Alabama forward Dominick Welch remains 'doubtful' Friday night vs Liberty

Alabama hoops will likely be without one of its veteran wings for Friday’s game against Liberty. According to College Basketball insider Jon Rothstein, St. Bonaventure transfer Dominick Welch is “doubtful” to play for the second straight game with an unspecified lower body injury.

Here was Rothstein’s report from Twitter, where he notes that the news came from head coach Nate Oats:

“Alabama’s Dominick Welch (lower body) remains doubtful for tonight’s game against Liberty, per Nate Oats. Transfer from St. Bonaventure. Averaged 12.3 PPG last season.”

Never good news to see a player out with injury. But no need to rush Welch back onto the court before the higher-stakes games get going.

As a player, Welch is a dream fit in the Nate Oats galaxy. He’s a multi-positional 6-5 wing that shots twice as many threes as twos — and shoots over 37% from deep on nearly 700 attempts across his career. Just last season, he tossed up over seven three-point attempts per game, and made 37.4% of those. He’s a gunner who just got paired with one of the most three-happy coaches in the country. Match made in heaven between these two.

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Before coming to Alabama, Welch was apart of what was supposed to be a St. Bonaventure super-team. The Bonnies started the same four players for three straight years, from 2020-2022. They earned a 9-seed in 2021, then returned everybody for 2022 and were a consensus preseason top 25 team last fall. Alas, the season just fell flat. The team finished fifth in the A-10 and Welch and the other three longtime starters all bolted for power five schools afterward.

Welch is in his fifth year of college ball and his first without the Bonnies. Excited to see his shooting pop in this lineup once he returns. Which is hopefully very soon.