Alabama star forward Grant Nelson helped the Crimson Tide to the Final Four last season, but this year he entered the NCAA Tournament with a significant injury concern. Nelson injured his knee in the SEC Tournament and while Oats told the media that they “dodged one” in the lead-up to his team’s first-round matchup with No. 15 seed Robert Morris from the Horizon League, he did everything he could to keep Nelson on the sidelines until he couldn’t anymore.
Nelson did not get the start in Alabama’s 90-81 victory, but eventually, he played a big role. Without Nelson, the Crimson Tide struggled to put the pesky Colonials away, so with just a 62-58 lead and 8:47 remaining in the second half, Oats pulled the rip cord and inserted the banged-up 6-foot-11 senior.
Nelson finished with five points and three rebounds in his return to The Big Dance, helping Oats’s group survive the upset scare. However, it didn’t start that way in his first few minutes. After inserting Nelson, Alabama allowed the Horizon League champs from just west of Pittsburgh to take their first lead of the second half 65-64 with a 6-0 run. Then, Nelson responded with a dunk and Alabama never relinquished the lead.
Oats addressed the situation in the postgame on-court interview with CBS’s Jon Rothstein and it turns out it wasn’t the head coach who got nervous about a first-round exit, it was his senior leader. “When he told me he was ready, I think he sensed it,” Oats told Rothstein, “He stood up like ‘put me in.’ We were trying to get out of that game without playing him, but it does us no good if he doesn’t play and we go home.”
While it wasn’t an ideal situation for Oats and his injured star, there is a silver lining to Nelson getting a bit of playing time in the Round of 64. “Dakota Durant” as Nelson is affectionately known, proved that he’s healthy enough to go for Alabama’s second-round matchup on Sunday against either seventh-seeded Saint Mary’s or 10th-seeded Vanderbilt in Cleveland.
In one “last dance” with Nelson and All-American point guard Mark Sears, Alabama has Final Four expectations, and at full strength, the Crimson Tide are good enough to win a National Championship. Even in a close call against a 15-seed, they proved that they’re closer to 100% than some would have expected after Nelson played just 10 minutes in the SEC Tournament semifinal loss to Florida.