TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama basketball is using everything it has to prepare for UConn center Donovan Clingan. That includes a 42-year-old graduate assistant.

To be fair, Erwin Dudley isn’t your typical practice helper. The 2002 SEC Player of the Year might have been donning a blue scout-team jersey during Tuesday’s workout, but his image is also plastered on the practice facility’s wall along with the Tide’s other all-time greats.

Dudley doesn’t move quite as well as he did back in 2002 when he averaged 15.2 points and 8.9 rebounds. However, the 6-foot-8 forward can still get around the court well enough to give No. 4 seed Alabama a solid look at what it will be facing this Saturday during its Final Four appearance against top-seeded UConn.

"Erwin was the SEC player of the year and scored pretty well in the post," Alabama coach Nate Oats said. "He's not as young as Clingan and he's not near as big so he can't give us the exact look. But he gives us a pretty good look on a lot of post players in practice. So it's nice we have Erwin who's a grad assistant who's able to go on scout team sometimes."

Even in his heyday, Dudley isn’t an exact match for Clingan. According to Alabama’s analytics team, the 7-foot-2, 280-pound sophomore is the second-most efficient post player in the country behind Purdue's Zach Edey, who is expected to retain his title as the nation’s player of the year this season. Cligan is averaging 12.9 points and 7.5 rebounds this season and ranks eighth nationally with 81 blocks over 33 games.

As Oats pointed out, this isn’t the first time Dudley has hep the Tide prepare for one of the nation’s top bigs. During the regular season, the Crimson Tide took on Edey as well as Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner and Mississippi State’s Tolu Smith. Last week, the Crimson Tide got past star forward Armando Bacot and No. 1 seed North Carolina to advance to the Elite Eight.

"Clingan is a little different," Oats said. "He's not quite as big as Edey. But he's bigger than the rest of those guys, and he passes really well. If you don't double him, we've had issues guarding the post. If you double him, he passes well. You've got to pick your poison a little bit."

Alabama (25-11) will take on Clingan and UConn (35-3) on Saturday at 7:49 p.m. CT inside State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. The game will be aired on TBS.