Nate Oats Gives Timeline for Alabama F James Rojas' Return

Rojas has not seen any action on the hardwood this season due to an ACL injury that he suffered last June.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Back in June, Alabama basketball senior forward James Rojas tore his ACL in practice, which ultimately required him to have surgery and miss the first half of the season.

On Tuesday afternoon, Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats offered an update on Rojas, who hasn't seen any time on the court yet this season.

"He's participated in non-live drills now, so they're hoping two to three weeks now," Oats said in a press conference via Zoom. "Maybe middle of January, end of January — somewhere in there. It's going to be somewhat determined by how he looks once he gets into the lot and some of the live stuff but he's looked so far in all of the live stuff he's done."

Rojas played in 30 contests making one start during 2020-21 campaign, and averaged 2.9 points and 2.6 rebounds in 11.1 minutes per game.

He had 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the floor vs. Florida (1/5) to go along with seven boards while also drawing eight fouls which resulted in nine free throw attempts (5-of-9) — all of which were career-best numbers.

Rojas injured his right ACL prior to the 2019-20 season, resulting in a medical redshirt.

On Dec. 28, Oats offered an injury update on Rojas and discussed how his return could impact Alabama basketball.

“We need him back as soon as we can get him because he’s obviously one guy that’s not soft,” Oats said. “He’ll take the fight to the opponent. I think he would help shore up a lot of rebounding issues because he’s not going to get pushed around. We all know how Rojas plays. He’s one of the tougher, grittier, hard-nosed, blue-collar type of guys in the league, so we could use him. He’s still not practicing in any live kind of action.

"We had an aggressive timeline to start with with him because he responded so well the first time and he’s responding well now, but there’s been a couple of setbacks. He’s gotten sick and hasn’t been able to do some of the rehab at times, but he’s getting close. [...] Shoot, I’d love to get him back was soon as we can because I think he would help shore up some of these issues that we’re having.”