Jumbo Package: Alabama basketball hosts Purdue, football injury report vs Oklahoma

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Happy Thursday, everyone. Yeah, football is on Saturday, but who has time for that with 2nd-ranked Purdue visiting Coleman tonight?

Alabama men’s basketball secured a win this past weekend that will likely go down as one of the best of the season, if not the best.

The Crimson Tide went on the road to Madison Square Garden and beat then a top-five team in St. John’s.

“It was tough,” Oats said Wednesday. “It was hard fought. It was a really good team we were playing. That win will always be with us. It will be with us at the end of the year.”

However, the time to celebrate that game is over. No. 2 Purdue is coming to Tuscaloosa on Thursday.

“It’s kind of a pointless win if we don’t come in and play well tomorrow night against Purdue,” Oats said.

This is going to be a great game. Purdue will have Trey Kauffman-Wren available for the first time this season. He led the Boilermakers in scoring last season from the center position, but has now moved to the four alongside the skilled 6’11”, 255 lb. Oscar Cluff. They also have 7’4” Daniel Jacobsen to rotate down low, to go with All-American point guard Braden Smith and elite shooters all over the floor. Fletcher Loyer has started the year off blistering hot at 58% from deep on 17 tries.

It will be interesting to see how Oats rotates in this one. Interior defense has been an issue thus far, but Alabama has been able to counter it with speed and volume three point shooting, particularly in transition. Longtime CBB analyst and junkie Jon Rothstein noted that the Tide had some success with a four guard lineup and Taylor Bol Bowen at the center spot against St. John’s. Bol Bowen would be completely overmatched on the block against Cluff or Jacobsen, but can they run with him?

Tip-off is at 6pm tonight on ESPN2.

There is indeed a football game on Saturday, and an important one. Alabama needs the win to stay in position for a first round bye, but desperation is on the side of an Oklahoma squad that needs it to stay in the playoff conversation. No real surprises on the injury report, but will Alabama get Qua Russaw back?

Jah-Marien Latham, LB — Out
Dre Kirkpatrick Jr., DB — Out
Abduall Sanders Jr., LB — Out
Danny Lewis Jr., TE — Out
Jeremiah Beaman, DL — Out
Qua Russaw, LB — Questionable
Cayden Jones, LB — Questionable
DaShawn Jones, DB — Probable

“We’re unsure at this point,” DeBoer said of whether Russaw might see the field on Saturday. “Probably in the questionable range right now, at this minute. But he’s coming along nicely. I know I said that a week ago, I would consider it at least on, if not ahead of schedule from what we originally thought. So he’s done a great job and he’s getting closer and closer, so just we’ll just see how he feels here the rest of the week.”

Adding Qua to the rotation at Wolf would be a welcome sight, and it would be even better if they found a way to have him on the field with Yhonzae Pierre in pass rush situations.

The running game has been the topic du jour. Might AK Dear get a look on Saturday?

One such name could be true freshman running back AK Dear. Dear was a five-star prospect from Quitman, Mississippi, who signed with the Crimson Tide in the 2025 recruiting class. He has Alabama’s longest rush of the season, a 56-yarder that went for a touchdown in Alabama’s 73-0 win over ULM in week two. Dear posted a cryptic tweet on X earlier in the week, and Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer was asked about the freshman during his weekly appearance on the SEC coaches call on Wednesday.

“AK does a nice job every single day,” DeBoer said on Wednesday. “Feel like the growth is there; we saw enough of him early to know he’s an explosive player. He’s gonna be a guy who, in our future, sooner and later, that continues to help our football team. I think he’s getting more and more comfortable with being here. I think we have a group of guys that are all working themselves and trying to get ready to go if called upon.”

Ty Simpson seems to think that RTDB is still on the table.

“We’ll be just fine,” Simpson said. “I believe in our coaches, believe in our O-line, believe in our running backs. We’re going to have no problem running the ball.”

But when you look at Alabama’s recent history with its run game, these struggles are not just like any other season. It’s worse.

Through nine games in 2025, Alabama has 1,007 rushing yards on 288 carries. The Crimson Tide has not had a season in, at least, the past 30 years that has produced fewer rushing yards or fewer carries nine games in.

Jam Miller, Daniel Hill and the rest of the Alabama run game have averaged 3.5 yards per touch in 2025, which is the lowest for a Crimson Tide team since 1995, when Dennis Riddle led a rushing offense that averaged 2.7 yards per carry.

Next up is The Athletic’s Sam Khan Jr. interviewing Tide GM Courtney Morgan, who offers insight on managing the salary cap and all things player personnel. This is a particularly interesting snippet about offensive line evaluations.

You played offensive line in college and know it intimately. What do you look for when evaluating offensive linemen?

The first thing is how they look in their stance. A guy’s stance will tell you a lot about their mobility in their ankles, their knees and what type of flexibility they have. You can tell a stiff player by how they get in their stance. If you see a 6-6 kid in his stance and he’s dropped his butt and he can bend, that is a great starting point.

From there, I look at initial quickness. How fast is he moving off the ball? You can see it on tape, the quickness, the strike, the suddenness out of their stance. Third thing is can they play through their hips? Are they a waist-bender? And the biggest thing I look for is heavy hands. How heavy-handed are they? Can they stop big people? When they put their hands on people are they laying their hands or are they striking people?

Are they tough? The biggest word I use is “strain.” Doesn’t matter if it’s run or pass. Do they strain? It’s the amount of effort and the sense of urgency they play with. And I believe in strain for every position we evaluate. You also have to look at arm length, hand size.

Last, let’s talk “Heisman moments.”

No. 4 Alabama will face No. 11 Oklahoma on Saturday (2:30 p.m. CT, ABC) at Bryant-Denny Stadium. The matchup will pit Simpson up against the SEC’s best defense.

The daunting task creates opportunity. There’s no better moment to make a statement than in a game facing one of the nation’s best defenses.

“It’s why we play football,” Simpson said Tuesday. “It’s why I came here. It’s why I stayed here.”

Simpson sticking around and the decision paying off created one of the best, if not the best, stories in college football for 2025. But being a good story alone doesn’t win you the Heisman. Moments where you wow the country do.

This is why that award means so little. Cool to win for sure, but Ty wants that ring.

That’s about it for now. Have a great day.

Roll Tide.

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