Premier 2024 Prospect Opts For G-League Over Alabama

The landscape of college basketball recruiting is always changing. Unfortunately, the Alabama Crimson Tide found itself on the wrong end of a hot recruiting battle this past week as top prospect Dink Pate made his announcement to reclassify into the 2023 class and sign a two-year contract with the NBA's G-League Ignite.

Pate was considered a top-20 player in the class of 2024 and had scholarship offers from many big schools such as Alabama, Kansas, Texas and Auburn.

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Pate is a 6-foot-7 wing player out of Dallas who's shown smooth athleticism and the ability to impact a game in a variety of facets. He will spend the next two seasons in the G-League Ignite in Las Vegas preparing for the NBA draft.

He took extra classes to graduate high school and will walk for his graduation at the beginning of June. He will be eligible for the 2025 NBA draft.

Pate told ESPN that had he chosen to go to college that Tuscaloosa would have been his destination and that it came down to Alabama and Arkansas.

"I was leaning toward Alabama," Pate said. "I liked the facility, especially the football team. Coach [Nate] Oats and Coach [Eric] Musselman are both great coaches."

Oats will undoubtedly pivot his recruiting attention elsewhere in the class, but it would have been excellent for Alabama to have secured a prospect with such a bright future.