Alabama Basketball Player Previews: Retin Obasohan
Crystal LoGiudice-US PRESSWIRE
The Alabama Crimson Tide Basketball season is quickly approaching with the Tide hosting an exhibition game against Stillman College on November 6th. The season gets officially underway on November 9th as Alabama hosts South Dakota State as part of the 2K Sports Classic.
With the season so close, BamaHammer writers John Mitchell, Nick Jones, and Chris Dodson are previewing each of the ten players on scholarship for the Crimson Tide. Make sure you keep up with the previews as a new player will be previewed each day.
Here’s the schedule:
10/29: Retin Obasohan
10/30: Devonta Pollard
10/31: Rodney Cooper
11/1: Trevor Lacey
11/2: Nick Jacobs
11/3: Levi Randolph
11/4: Carl Engstrom
11/4: Moussa Gueye
11/5: Trevor Releford
11/5: Andrew Steele
One of the two new faces for Alabama Basketball this season is redshirt freshman guard Retin Obasohan from Antwerp, Belgium. Obasohan got the benefit of a redshirt season in 2011-12 as he sat and learned Anthony Grant’s system. He chose the University of Alabama over playing professional basketball in Europe.
He isn’t exactly a new face, as you probably saw him on the bench several times last year excitedly cheering on his teammates as the Crimson Tide broke their NCAA Tournament drought with an appearance in the Big Dance last season.
The door to playing time for Obasohan this season was opened when senior Ben Eblen announced that he would not be returning to the team this year. That left a void at the backup point guard spot, a position that could be occupied by Obasohan. Sophomore guard Trevor Lacey is also likely to see minutes at point guard when Trevor Releford is on the bench.
The key for Obasohan to get minutes will be how well he plays on the defensive end and not turning the ball over. They won’t need him to score a lot off the bench; he’ll just need to take care of the ball and play the kind of defense that head coach Anthony Grant expects out of all of his players. Ben Eblen provided next to nothing on the offensive end, but he was a very sound perimeter defender.
At 6-foot-1, Obasohan is a great athlete for his size with the ability to dunk with relative ease. He also has great quickness that will be utilized big time in Grant’s system. His quickness allows him to gamble some on the defensive end because he has the ability to recover.
Presumably, Obasohan is still raw on the offensive end, but like I said before he won’t be on the floor to score a lot of points. The quickest and easiest path to playing time under Anthony Grant is by playing lockdown defense and taking care of the basketball.
Look for Obasohan to also provide great energy to the team when he steps on the floor, and look for him to continue to try and fire up the guys while he is on the bench.
Anthony Grant had this to say when asked about Obasohan by Alabama beat writer Don Kausler:
“I’m excited about Retin. He gained some valuable experience last year as a redshirt understanding our system and college basketball. He’s worked extremely hard. He’s a great kid, a high basketball IQ, a great worker.”
Along with what he’ll provide on the court, Obasohan seems to be a great ambassador for Alabama Basketball off the court. He seems like a genuinely good guy outside of basketball if you follow him on twitter.
For more information on Alabama’s redshirt freshman guard, you can check out this interview I did with him back in March.
Follow John on Twitter.