He may not be Alabama's best player; that distinction goes to Labaron Philon. But there might not be a more important player for the Crimson Tide than sophomore center Aiden Sherrell. His importance has been further amplified with Charles Bediako's loss in court preventing him from playing.
That means the weight of the world - or in the very least, Alabama's season - is on the broad shoulders of Sherrell. He has blossomed in his second season in Tuscaloosa, and he keeps getting better and better. Nate Oats keeps asking for more from the stud sophomore, and Sherrell keeps delivering time and time again.
Alabama's frontcourt is extremely limited without Bediako. Collins Onyejiaka and Keitenn Bristow are expected to miss the rest of the season, and Florida State transfer Taylor Bol Bowen has been hampered recently. Oats can't rely on much from Bucknell transfer Noah Williamson as he hoped, so Sherrell has to carry a significant load.
Against Arkansas, it was the heaviest workload of his career. And it turned into the best performance of his career. Alabama needed every bit of it to outlast the Razorbacks 117-115 in double overtime in Tuscaloosa.
In a career-high 39 minutes, Sherrell scored a career-high 26 points and grabbed a career-high 13 rebounds. He was Alabama's leader in +/- at +16 in a two-point win.
"He had a positive offensive leverage. He played well. He had positive defensive leverage. That’s why he led the team in the +/-," Oats said about Sherrell after the game. "He was great. It’s a great thing that Clarke did a good enough job making sure he was ready to go, that he was able to play almost 40 minutes tonight.”
Aiden Sherrell was Alabama's MVP against Arkansas
Labaron Philon will grab the headlines with his 35 points and 7 assists. That's just the nature of it. But Sherrell was the Tide's most valuable player. He punished Arkansas on the interior, going 10-of-13 from the floor. He didn't attempt a single three-pointer. All of his points came at the rim, and he emphatically dunked several.
His aggressiveness attacking the rim is a huge change for a player who has always been more finesse when trying to score in the paint. He threw that out the window and had a career-high in dunks. Arkansas had zero answers for the two-man game between Sherrell and Philon.
All the Hogs could do was foul him, and the Tide's sophomore big man confidently stepped to the free-throw line and hit 6-of-7.
Perhaps most impressively was Sherrell's ability to navigate both overtime periods with four fouls without fouling out. It would have been unlikely for Alabama to come out with a win if Sherrell wasn't out there down the stretch.
The version of Sherrell the Tide got on Wednesday night against Arkansas changes the ceiling for this team. He looked like one of the better bigs in the country, and if his aggressiveness attacking the rim continues, he gives Alabama a significant counter to when teams are over-aggressive in running them off the three-point line.