Labaron Philon on Alabama teammates transferring to SEC schools: 'It's no friends once we step onto the court'

At the near last minute, Alabama got surprising news from point guard Labaron Philon. He announced a return to Tuscaloosa for the 2025-26 season instead of staying in the 2025 NBA Draft. Great news for head coach Nate Oats as expectations for next year’s team skyrocket.

Philon now gets another opportunity to go up against some of college basketball’s best due to Oats’ scheduling philosophy. However, Philon is looking forward to some matchups against former teammates within the SEC. Still friendly now, once on the court, competitive spirits will come out.

“Probably all my teammates that transferred to other SEC schools,” Philon said. “It’s going to be really fun. We still all talk to each other to this day. But those guys at different schools, pretty sure they’ll be trying to take our heads off too. It’s no friends once we step onto the court.”

Alabama saw four guys leave this offseason via the NCAA transfer portal. Two of them are still in the SEC. Mo Dioubate will suit up for the Kentucky Wildcats while Derrion Reid landed in Norman with the Oklahoma Sooners. Both teams will go up against Alabama at some point.

No dates have been released by the SEC quite yet. But we do know Oklahoma will host Alabama while Kentucky makes its way to Coleman Coliseum. Outside of a standard rivalry game, Philon will have those two games circled on his calendar.

Philon might wind up having his former teammates guarding him once on the court. Both Dioubate and Reid are known for their defensive abilities. And as Philon is Alabama’s primary ball handler, Mark Pope and Porter Moser might be inclined to put somebody familiar with the second-year player on him. Possibly another fantastic layer to this situation.

Since Oats took over, Alabama has been one of the SEC’s better teams. Multiple conference championships, both regular season and tournament, have been earned. Philon, to this point, has not been a part of one. The goal moving forward is to certainly win some hardware during his college career. Matching what the Crimson Tide two years ago in reaching the Final Four would be a fantastic accomplishment to have as well.

A couple of old friends will be trying their hardest to make sure Alabama loses that particular game. Based on what Philon said Tuesday, he may have a little extra juice facing both Kentucky and Oklahoma.