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Nate Oats Says Charles Bediako’s Ineligibility Cost Alabama in Sweet 16
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No. 4 seed Alabama’s run through March Madness came to an end on Friday night with a 90–77 loss in the men’s Sweet 16 to No. 1 Michigan.
The loss puts a cap on what has been a whirlwind season for the Crimson Tide, during which Alabama was ranked as high as No. 8 in the nation, but also saw the team at the center of some legal drama regarding the eligibility of big man Charles Bediako.
Bediako went undrafted in 2023 and played across three seasons in the G League, before attempting to return to the Tide to play out this season. Bediako appeared in five games as the legal process played out before ultimately being ruled ineligible.
After the Tide’s loss on Friday, coach Nate Oats cited the ruling against Bediako as one of the reasons his team fell short against the Wolverines.
“We know we gotta get bigger,” Oats told reporters. “Most people, including ourselves, thought Bediako would be eligible. We had one judge who thought so. He would've definitely helped the situation with the rebounding. ... We wouldn't have gotten outrebounded by 13 tonight had we been able to continue to play him.”
“It wasn’t meant to be,” Oats concluded.
Nate Oats postgame 👀
— The Field of 68 (@TheFieldOf68) March 28, 2026
"We know we gotta get bigger... We saw the opportunity to bring some size on, after Nnaji was declared eligible, and most people, including ourselves, thought Bediako would be eligible. We had one judge who thought so. He would've definitely helped the… pic.twitter.com/9GIJntY8RI
It’s a pretty jarring comment from the coach in this context. Minutes after his team’s tournament dreams were dashed, he was out rehashing an eligibility issue that felt pretty cut and dry to anyone that was not a direct booster of Alabama basketball.
There’s a multitude of reasons Alabama is going home. Bediako’s eligibility, sure, it’s on the list, but much higher on that list is that Michigan is playing really, really good basketball right now. They advance to the Elite Eight where they will play for a spot in the Final Four on Sunday.
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Tyler Lauletta is a staff writer for the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI, he covered sports for nearly a decade at Business Insider, and helped design and launch the OffBall newsletter. He is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, and remains an Eagles and Phillies sicko. When not watching or blogging about sports, Tyler can be found scratching his dog behind the ears.