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Nate Oats provides Brandon Miller injury update moments before tip-off vs. San Diego State

On3-Social-Profile_GRAYby: On3 Staff Report03/24/23
Brandon Miller, Alabama Crimson Tide forward
Alabama forward Brandon Miller dribbles the ball in a game against Texas A&M Corpus Christi in the NCAA Tournament on March 16, 2023. (Alex Slitz / Getty Images)

As Alabama gets set to tip off against San Diego State in the first round of Sweet 16 games on Friday night, coach Nate Oats provided a brief pre-game update on the Brandon Miller injury.

Miller suffered a groin injury in the first weekend of the tournament, but he’s been able to play through it.

“Our trainers said he’s going to be better this weekend than last weekend,” Oats said before the game. “He obviously wasn’t 100% last weekend, but he wasn’t bad. It’s going to be closer to 100%, still not quite there. But 80% of Brandon’s a pretty good player.”

Miller’s impact was relatively limited in Alabama’s opening NCAA Tournament game against Texas A&M Corpus Christi. The star player failed to score in the game, going 0-for-5 from the floor.

In the Round of 32 game against Maryland, Miller still wasn’t in great form but managed to put 19 on the score sheet.

So if the Brandon Miller injury isn’t bothering him much that would certainly be a huge boon for the Crimson Tide. But Oats provided some other keys, as well.

“We’re going to have to get stops and rebounds,” he said. “If we can get stops and rebounds I think we can run in transition. If we’re taking the ball out of the net all the time they’re going to have their defense set, it’s going to be hard to get in transition.”

San Diego State is a big, physical team and likes to bang on the boards. Alabama has to be ready for that, Oats said.

“I think rebounding’s going to be huge tonight, our defensive presence is going to be big. We’re not a team that tries to speed it up on the defensive end so they’re going to want to play slow on offense and we’re just going to have to keep guarding, play to the end of the shot clock, force tough shots.

“If we can get an early lead that certainly helps. It’s harder to play slow from behind. So I think great start out of the gate, great rebounding game are going to be big keys for us.”

The game tipped off at 6:30 p.m. ET with a broadcast on TBS.