As Nate Oats said Monday, the mini bye week couldn’t have come at a better time.
More than anything right now, Alabama men’s basketball needs rest. This team has struggled to stay healthy throughout the season, and the last few weeks have been no different.
So without a midweek game this week, there’s extra time to rest up. And Oats and company are taking advantage.
Oats gave his players Sunday and Monday off after defeating Oklahoma on the road on Saturday.
“We’ll get back in there tomorrow,” Oats said Monday in Birmingham after speaking to the Birmingham Tipoff Club. “Even with that, we’ve got multiple guys who’ve got nagging injuries. We’re not going to try to practice them as hard as maybe we would have practiced them.”
In the win over the Sooners, Alabama was without Latrell Wrightsell Jr. and Keitenn Bristow. Taylor Bol Bowen played, but he was still dealing with a hand injury.
Against Mississippi State earlier in the week, Alabama only had eight scholarship players available.
In addition to rest, Crimson Tide players who are dealing with injuries have some other tasks they can, and will, do.
“They’ve obviously got to get with (trainer) Clarke (Holter) every day,” Oats said. “Yesterday. Today. They’ve got to figure out exactly what’s wrong with them. We have multiple guys seeing specialists. Just let you know exactly what’s wrong, let’s get a treatment plan, and then we’ve got to find ways to get better at the stuff we need to get better at without maybe practicing super long or super hard.”
Oats also stressed the importance of mental reps.
“Get reps maybe not going live but walk through to try and get healthy,” Oats said. “This break couldn’t come at a better time than us. We’ve got to use it correctly to A. get better, and even more importantly, what will help us get better is getting healthy while getting better, if that makes sense.”
Next up, No. 17 Alabama will face Tennessee on Saturday (7:30 p.m. CT, ESPN) at Coleman Coliseum.