Latrell Wrightsell Jr. Weighing All His Options

Cleveland, Ohio. - When Latrell Wrightsell Jr. ruptured his Achilles against Oregon on November 30, it sent a shockwave through the team and Wrightsell himself.

"It was pretty hard. It was just a difficult process. Nobody wants to get injured, let alone a season-ending injury," Wrightsell said. "It was just hard mentally and physically. Normally, when you hear Achilles, you think it's over with for good."

"But with the right trainers and my faith and stuff like that, that helped me out a lot. Clarke [Holter] has been really there for me. Being able to lean on him and just take care of me has been a big process. And also Henry Barrera, they've both combined their work ethics and helped me out a lot to recover where I am right now. So I mean, without them, I don't think I'll be here, and without the belief of them being able to believe in me that I'll be coming back stronger than ever."

"And also Amanda with my nutrition. It's changed a lot of things about me too. I've taken more accountability of my body, what things I would eat, what things I would put in my body, and stuff like that, and also the preparation for next year from a basketball standpoint, as well as my mental health," Wrightsell continued.

Wrightsell was spotted during Alabama's practice on Thursday dribbling and practicing free throws, continuing to work his way back from the Achilles rupture he suffered in late November.

Wrightsell gave an update on his recovery, revealing he would start running soon.

"It's going good. I mean, I'm still a week away from running, which is amazing to me. It's been going by pretty quick," Wrightsell said. "It's only been two months since I had the surgery and recently I've been continuing to gain strength and really get back into the shape of cardio, getting my legs back comfortable standing up fully and stuff like that - but mainly just getting back into basketball antics and being able to do the thing I love - shoot baskets, play the game and just have fun."

Wrightsell talked about the draft process last offseason, even revealing that he was intending to put his name in the NBA draft last May.

"I was actually gonna do the draft and I actually put my name in. My coaches wanted me to, but also my trainer, on the other hand, I had the concussion injury, so he didn't want me to do any contact for the month of May, so that's what withheld my decision to put my name in the draft and get the feedback. That was pretty hard for me, but I was gonna enter the draft process and just see the feedback and stuff, and then obviously whatever they said, try to come back here and also there was a lot of talk about the portal and stuff like that."

"There has been a lot of schools that reached out even this year. So like, just balancing out the best options for me to become a pro and make it to the NBA and weigh all of those options. It's still an ongoing process and is still up in the air right now. But for the most part, it's just about how I can get back healthy and what place is gonna put me in the right position to be 100 percent healthy."

Wrightsell said it was not hard, nor was it easy deciding to come back to Alabama last offseason.

"It wasn't hard, but it wasn't easy. It was probably in between. A lot of schools tell you what you like to hear, and you don't ever know if it's true or not, but then also [Alabama] did a good job to re-recruit me back, which means they wanted me here to re-run back what we had," Wrightsell said. "Also I felt like a big part of it was me, Grant, and Mark just sitting down together and just saying 'we want to win a national championship.' So that was probably the biggest reason I came back."

Wrightsell faces another decision this offseason - transfer or return to Alabama.

"I would say it's gonna be harder [this year] because the guys that I've been through it with a lot are leaving, so it's definitely going to be a bigger decision and a much harder decision. You're gonna have to outweigh a lot more pros and a lot more cons to it, and obviously, with my injury, Clarke and Henry have done a lot to sustain me and I don't want to leave them because they helped me, but it's still a business and still about the game."

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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_.