Alabama Basketball: 2024-25 season preview for the Crimson Tide

Apr 6, 2024; Glendale, AZ, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide runs onto the court to warmup before the semifinals of the men's Final Four of the 2024 NCAA Tournament against the Connecticut Huskies at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-Imagn Images / Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

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Key reserves

The bench at Alabama is about as strong as the starting unit. Mouhamed Dioubate is a long 6’7 sophomore who might be the team’s top perimeter defender and Jarin Stevenson debated going to the NBA after one season with the Tide but decided to come back. Stevenson showed out in the regional final win over Clemson with a season-high 19 points including five three-pointers.

A couple of transfers also join the amazing depth of the Tide. Houston Mallette shot a team-high 159 three-pointers at Pepperdine and made 41% of them. Holloway is a guard who showed real flashes of stardom at Auburn in the first two months of the year but seemed to hit the freshman wall. If Oats can get him back to what he was in November and December, add him to the Tide's many backcourt options.

If that wasn’t enough, Alabama also brought in the No. 2 recruiting class in the country, which consists of those four top-45 recruits. Derrion Reid is a 6-7 stud from California who should crack the rotation at some point. It says a lot about how well Nate Oats can recruit that 6-7 Naas Cunningham and Aiden Sherrell, who are two of the top five recruits out of California, might have a tough time cracking the top 10 of this roster. The last member of this foursome is 6-4 LaBaron Philon, who is the No. 2 recruit from Missouri and now gets an apprenticeship behind both Sears and Holloway.

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