Alabama basketball is almost back to full strength as it turns to SEC play with Noah Clowney and Dom Welch gearing up for a return.
The Crimson Tide (11-2) will start SEC play at Mississippi State on Wednesday (8 p.m., SEC Network). Clowney missed the last game versus Jackson State due to an unspecified illness but is back practicing with the team since Christmas night.
“Clowney’s been back, we eased him back in,” Nate Oats said Tuesday. “He’s getting his strength back, putting some weight back on, he lost some weight with the illness. He’s back, he’s practicing, he was full go today. We didn’t limit him with anything today.”
Clowney has played in 11 games, starting all of them while averaging 9.5 points a game. The 6-foot-10 freshman forward has averaged 8.8 rebounds and scored a season-high 22 points against South Dakota State.
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Alabama is also hoping to get Welch back after he missed all of this season’s games so far with a calf injury. The transfer from St. Bonaventure is looking for his first minutes with the Crimson Tide but they will come under a minute restriction. While with the Bonnies he shot 37.4% from 3-point range while averaging 10.9 points and 5.9 rebounds a game.
“Dom was able to get a workout in last night, practiced with the team today,” Oats said. “He’s still dealing with the calf strain so he didn’t go through the full practice today, he went through parts of it to see how he felt. We’re going to see how he feels tomorrow, go through shoot around and then make a determination. If he does play tomorrow it will be on a minute restriction but it’ll be nice to get him back.
Nimari Burnett is still out with a wrist injury that required surgery and is out indefinitely.
