The Mobile-born-and-raised duo of football’s Ryan Williams and men’s basketball’s Labaron Philon made waves with the reveal of Williams featuring on the EA Sports College Football 26 cover, and the announcement that Philon is returning to the Crimson Tide for his sophomore season.
Alabama men’s basketball saw a glaring need on its roster filled Wednesday night when guard Labaron Philon’s withdrawal from the NBA Draft process and return to Tuscaloosa was announced.
The university’s NIL collective, Yea Alabama, broke the news via social media just 29 minutes before the draft deadline. Philon later posted a confirmation of his own.
“I’m back,” Philon said in a post on Instagram.
Philon’s return came as a shock to many in the college basketball world, as the Crimson Tide guard had previously closed the door on a return to Tuscaloosa.
His announcement marks the return of a crucial piece from Alabama’s run to the Elite Eight, as he started in all four NCAA tournament contests the team played last season. Bringing back a player with the potential of Philon could see Alabama once again contend for a conference title in both the regular season and the SEC tournament.
While Philon will now wait another year to make the jump to the next level, he now has a chance to lead Oats’ offense in his sophomore season. His return also gives Alabama a point guard who can take over games, a kind of player the team needed following the departure of All-American guard Mark Sears.
Philon notably posted a 21-point performance in the team’s 99-70 SEC tournament win over Kentucky, also recording three steals and four assists in the victory. He led Alabama in steals in 2024-25, with 50.
Oats believes defense is a big reason Philon got a look from NBA scouts.
“He’s such a great defensive guard in addition to being really talented on offense,” Oats said on March 12.
He also brings the team valuable SEC experience, adding 29 games of starting experience to a backcourt that currently lacks it, with Latrell Wrightsell Jr. being the only other guard on the roster to have started a game for Alabama.
With Wrightsell and Houston Mallette coming off of season-ending injuries last season, Philon’s return answers many questions regarding the point guard role ahead of next season.
Philon wasn’t the only star Crimson Tide athlete from Mobile who made headlines recently.
Alabama football star wide receiver Ryan Williams was named last Tuesday as a cover athlete for EA Sports’ College Football 26, coming out on July 11. Williams is the youngest player to grace the cover at just 18 years and 4 months old.
“It’s incomparable to anything you can even imagine,” Williams said about being on the cover. “It’s one of those moments where any words I say won’t be able to describe the feeling. Even just thinking about it gives me chills.”
He will share the cover with a fellow star wide receiver in Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith, who also made waves as a freshman last season as he helped lead the Buckeyes to the 2025 national championship.
Williams first gained prominence as a player at Saraland High School in Mobile, where he won the Mr. Alabama award — given to the best football player in the state — both his sophomore and junior seasons. He is the only football player from Alabama to accomplish the feat in back-to-back seasons.
Rather than playing out his senior year, the then-Alabama commit decided to reclassify to 2025 so he would get on the Tuscaloosa campus as quickly as possible. But his plans were thrown off when legendary head coach Nick Saban retired, causing Williams to decommit.
But it didn’t take long for the receiver dubbed “Hollywood” to find his way back to Tuscaloosa again. Shortly after new head coach Kalen DeBoer was hired, Williams took a visit back to campus and met with DeBoer, which led him to soon re-commit to the Crimson Tide.
“Just the fact that Coach DeBoer made time for me is everything I needed to know. There’s no way I was going anywhere else,” Williams said.
As soon as his college career started, Williams dominated. In his first five games of the season, he accumulated 544 receiving yards and seven total touchdowns, including a memorable game-winning 75-yard touchdown against Georgia.
Williams finished his freshman campaign with 865 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns, and was named a freshman All-American. Now he is a cover athlete for EA Sports’ College Football 26 and will look to continue making waves.
