How Alabama basketball is handling limited depth at point guard position

HOOVER, Ala. — With Labaron Philon’s return draft decision still in limbo, Alabama basketball currently has one true point guard on its roster heading into the summer.

The Crimson Tide lost starting point guard Mark Sears this offseason and is still waiting to see whether or not Philon remains in the NBA Draft or elects to return to school. That leaves junior Aden Holloway as the lone point guard on the roster.

While that might seem like a scary proposition on paper, Nate Oats doesn’t seem too concerned about his team’s current depth at the position.

During an appearance at the Regions Tradition pro-am on Wednesday, Oats stated that he feels returning guards Latrell Wrightsell Jr. and Houston Mallette could chip in at point guard along with Holloway. Still, Wrightsell and Mallette are both coming off of injuries, while Holloway (6-foot-1, 180 pounds) played exclusively off the bench last season.

On Wednesday, Oats called that “a little bit of an issue.” However, he noted that his system doesn’t necessarily require a true point guard to handle the ball.

“You go back to our second year [at Alabama] and how we played with Herb [Jones],” Oats said. “We started Herb and really kind of had three 2-guards around him — [Josh] Primo, [Jaden] Shackelford and [John] Petty. Keon Ellis started a little bit too. All three of those guys, none of them were point guards. We can play where you’ve got a big creating wing, you look at some of what we’ve done, maybe what we’re bringing in, what we’re looking at.”

Outside of Holloway, Mallette and Wrightsell, Miami transfer quard Jalil Bethea (6-foot-5, 190 pounds) also seems like a viable option to handle point-guard duties. Oats also highlighted incoming freshman forwards Davion Hannah (6-6, 180) and Amari Allen (6-8, 180) as players capable of handling the ball. Alabama is also interested in California State University Northridge transfer Keontae Jones. The 6-foot-6, 192-pound wing averaged 13.1 points, 9.0 rebounds and 4.1 assists.

“We don’t necessarily have to play with just a point guard with the way we play and how we have multiple handlers playing as fast as we do,” Oats said. “I think you can play with a 3 or a 4 handling the ball a lot, being a creator for us with how well some of those guys shoot it off the ball, too.”

Alabama’s roster currently sits at 11 scholarship players, one below the NCAA limit. Oats said he’s looking to add at least one more player before the start of the season.

“There’s still some decent guys out there,” Oats said. “If we went into the season with just those 11, I think we’d be fine, but as you saw last year, some injuries happen, you need some stuff.

“So we’re still looking. We’re looking at a couple guys. We’ll see who’s pulling their name out of the draft that’s still in the portal. There’s options out there like that.”