Alabama Basketball, Nate Oats "Super Excited" to Add Three New Signees in Nation's Fifth-Best Recruiting Class
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — On Wednesday, Alabama basketball continued the process of building during the offseason.
Wednesday marked the first day of the late-signing period for college basketball, and with it came three new members who joined the Crimson Tide in 2021 center Charles Bediako, Texas Tech transfer guard Nimari Burnett and Furman transfer forward Noah Gurley. All three players will likely have an immediate impact on Alabama's roster in 2021 considering the key departures that the team has this season.
Sports Illustrated All-American ranks the Crimson Tide's 2021 recruiting class, which also features elite guard JD Davison and wing Jusaun Holt, fifth in the nation and second in the Southeastern Conference, only behind Kentucky.
On Wednesday, Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats hosted a press conference to remarks on Alabama's three new additions. He started by discussing Bediako.
"He's a big that runs the floor hard," Oats said. "He's athletics, protects the rim, rebounds well — great kid. Obviously he's got the Canadian relationship, you know, he's played with [Josh] Primo and Keon Ambrose-Hylton. Those three had a relationship already so we're excited about getting him here.
"We've been recruiting him awhile and really good relationship with him that we've built over a long time and I can't wait to get him on campus and see what we can do."
Bediako sports a 7-2 wingspan and will provide the Crimson Tide with much-needed rim protection, something that Alabama struggled with on a regular basis late last season.
Next up, Oats moved on to talk about Burnett, who just recently committed to Alabama last Thursday. Oats and Alabama recruited Burnett while he was in high school, but the guard ultimately decided to attend Texas Tech. Now, he's transferred to the Crimson Tide, and Oats seems pleased with his decision.
"We recruited Nimari really hard out of high school," Oats said. "Developed a great relationship with him, with his family, his parents — really enjoyed getting to know them. When we didn't get him initially, I thought we handled it correctly. We still kept the relationship — couldn't really talk to him and stuff after he committed — but we handled it correctly when we didn't get him the first time. They followed back up, they watched us play a lot, they let us know they enjoyed watching us play.
"We still had high regards for him as a player. He's one of the best two-way players out there — we thought he was coming out of high school — he can really shoot the ball well. He can defend at a high level. He fits the way we want to play in that regard. We play multiple guards, we have a lot of guards but he's coming in with the understanding he's going to fight for every minute he gets and he wants to play in a system that's more like ours and I think he's going to be great in our system."
Both Burnett and incoming freshman JD Davison are McDonald's All-Americans. Combined with junior guard Jahvon Quinerly, and the team now has three former players that were named to the prestigious ranks heading out of high school.
Finally, Oats commented on Furman grad-transfer Gurley, who announced that he would be joining the team on Sunday. During his final season with the Paladins, he averaged 15.4 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.1 blocks and one steal. Gurley was an All-SoCon honoree in each of his three years at Furman.
"We added a good big in Jordan Bruner as far as grad transfers went last year," Oats said. "Noah's a guy that we played against twice. Really had a hard time guarding ourselves. Didn't really have an answer for him when we played him so when his name popped up in the portal the whole staff was fired up about trying to go after him. If we had a hard time guarding him, he'd be a good addition. Plus he plays the way we want to play: he can make threes, he can play multiple positions across the front court, he's got good size and athleticism, he's a high-character kid.
"Really excited. I think he gives us that versatile big that can play multiple positions that's got a high IQ like we like and playing the perimeter and can post up as well, can shoot the three, can pass, dribble and shoot so he fits what we want as a forward."
With the three new additions from Wednesday, Alabama basketball is now one player over its scholarship limit. With Langston Wilson no longer joining the program after requesting to opt out of his NLI earlier this week, Oats and his staff will have decisions to make heading into the 2021 season.
That being said, a quick look at the Crimson Tide's roster is definitely a reason to get excited for fans, regardless of who the last player that decides to pursue basketball elsewhere will be.
