Alabama basketball starting guard Latrell Wrightsell Jr. left the Crimson Tide’s round of 32 game against Grand Canyon with a head injury in the first half, and didn’t return to the floor. Sunday night, following the game, Nate Oats provided some positive news on his condition.
“Wrightsell will be able to play with us Thursday,” Oats said. “He got thumped on the head, had a head injury, he’s had real bad luck lately. We’re going to be playing again and he can play with us on Thursday.”
With 6:36 remaining in the first half, Wrightsell went to contest a 3-point shot by Grand Canyon’s Gabe McGlothan and caught an elbow to the top of the head from the Lopes’ guard on the way down.
Wrightsell remained down on the court for a couple of minutes with the training staff before getting up by himself and walking to the locker room and was eventually ruled out for the rest of the game. Before the injury, Wrightsell had 2 points, shooting 1-for-4 from the field.
From there, it was all up to his fellow teammates to rally around their senior leader and step up.
"Rylan's [Griffen] gonna have to play more minutes," Alabama head coach Nate Oats told TBS at halftime. "Sam Walters is gonna have to play more minutes. Rylan has been playing really well and Sam was good in his minutes in, so we've got to get him some more minutes so we can give Aaron a little bit of a break."
While Alabama was able to hold a small lead at the half and carry it well into the second half, the Lopes found a way to tie the game up and eventually take a three-point lead with just 6:03 remaining in the half.
Facing the potential end of the season, along with the absence of one of the most efficient scorers on the roster, the Crimson Tide rallied back to regain the lead and pull away for a 72-61 victory in Spokane.
“Once we came in at halftime, he was right there dapping us up,” senior guard Mark Sears said. “When we was in the locker room, we was like ‘we’re going to win this game for him so we can play on Thursday’ and that’s what we did.”
Wrightsell started off his season coming off the bench as a spark plug three-point shooter and was eventually moved up to the starting lineup to provide even more scoring help. Throughout his journey this season with injuries and playing time, his teammates have always had the back of the veteran guard.
“Trelly is like my brother for real,” sophomore guard Rylan Griffen said. “I came in with the team and I was like, there is no way that’s Trelly’s last game for the season. I know he wants to play, I know he didn’t want to get hurt today, he went out there and gave everything for us for the time he did play. I was just like, let’s make sure Trelly has a chance to play again for us this season.”
Among those who stepped up the most was Mohamed Dioubate off the bench with his nine points off of 3-for-6 shooting, and five offensive rebounds. When the Crimson Tide needed a spark the most, Dioubate did more than enough to provide it with the absence of Wrightsell.
“We play for each other every game,” Dioubate said. “We know how much Trelly wanted to play in LA, and we saw how hurt he was once he went out of the game, so we just tried to do everything we could for him.”
Wrightsell will return back to the starting lineup once again as Alabama makes its trip to the Sweet 16 in Los Angeles against the No. 1 seeded North Carolina Tar Heels on April 4.
