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Injured Alabama forward Jordan Bruner sparked some optimism before Tuesday night's game against Kentucky as he was seen going through warmups with the team for the first time since suffering a meniscus injury on Jan. 12. However, those hoping for an improved prognosis on the starting forward were dealt a bit of bad news Friday as head coach Nate Oats revealed it will still be a few more weeks until Bruner sees the court in a game setting.
“Bruner was still able to shoot, but he's not anywhere close to being able to play at this stage,” Oats told reporters during a Friday Zoom call. “It's looking still like 2-3, maybe more, weeks for him."
While Bruner is the only Alabama player out for Saturday’s game against Oklahoma, Oats described his team as “really banged up right now.”
Herbert Jones has played through pain for much of this past month, dislocating his finger to the point of it breaking skin against Kentucky on Jan. 12 before picking up a knock following a fall against Mississippi State last weekend. Friday, Oats said Jones has not practiced since Tuesday night’s game.
“He’s still banged up, but knowing Herb he’s going to go,” Oats said. “You could tell he wasn’t 100 percent against Kentucky, but he still almost had a triple-double. He’ll hopefully be a little bit better than he was against Kentucky, but we’re trying to get him as rested as we can for the game.”
Fellow starter Alex Reese has also been dealt a couple of blows this past week. The senior injured his left knee against Mississippi State before having to leave the game for a brief stint following a collision during Tuesday night’s game.
“Held him out of yesterday’s practice, tried to get him better,” Oats said. “Looked better today. Hopefully, he doesn’t aggravate it during the game, but he’s able to go.”
Alabama saw James Rojas make a brief return Tuesday night after missing the game against Mississippi State due to a medical condition. However, the backup forward played in just two minutes against Kentucky and is still feeling the after-effects of his condition. Oats said Rojas was held out of practice Thursday but was able to return Friday.
“He’s still trying to recover from the medical deal he had,” Oats said. “He’s lost weight. He’s got to get everything back up. He’s got to be able to eat and drink fluids.”
With Bruner out and several of Alabama’s other bigs banged up, the Tide has had to turn to forwards Juwan Gary and Keon Ambrose-Hylton to fill in down low. Gary, 6-foot-6, 218 pounds, recorded 6 points and three rebounds over 16 minutes against Kentucky, filling in at the center position at times. Ambrose-Hylton, 6-foot-8, 210 pounds, saw just one minute against the Wildcats but played in nine or more minutes in each of the previous three games. Reese has served as Alabama’s starter at center since Bruner’s injury.
“I can’t wait to get Bruner back,” Oats said. “Hopefully, he’s as healthy as can be when we get him back in a few weeks. Until then, hopefully, we can get Keon Ambrose minutes as he starts getting more and more confidence in him. Reese can hopefully get a little more healthy. I think that’s really his issue right now. If Jaunie [Gary] can do what he did against Kentucky, then we can probably play him some minutes at the [center position] against anybody, to be honest with you.”
Earlier Friday, the SEC announced that Saturday’s game between No. 5 Texas and Kentucky was canceled due to a combination of positive testing, contact tracing and subsequent quarantining of individuals within the Wildcats’ program. Having just played Kentucky on Tuesday, Oats was asked where his team stands regarding COVID-19 testing. The head coach said his players “good-to-go” in that regard, stating the team has taken several precautions to avoid the spread of the virus.
“It’s just something everybody’s got to deal with, to be honest with you,” Oats said. “We want to play games, so we’re going to play. We’ve kind of had to deal with that all year. I think our medical team has done a really good job making sure that when we have had issues, they haven’t been too big of a problem to where we can’t play the game.
"When we do video, we’re not doing it in our video room anymore. We’re doing it in the practice gym where everybody is spread out. We’re making sure that all that contact tracing stuff — if somebody happens to get [the virus], they’re not taking down the entire team.”
No. 9 Alabama (14-3, 9-0 in the SEC) will look to extend its winning streak to 11 games Saturday as it travels to No. 24 Oklahoma (10-4, 6-3 in the Big 12) for an 11 a.m. CT tipoff as part of the SEC/Big 12 Challenge. The Sooners are riding a three-game winning streak, including back-to-back victories over then-ranked No. 9 Kansas and No. 5 Texas. Saturday's game will be televised on ESPN.
