Alabama updates Jahvon Quinerly's injury status against Notre Dame
Minutes after Alabama star Jahvon Quinerly injured his left knee and heading into the locker room, he was seen on crutches in the tunnel, stuck watching his team take on Notre Dame in the NCAA Tournament’s Round of 64. He will not return to the game, according to an Alabama spokesman.
Quinerly went down after planting hard on his left leg on a baseline drive after he knee collapsed under him with no contact. They went into an impromptu media timeout, and by the time the broadcast returned to the court, Quinerly was taken straight to the locker room while limping despite help from two trainers on either side of him.
Nate Oats joined the broadcast for a moment to provide an update on his junior star, saying it was his left knee and that he doesn’t know the extent of Quinerly’s injury just yet.
The Crimson Tide will certainly miss Quinerly’s 14.3 points per game, which ranks second on Alabama this season. You can catch the remainder of Alabama and Notre Dame live on CBS.
Nate Oats criticizes players’ ability to focus, feels change in recent practices
The rollercoaster season for Alabama continues into the NCAA Tournament this week. As the Crimson Tide find out who they’ll play, Nate Oats offered some criticism of his players’ ability to focus — but added things feel different in practice lately.
Oats said he thinks Alabama has played well enough to win some big games throughout the season. But it comes down to execution, which is why he said the coaches have changed some aspects in practice to simplify things. However, he listed three things the Crimson Tide have to do to win in the big dance.
“I feel like if we take care of the ball, make our layups, make our free throws, we’ll be on alright on offense,” Oats told reporters. “On defense, we’ve got to be locked in. I think we’ve played hard enough to win these last two games, but we didn’t win them. Our offense hurt us a lot [with] turnovers. But [to] play hard and still not be locked in on the defensive end, flying around, making dumb mistakes and fouling still gets you a loss. So we’ve got to play really hard like we did, but we’ve got to add some layers of some execution on the defensive end and we’ve got to guard without fouling.”