Nate Oats offers updates on injured forwards after Alabama's first practice
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Alabama men’s basketball held its first official practice ahead of the 2023-24 season on Monday, and all 12 scholarship players were spotted on the court.
However, two of the Crimson Tide’s eight new players did not participate in the 5-on-5 drills that local reporters were allowed to watch Monday morning. Freshman forward Mouhamed Dioubate was one after it was announced he had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee in June, while the other was West Virginia transfer Mohamed Wague, the last player to commit to UA.
Alabama head coach Nate Oats provided the latest on both players following the practice.
“They both had similar issues where when they came, something came up in the physical process,” Oats said. “I think Clarke (Holter) does a great job, our doctors, between Clarke and Dr. (Craig) Buettner and the orthopedic doctors up at Andrews, they do a really good job making sure that guys are healthy, and both those guys have something come up in the process.
“So, Dioubate had the knee surgery. He’s coming. He’s no longer the a brace. He’s doing basketball skill level – he’s still not doing anything live, but he’s able to pass, dribble, shoot, do some of that stuff and we’ll gradually get him in. They’re both a month, give or take, away from being in life stuff.
“Wague was something similar, too. He had a, kind of through the process, had a procedure done on his foot, so he was in a boot for a while. He’s out of a boot. The same thing, he’s able to do some ball-handling, shooting and all that, but nothing live yet. So hopefully within another month or so, give or take a little bit, we’ll have both those guys back and they’ll add to our frontcourt depth, which we need right now.”
With Dioubate and Wague watching from the side, the Crimson Tide was left with four healthy forwards for the first day of practice. They were split up onto both teams with Nick Pringle and Grant Nelson playing on the white team, while Sam Walters and Jarin Stevenson were on the crimson squad. Three of those four frontcourt pieces are new to the program.
Stevenson was a late add to the roster after he committed in late June and re-classified to the 2023 class. Like Dioubate and Wague, though, an injury was revealed after he enrolled.
“He came in and, similar to Mo and Mo, had to do a little rehab on an injury that we didn’t know about until he went through the physical process,” Oats said of Stevenson. “So he wasn’t able to get in live stuff immediately, and he didn’t get here until the second half of summer. So he’s only been going live really since we got back in the fall, kind of after Labor Day, for about a month. He’s been great, though.”
Alabama will tip off the 2023-24 season on Monday, Nov. 6, against Morehead State.
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