Injuries have been a constant nuisance for Nate Oats and Alabama basketball this year. Only Houston Mallette and Noah Williamson have suited up for all 21 games.
Florida State transfer forward Taylor Bol Bowen has dealt with several nagging injuries, including an issue with his hand that has limited his offensive effectiveness.
He suffered an additional injury on Sunday against Florida. Bol Bowen came off the bench in Gainesville, but only played two minutes before leaving with a right leg injury. He did not return.
Oats talked to the media on Tuesday and provided an update on Bol Bowen's status ahead of Alabama's pivotal home matchup against Texas A&M on Wednesday night.
“He’s got the right leg injury. We’ll see if he can come along between now and tomorrow," Oats told reporters on Tuesday. "Hopefully, he does. I thought we had everybody we were gonna have for the year there to start the Florida game, and then, less than two minutes in, Taylor hurt his right leg. I don’t know.
“It’s not gonna be a long-term thing, but I don’t know if he’ll be able to play tomorrow night. He didn’t practice at all today.”
Alabama officially listed Bol Bowen as questionable for the Texas A&M game.
Taylor Bol Bowen is questionable to play for Alabama vs. Texas A&M
As Oats said, it looked like Alabama was finally going to be as healthy as they could reasonably be against Florida on Sunday. And then Bol Bowen got knocked out of the game after just a couple of minutes. It has been that kind of year.
Bol Bowen has earned a lot of praise from Oats recently for gutting through injury and bringing the effort and energy he was begging for early in the season. His raw numbers might not jump off the page (7.7 points, 5.4 rebounds per game), but Bol Bowen is an integral part of the Crimson Tide's rotation.
Against a pressing A&M team that will force Alabama to play even more up-tempo than they already do, it would be nice if Bol Bowen could go and give the Crimson Tide 11 healthy scholarship bodies to throw out there.
Regardless of who is available, Alabama has to figure out a way to get a win at home and avoid falling below .500 in SEC play.
UPDATE:
In Alabama's final availability report before tip-off against the Aggies, Bol Bowen was officially ruled out.