Alabama's John Petty Jr. 'highly unlikely' to play against South Carolina
Alabama basketball’s injury list just got a little longer. Junior guard John Petty Jr. suffered a sprained elbow during Tuesday’s game against Mississippi State which will keep him out at least one game, head coach Nate Oats said on Friday.
"The MRI and X-ray came back all right," Oats said. "He's got a hyperextension, like a slight ligament sprain. No live activity in practice. You know, it's getting better every day. He's had two good days of therapy — or rehab, whatever you want to call it — with Clarke (Holter), but we'll just evaluate day-to-day.
"Highly unlikely for tomorrow though. Unless there's a miraculous recovery overnight, I don't think he's playing tomorrow. "
Petty sustained the injury when he bent his right arm awkwardly on a fall while scrambling for a loose ball during the first half of Alabama’s 80-73 loss to the Bulldogs. He was heard screaming on the court and later made way for the Crimson Tide’s locker room with the help of trainer Clarke Holter. Petty returned to the bench for the second half with his arm in a brace.
Petty leads the SEC with 85 made 3s and ranks third in the conference shooting 45 percent from beyond the arc. The 6-foot-5, 184-pound Huntsville, Ala., native also leads Alabama with 6.6 rebounds per game and ranks second on the team in scoring (15.0 points per game), assists (2.6 per game) and minutes (33.4 per game).
Petty's injury comes as Alabama's roster has already been decimated by injuries. The Crimson Tide lost forwards James Rojas and Juwan Gary to season-ending ACL injuries in the fall. Currently, forward Herbert Jones is playing with a cast on his left hand after fracturing his wrist at LSU on Jan. 29.
"It's been rough," Oats said when asked if he has ever coached a team that experienced this many critical injuries. "And really, it seems like a lot of them happen in the same (position). Rojas and Juwan, same position. Herb, same position as those two. Now Petty goes out. Like it's those big wing 3-4 types that we just can't seem to get healthy, which really, you need more of those probably than anything. They're the most flexible guys.
"It's been tough. In practice, we've had to figure out how to play with two bigs a little bit more, which we haven't typically liked to do but we may have to do it and probably will have to do it. Essentially Herb's playing like a big right now with how he's playing anyways."
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Andrew Bone, of BamaInsider.com, is a real estate broker in the state of Alabama.
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