Alabama’s basketball season was already off to an up-and-down start on the court when it took another twist last week.
Senior starting guard John Petty and junior forward James Rojas, a top bench player, were both not with the team in Coleman Coliseum when it faced East Tennessee State in its non-conference finale last Tuesday. Coach Nate Oats called it a coach’s decision and declined to elaborate.
During his Monday afternoon news conference, Oats revealed that Rojas is dealing with a “slight wrist sprain, I guess you may say,” and also explained Petty has “practiced really hard the past three days” after the team returned from Christmas break.
Oats said Monday morning that both players should be available in Tuesday night’s SEC opener against Ole Miss.
“They’re both available to play, provided that they’re both healthy,” Oats said. “I think the attitude’s been great. I think Petty’s been really, really good in practice. I’m actually proud of how hard he’s gone. He’s gone really hard.
“They’re in with us. We’ve had great conversations after Christmas. We’re ready to go. I’m ready to use them however we can to help us win games.”
Petty, a preseason first-team all-SEC selection, is averaging 12.0 points per game -- third-most on the team -- but ranks sixth in three-point percentage. He is 4-of-24 in the past four games in which he’s played.
“Hopefully we can get Petty playing at the level he was playing in SEC play last year, because I thought he was one of the best players in the conference,” Oats said Monday. “We need him to be that for us. I think he wants to be that for us. I think he’s been great. I think his attitude’s been unbelievable these last three days in practice. We’re gonna put him in early and hopefully he plays well for us.”
Here are a few other notes as Alabama (5-3) meets the Rebels (5-1) at 8 p.m. CT Tuesday:
-- Oats said Monday that Jahvon Quinerly, who was taken out of the starting lineup Dec. 19 against Western Kentucky because of lackluster defensive play, needs consistency on the defensive end. “I think Jahvon’s got that [toughness], he’s just got to be convinced of the importance of the defensive end every time,” Oats said. “I tell him when he’s necessarily not guarding like we want him to, it’s not due to a lack of toughness. He has the toughness in him. It’s just is he going to bring it? Is he going to have the focus that’s necessary on every possession down? That’s more where we’re working with him: staying locked in, staying focused on every possession down.”
-- Oats said during preseason camp that he wanted to pare his rotation down to seven or eight players by conference play, but acknowledged Monday he might need to keep his numbers higher. “I’ll say this: we’re a lot deeper than we were last year, which is good,” Oats said. “But sometimes having 10, 11 guys that you can play, you don’t settle in on your 7- or 8-man rotation as quickly. We still haven’t settled in on that, to be honest with you. I don’t know -- we may still play 11 guys [Tuesday] night. ... I think there’s a few guys that are going to play heavy minutes that we’ve kind of established. We’re still looking for different guys. We may start a different starting lineup [Tuesday] night than we’ve started all year. We haven’t settled in on a starting rotation yet. We haven’t settled in on a 7-, 8-, 9-man rotation yet. We’re just still trying to play some guys.” Oats noted the rotation might need to stay larger because of COVID-19 and the potential to lose players and need players with game experience to step in.
-- Oats said Alabama practiced both Saturday and Sunday. “I thought the effort’s been good. We’ve just got to stay focused. Sometimes it’s not necessarily all-the-time effort, it’s losing focus, losing your assignment, messing your assignment up.”
-- Oats on his team entering conference play: “We’re not playing to the level I’d like to see us playing. I think a big part of that is we just haven’t been making shots. Everything looks better when you’re making shots. ... I think we’re getting fairly good shots. I don’t think it’s a shot-selection type of thing, for the most part. ... We’ve got to make them and pick it up on the glass on a more consistent basis.”
-- Sophomore guard Jaden Shackelford was named the SEC player of the week for his 26-point game against ETSU. “If we can get some of our other shooters going, I think our offense will look a lot better,” Oats said.
Mike Rodak is an Alabama beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @mikerodak.
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