Alabama’s trend of fielding new lineups continues in Tampa for NCAAs
Alabama guard Aden Holloway gave the Tide a big presence from beyond the arc. They'll be missing him Friday in Tampa. ©Rogelio V.
Solis Alabama will begin a maddening March in the NCAA Tournament without guard Aden Holloway, who remains suspended following his arrest on felony drug charges. But that setback is mitigated, at least in part, by a season defined by more than a dozen different lineup changes and an ability to adapt. “The team is just preparing to play with who’s at practice,” said Alabama coach Nate Oats, whose team plays Hofstra on Friday in the first round at Benchmark Arena in Tampa.
“(Holloway’s) obviously not there, so we’ll prepare to play without him and adjust to that matter if it comes up. “I think we’ve done a good job, and I think we’ve still got plenty of depth. That’s the good thing with making sure with the way we play, we want to play fast.
We usually have pretty good depth. We had great depth in the backcourt, and I think we’ve had 13 different starting lineups, the reason being mainly injuries throughout the course of the year. ...
This team is more equipped to handle somebody being out. We’ve had more game-time decisions, night-before decisions than any team I’ve ever been associated with. ” Holloway was removed from the team this week pending a school investigation.