Why Were Alabama Players Throwing Up the Number Two in the NCAA Tournament?

During the NCAA tournament, Alabama players were spotted throwing up the No. 2 after the game on broadcasts, with star sophomore Labaron Philon doing it after the Tide's 20-point victory over the Hofstra Pride in the round of 64. Philon and the Crimson Tide did it again after Alabama's round of 32 victory over Texas Tech last night.

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After the round of 32, Alabama big man Aiden Sherrell revealed it was in support of Alabama junior guard Aden Holloway, who wears number two. Holloway was not with the Crimson Tide in Tampa, Florida, for the first round of the NCAA tournament after he was arrested and charged with first-degree possession of marijuana and failure to affix a tax stamp on Monday of last week, resulting in him being removed from campus and suspended from the Crimson Tide's roster ahead of the tournament.

"It's not a message," Sherrell told reporters on Sunday night. "It's just showing that we're supporting our brother through this rough time that he's going through and that we still love him. We love him as our brother."

Sherrell's comments reflect what Alabama head coach Nate Oats said earlier in the weekend.

"Aden is one of our guys, and everybody wants to wrap their arms around him and love him," Oats said.

"Look, I'm an adult. I've made mistakes. We all have things we'd like to do differently," Oats continued on Thursday. "Now is not the time to ignore a kid that you've built a real relationship with. Now is the time he needs more love from the adults in his life than at any point.

"When I got into coaching, way back when I first got out of college, and I was a Division III assistant making no money, and then I went to a high school job in the Detroit area for 11 years," Oats said. "To basically coach for no money for 16 years, you'd better be doing it for the right reasons because you're losing an awful lot of money spending all the hours, money, time traveling to kids for official visits.

"I've got to remind myself I'm a high school coach that's caught some breaks up here. But I don't want to lose why I got into this thing in the first place. You get into it to help impact young men's lives. Well, if you disappear when they make a mistake, I'm not so sure that's a genuine relationship you've built.

"I've got three daughters. They've made mistakes. You don't disappear on them when they need your help. I won't be disappearing on him. I talked to him [Wednesday] morning on the phone. I talked to him the night before that. I've talked to him every day so far. I'm going to continue to talk to him, love him, help him through this, and we'll see where it all takes us."

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Wyatt Fulton is the Tide 100.9 DME and Brand Manager, primarily covering Alabama Crimson Tide football and men's basketball. For more Crimson Tide coverage, follow Wyatt on X (Formerly known as Twitter) at @FultonW_.