Bucky McMillan addresses ongoing controversy around facing Charles Bediako with Alabama

The most polarizing player in College Basketball, Alabama‘s Charles Bediako, will play in his fourth game back with the Crimson Tide against Texas A&M Wednesday night. In three games, Bediako is averaging 11.0 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 1.0 block.

Bediako’s eligibility case against the NCAA will finally see the inside of a court room Friday in Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court. Bediako, 23, is seeking preliminary and permanent injunctive relief after the NCAA previously ruled the former NBA G-League player ineligible to return to college basketball last month.

Despite that NCAA ruling, Bediako is set to appear again in Wednesday’s game against the Aggies after a prior judge granted the 7-footer a temporary restraining order on Jan. 20 that effectively deemed him eligible until his case could be heard in court. That case takes place Friday, when Bediako’s legal team will attempt to convince Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Pruet why the Crimson Tide center deserves injunctive relief against the NCAA enforcing its eligibility rules.

Bucky McMillan plans to block out Bediako noise, focus on Texas A&M

Prior to tip-off, Texas A&M‘s Bucky McMillan touched on Bediako, but remains more focused on his team and his players.

“It’s different,” McMillan said with a smile. “It is what it is. We’ve got to block out the noise and whatever people think about any of their players that are playing or not playing. It doesn’t impact our team. Our team has to be about us playing the best we can play.

“Whoever they line up across from us is who they line up across from us. I think that when we play well, we play well. I don’t want to get too consumed with their good players and what they’ve got, as much as I care about our players and playing good basketball.”

Midway through SEC play, Texas A&M sits atop the conference with a 7-1 record. Most of these wins, however, have come against teams near the bottom of the conference. The meat of its SEC schedule begins Wednesday, starting with Alabama. Following that game, McMillan’s team will face contender such as No. 17 Florida, No. 15 Vanderbilt, and No. 21 Arkansas in the near future.

Texas A&M player says Bediako ‘shouldn’t be playing’

Texas A&M forward Rashaun Agee was also asked about Bediako heading towards the game, and he was much more open about his feelings than McMillan.

“We talk about it, we laugh about it,” Agee said. “You know, he shouldn’t be playing. But at the end of the day, it ain’t got nothing to do with us. We just know he ain’t the key player. He’s a piece of the puzzle and now, we’ve got to go in and do our job.

“Of course, box him out. We know he can block shots. Keep him from doing what he do, shot fake him, and the rest of the pieces will fall into place. We’re really more so worried about the guards than the bigs because Alabama is a guard-heavy team.”

As long as Bediako is eligible, Alabama will continue to play him. While that could certainly change next week, he will play his fourth game back on Wednesday. Over its last three games, Alabama is 1-2 with losses to Tennessee (79-73) and No. 19 Florida (100-77).

On3’s Alex Byington contributed to this article.