For the fourth consecutive game, the Alabama basketball team will be at less than full strength when it travels to Starkville, Mississippi, to take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs.
In addition to injured point guard Ricky Tarrant, still out with a lower leg injury, the Crimson Tide will be missing one of its probable replacements, junior guard Retin Obasohan.
“Retin suffered what’s being termed an infection of his hand that prevented him from being available during our last game,” Alabama coach Anthony Grant said. “I’d say right now he’s doubtful. We’ll see how he progresses over the next 24 hours.”
Obasohan has been Alabama’s preference against teams with a size advantage while Tarrant has been out. While Mississippi State and Alabama have comparable rosters in terms of size, the Bulldogs carry some highly rated forwards, including Birmingham native De’Runnya Wilson.
With Obasohan out, Alabama will be forced to turn to freshman point guard Justin Coleman, listed at 5 feet 10 inches and 160 pounds.
“We’ve got a lot of confidence in Justin,” Grant said. “We feel like all of our guys, from day one when we started practice, we’ve had to deal with minor injuries all year long that’ve kept guys out for periods of time so different guys have had to step into different roles and Justin is one of those guys. We feel like he’s more than capable of providing what we need if we’re short handed going into this next game.”
Senior captain Levi Randolph echoed his coach, issuing a vote of confidence in the freshman from Birmingham.
“We have a lot of confidence in Justin,” he said. “We know that he’s prepared to run our team. From day one we’ve always talked about our depth and everybody can come in and play different roles. We’re prepared and confident in Justin.”
In addition to the two guards, Alabama could be missing sophomore forward Michael Kessens, the team’s leading rebounder. In his absence, freshman forward Riley Norris will take his place, fresh off his first career double-double against LSU.
“I think Riley has consistently given great effort from the day he stepped on campus in the spring,” Grant said. “Really that’s one of those things I noticed recruiting him in high school – his approach to it. He’s always been a team guy, always willing to do whatever his team needed him to do to get a win. I think he’s the second all-time leading rebounder in the state of Alabama’s history and those things translate at this level, so it’s no surprise that he’s been able to go out and be as effective as he is, rebound the basketball. We know he’s highly skilled.”
With injuries and foul trouble against LSU, the Crimson Tide gave freshman guard Devin Mitchell the first serious minutes of his career.
“The thing we always talk about is it’s better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared,” Grant said. “You look at [Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones], he had to prepare and for the majority of the season never played, but when the opportunity presented itself, he was prepared for it. It’s the same thing as far as how you work and what you bring, that can be challenging as an 18 year old. Just a year ago you were the main guy and now you don’t play as much. I thought Devin handled the situation well, to go for 12 minutes in that environment on the road against a team of that caliber. I thought he tried to play really hard, tried to do the things that we needed him to do given that opportunity. I was pleased with that and he’s obviously, based on the availability of some other guys, going to have some opportunities that come up in the near future.”
