Alabama Athletics
Herb Jones Out Indefinitely With Wrist Injury
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Alabama men's basketball junior forward/guard Herbert Jones will be out indefinitely after undergoing surgery on his left wrist that he suffered in the Crimson Tide's Jan. 29 game at LSU.
“We are all disappointed for Herb,” Oats said in a statement. “He is one of our leaders and has been through a lot this season with his elbow injury at the beginning of the year and having to recover from that. He had been playing as well as he has all season, and this is certainly a tough blow to our team. Herb is as tough as they come – both mentally and physically – and we know he will come back stronger and better from this.”
Jones had successful surgery to repair a fracture in his left wrist Saturday morning at Andrews Sports Medicine/St. Vincent's Hospital in Birmingham, Ala. He is expected to make a full recovery.
So far in the 2019-2020 season, Jones had become one of the Crimson Tide's most well-rounded defenders. He is currently ranked second on the team in rebounds with 120, and leads the team with 36 offensive rebounds.
In 19 games started, Jones averaged 9.9 points per game and 6.3 rebounds per game.
With first-year head coach Nate Oats at the helm, Jones has developed into an even better player than he was last year, exuding the toughness and grit that Oats likes to engrain into his players.
Oats spoke about Jones' toughness on Friday prior to the full extent of his injury being revealed.
“If you looked at our blue collar board, I think we were up around 80 points and Herb had over 30 of them himself," Oats said. "We’ve got to get the rest of the guys to get their numbers up. We know Herb’s going to take charges. We know Herb is going to get deflections, loose balls, rebounds.
"We’ve got to get everybody else doing the same thing.”
Jones' injury is the latest in a slew of injuries and illnesses that have plagued Alabama this season. Currently, graduate-student guard James 'Beetle' Bolden is also sidelined with a gastrointestinal sickness. That same sickness also caused Bolden to sit out the LSU game as well.
There is no current timetable for Jones' return.
