Alabama basketball faces its most difficult test in SEC play so far this season when it takes on No. 6 Tennessee on Saturday. However, Crimson Tide will have its best player available when it faces the Volunteers.

Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats provided an update on guard Mark Sears on Friday. Sears injured his ankle in the first half of Alabama's 93-75 win over Missouri on Tuesday. He missed the final four minutes of the opening period and was limited in the second half due to the injury.

"He's been able to fully practice these last two days," Oats said. "He's not 100% but we haven't held him out of anything in practice. It's progressing everyday so hopefully he's better tomorrow than he was today, but he's the leading scorer in the SEC, so we're going to play him if he's anywhere close to 100%."

Alabama will likely need another monster performance from Sears if it wants to earn a résumé-boosting win Saturday. He's is averaging 19.6 points, four rebounds and 3.7 assists per game this season.

Oats also provided an update on Mohamed Wague, who has seen his minutes decline as he continues to recover from a reaggravated foot injury. Wague played just five minutes against Mizzou and Nick Pringle has started in his place the last two games.

"He hasn't practiced much," Oats said. "It's a little bit harder when you can't practice to be in sync with everyone else for the games but he's available as frontcourt depth when we need it. He's going to play hard, it just he's got this injury we have to deal with the rest of the year."

The Crimson Tide takes on the Volunteers at 1 p.m. Saturday inside Thompson-Boling Arena. The game can be seen on ESPN2.