate Oats continued to tinker with the lineup over the next few games, but it seemed like with the emergence of Labaron Philon, he’d finally settled on a lineup.

The starting unit of Philon, Wrightsell, Nelson, Mark Sears and Cliff Omoruyi started the most games of any unit this year so far at four, and looked to be the team’s go-to lineup moving forward. But another wrench got thrown in that plan, with Wrightsell suffering a season-ending injury and leaving an open spot to fill.

During Oats’ press conference on Friday, he discussed how he plans to handle the starting lineup moving forward, beginning by suggesting that four of the starters will be unchanged for the most part going forward.

“Some years we’ve had rotating starters, some years we’ve had the same five for the bulk of the year. We’ve got some guys that I think will be in there most nights,” Oats said. “I think you’ll see Sears, Labaron, Grant, Cliff in there like usual.”

As far as that last spot, there are a couple of solid options. Jarin Stevenson started the last game against North Carolina and played well, and has started multiple games this year as an oversized three. He’s played much better the last few games after breaking out of his early-season shooting slump, and provides a size mismatch for opponents.

Derrion Reid started the first two games at the three spot this year, having great size and excellent defensive instincts if Oats needs a stopper for an opponent’s dominant wing scorer.

Then there’s Chris Youngblood, a grad transfer from South Florida, who was expected to compete for a starting spot in the preseason before having ankle surgery, which cause him to miss the first month of the season. He’s expected to make his season debut against Creighton tonight.

“We’ll see where we go. We started Jarin (against North Carolina) because I thought he was a good matchup on RJ Davis with his size and length, I thought he did a great job. Some of this stuff will be determined by matchups,” Oats said. “Probably not gonna start Chris this first game, but Chris is gonna play, Houston (Mallette)‘s gonna play, Jarin’s gonna play, Derrion’s gonna play. We’ll see Aiden Sherell, Mo Dioubate, he’ll play.”

Oats could also go back to starting three guards like he’s been known to do in the past, given how well Aden Holloway has played off the bench combined with the additions of Youngblood off the injury and Mallette burning his redshirt to given some more guard options off the bench.

“We’ve got plenty of options, whether we go with three guards with Holloway, obviously he’s playing really well. You have that option to play three guards again,” Oats said. “We lost that without Wrightsell, but you’ve got Sears, Labaron, Holloway, Chris, even Houston. You can play three guards, you can also go big and play Jarin, Derrion at the three, and stay pretty big at the four. “

Basically what Oats is saying is everyone on this team can play, and there are plenty of options for the starting lineup that can many times weighed based on the matchup in front of them. Depth and versatility is a major strength of this team, and we’ll get to see that unfold in how Oats chooses his starters each game.

“We’ve got really good options, I’m not sure where we’ll end up starting, but we’ll talk through as a staff,” Oats said.

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