Labaron Philon seems a little worse for wear after carrying a major workload during Alabama's double-overtime win over Arkansas on Wednesday night. The star sophomore guard played a career-high 41 minutes and carried the Crimson Tide with 35 points and 7 assists.
He came into Saturday's matchup against LSU carrying a "probable" designation on the injury report. Philon has dealt with a number of minor injuries throughout his second season in Tuscaloosa, even having to miss Alabama's win over Yale because of it.
While he was ultimately able to play in Baton Rouge, Philon wasn't able to give Alabama much. He finished with a season-low eight points, the first time this season he hasn't scored in double-figures. He only played 24 minutes overall and made just 2-of-8 from the floor.
Alabama was able to pull out a 90-83 win over LSU without much from its star guard, but Nate Oats didn't paint the rosiest of pictures with his postgame comments.
Oats said that Philon has "a lot of basketball bumps and bruises," and noted he wasn't able to practice on Friday.
"He still wasn't anything close to where he needs to be. ...We'll have to try to manage his workload Monday, Tuesday, and see where we can get him Wednesday."
Alabama needs to get Labaron Philon healthy for the stretch run
Philon looked as healthy as he had been in weeks during Alabama's win over Arkansas, but it's clear that the workload wore on him. That's concerning with the SEC and NCAA Tournament coming up and how much Alabama will have to ask of the star sophomore guard.
Alabama will look to get him healthy before its next game on Wednesday against Mississippi State at home. The Bulldogs have struggled this season, but can be dangerous with the streaky Josh Hubbard capable of popping off for a 30-piece on any given night.
If the Crimson Tide can get out to a big lead, it would be nice to only have to play Philon a similar amount of minutes that he saw against LSU. Because next Saturday, Alabama travels to Knoxville for a pivotal game in the SEC standings and NCAA Tournament positioning, and it will need Philon as close to 100% as possible to have a chance at getting the win.