Oats Suspends Key Tide Player

Heading into a tough stretch of its schedule, the Alabama basketball team will be without a key piece of its inside offense and defense. That's because senior center Nick Pringle has been suspended indefinitely per Nate Oats.

“He’s suspended indefinitely for right now,” Oats said at a Friday press conference. “It’s just for conduct detrimental to the team. Nothing serious off-court or anything. It’s just in-house. There’s a standard that we want our guys to uphold, and he wasn’t upholding it. I still love Nick.

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“Hopefully, he can get himself figured out and be back with the team shortly.”

Pringle has played in all seven of Alabama’s games this year and started the first six. He was replaced in the lineup by West Virginia transfer Mo Wague in the Tuesday's loss to Clemson. Pringle played 21 minutes in that game.

The 6-foot-10, 230-pounder averages six points and 4.4 rebounds per game while shooting 81 percent from the field. He also aids the Tide's interior defense.

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With Pringle likely out for the next game, other players will clearly get more playing time, as Oats noted.

“All the guys off the bench are going to get a little bit better chance now,” Oats said. “I think he played 21 minutes last game, so if he can’t get back by Monday, those are 21 minutes that will get distributed. I think Mo Wague [who started against Clemson will get some. Sam Walters will have a chance to get some more minutes. Guys like Davin Cosby and Mo Dioubate will probably get a chance to get some minutes. They’ve both had good practices here lately.

“I think everybody will have a chance to get some more minutes, and we’ll see how they do with the initial minutes they get to see how many more minutes they get throughout the game.”

The 5-2 Crimson Tide will next host Arkansas State which is coached by former Oats assistant Bryan Hodgson Monday at 7 p.m. CT and you can hear the game on Tide 100-9, 95. The Bear and AM 1230 WTBC.

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