The Grind: Nick Pringle's Basketball Journey
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — At first glance, Nick Pringle is the prototypical Power 5 basketball player: tall, muscular build, and athletically gifted.
The image of the Seabrook, S.C., product is a simple one, but the path that led him to the University of Alabama and one of the best teams in the nation was a challenging one. The Pringle that fans see today didn't always jump out of the gym or stand at 6-foot-9. As a matter of fact, basketball wasn't even Pringle's first sport.
"To be real, I fell in love with football first," Pringle said. "Just being 5 foot 6, 5 foot 8, in middle school with my guys, I started picking up on football. I had good hands and good feet."
Pringle didn't play organized basketball until his eighth grade year, after being cut his seventh grade year. During his first year, however, Pringle saw that he had some talent, from being able to shoot to finishing at the rim. He used this realization to continue building his skillset when he reached Whale Branch High School, where Pringle was barely six feet tall as a freshman.
By the end of high school, Pringle had a major growth spurt, standing at about 6 feet, 8 inches as a senior.
"I knew the height was coming. My mom is 5 feet, 10 inches and my dad is 6 feet, eight inches," Pringle said. "It was going to come eventually, but the transition was good. It was a blessing."
Pringle said that even at his new height, he was still involved in a lot of perimeter play, from handling the ball to coming off screens to facilitating. But he was still lacking a trait that many know him for now: playing above the rim.
"I didn't even have great athleticism until my senior year. I only had two dunks my junior year," Pringle said. "To see me now and reflect on those times, it's crazy to see my growth. It just makes me happy."
Part of the reason Pringle was a late bloomer was the fact that he didn't begin strength training until his junior year. That, along with studying the game itself, was something Pringle wished he started earlier so he would be farther along now. Beyond that, there was another component of basketball that Pringle picked up late: AAU.
Playing for a good AAU program is just as important, and maybe more, as playing for the high school team, but Pringle didn't get involved until after his junior year and into his senior year. The program he joined was TMP, a Charleston-based program that produced NBA Champion Khris Middleton and University of Tennessee guard Josiah-Jordan James.
"We would drive an hour both ways every day between going to practice and back home," Pringle said. "It was a grind, I had to go get it. I just tried to do anything to grab some offers."
In addition to playing for TMP, Pringle still played for his local AAU team to help bring notoriety and success, but it was his play with the larger program that resulted in six offers.
One of those came from Jake Williams, who was the head coach at the University of South Carolina at Salkehatchie, a junior college about two hours away from Seabrook.
Williams was familiar with Pringle for two reasons. First, Pringle played similar to Ahmad Rand, who played for Williams and was about to move on to a four-year school, leaving Williams to find that same type of player to replicate the success Rand brought to the team.
Second, Williams had a player who was also from Seabrook that grew up with Pringle.
"I kind of knew who Nick was as a junior in high school," Williams said. "And as a junior, he wasn't anywhere near 6 foot 10, and he was like a baby deer: long, wiry 6 foot 5, trying to grow into his body. But you saw the frame and length and you knew he was gonna sprout. And his senior year he was about 6 foot 8, and was really athletic, shooting 3-pointers, getting blocks and doing all the stuff that Ahmad was doing."
Williams also said that at the time Pringle wasn't being recruited by any other program, a gem hidden in the low country of South Carolina. But when the time came to make his decision, Pringle had picked up an offer from Wofford, a mid-major school near the northern border of South Carolina in Spartanburg.
"I remember telling [Pringle] that 'No disrespect to Wofford, that's a really good mid-major college program, but if you come and play for me in junior college, I can assure just how Ahmad went to Memphis, you're gonna get Power 5 looks," Williams said. "You may not know it, you're a Power 5 player."
Though it didn't surprise Williams, Pringle chose to play for Wofford, where he appeared in 15 games, the most successful of which was a 17-point, 11-rebound double-double against Carver. But it was a struggle during his lone season with the Terriers, and Pringle was honest as to why.
"My lack of focus," Pringle said. "I feel like I didn't really lock into the process, I didn't trust guys around me, and I didn't buy into what I needed to."
Williams, who became the head coach at Dodge City Community College the same year Pringle went to Wofford, had similar sentiments as to why Pringle didn't have much success his first season.
"I tell my guys all the time: inconsistent work leads to inconsistent production," Williams said. "It's a simple concept."
The rough season on the court combined with poor academic performance led Pringle to transfer to a junior college. There were three schools that were in the running before he made his decision: Navarro College, Florida Southwestern...
... and Dodge City.
"When I saw his name in the transfer portal, almost immediately I contacted him, his family and his AAU coach," Williams said. "We had some power JuCos trying to compete, but it was no use. I coached so many South Carolina guys and had so many connections to him. So he ultimately ended up coming to Dodge City."
What almost came to fruition in Alledale, S.C., ended up taking place in Dodge City, Kansas: Nick Pringle joins forces with Jake Williams.
"He had some guys that I knew personally as well," Pringle said. "I went there, I trusted him and we had a great 30-5 season.
"I felt like he would've gotten me where I needed to be."
In addition to being a part of a 30-win team, Pringle averaged 9.2 points and 8.9 rebounds, including seven double-doubles. His best game was against Hutchinson, when he scored 17 points and grabbed 20 rebounds.
He improved so much that Pringle was rated the top forward and No. 2-overall player in all of JuCo basketball according to 247Sports.
"I definitely wasn't expecting that," Pringle said. "I was expecting to go back to a high mid-major."
Even though there was plenty of on-court success, where Williams saw Pringle grow the most was off the court with his maturity.
"When you go away from home for the first time as a college freshman, life has a funny way of kicking you in the ass," Williams said. "Your making your own life decisions on a daily basis. You decide if you go to class, stay up late and do your homework or not. It's the maturation process.
"I like to think he gained weight and we helped him as a player, but I think the biggest thing was that Nick matured from a young man to a man and took responsibilities for his actions on the floor. I was really proud of his maturation process."
Pringle made the honor roll at Dodge City, something he was really proud of, and worked ahead in his classes, allowing for extra time to work on his game. It all paid off as he started receiving offers from several SEC schools, including Georgia, Mississippi State and Ole Miss.
It was the Mullen Jamboree in Dallas, Texas where the interest from Alabama began.
"I remember coach Bryan Hodgson was at our jamboree, and I know Cody Hopkins who's good friends with Bryan," Williams said. "Cody told Bryan 'You need to go watch Nick Pringle for Dodge City."
Hopkins is a national junior-college scout based in Dallas who encouraged Hodgson to give Pringle a look. Sure enough, Alabama joined the hunt, and was so invested even Nate Oats made several trips to watch Pringle.
"I told my guys 'When the head coach is coming out to see you, you're a priority,'" Williams said. "There were a lot of head coaches; Mississippi State, Kermit Davis at Ole Miss, Huggins. But I thought coach Oats and Hodgson did a really good job of getting in there and building a relationship, letting Nick know he was a priority."
The program at Alabama was not new to Pringle, who had been watching the Crimson Tide since his Wofford days.
"I love their play style," Pringle said. "It's a guard-heavy team, but I don't see myself as a facilitator. I see myself as a guy who can put out there for energy, do all the dirty work, things that don't show up on the stat sheet. I was not looking to be the primary guy somewhere, even though I'm capable of doing so. I feel like I needed that development piece, surrounding myself with players that are better than me so I can grow as a person and a player."
Now a junior, Pringle wears No. 23 for Alabama men's basketball. But he was still one of many new names on the roster, and while the team quickly became one of the best in the nation he didn't see much action initially. The big man averaged about 6 and a half minutes during the first 11 games.
"Yeah it's frustrating internally," Pringle said about the limited minutes. "But externally, you gotta be happy for your guys, and it's nothing fake about it. I'm on scout team half of the time, and I'm proud of that. I've grown. It's getting my confidence going and I give Charles Bediako a better look when his future matchup isn't as athletic or as good of a finisher as me. I just give him a good look and he's prepared to the fullest because of me."
Meanwhile, Pringle continued to be one of the loudest guys on the bench, cheering, jumping during big plays and coaching guys up during timeouts. He also began to show his personality off the court; whenever Alabama wins, Pringle would share a video from The Cereal Box, LLC, a company he partnered with that makes funny videos involving the opponent Alabama just defeated.
Here's the most recent one after Alabama defeated LSU:
Pringle said the video idea was passed down from former Alabama and current Nebraska player Juwan Gary, who ironically is also from South Carolina
"I guess South Carolina guys are in charge of trolling," Pringle said. "But it's all respect for anyone in the videos, just tryna bring energy and get the fans involved."
Pringle's chance to step up on the court finally came against Jackson State. In a season-high 19 minutes, he finished with 14 points, nine rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block.
"I'm not sure if it was foul trouble or something else, but I just had an opportunity to go out there, and I played my ass off," Pringle said. "I just tried not to get caught up in outside noise, not worry about mistakes and let things come to me.
"My teammates real life trust me. I'm one of the last guys on the sheet, but when I come in they all trust me to bring energy."
His performance earned the Hard Hat, the team award for the best "Blue Collar" player, essentially the player of the game. It was also a sure sign that more opportunities would follow.
Sure enough, in the SEC opener at Mississippi State, Charles Bediako got into foul trouble. Pringle played 20 minutes, scoring 10 points and grabbing four rebounds.
"I knew Mississippi State was a big team, so we were focused on rebounding," Pringle said. "I just want to do all the little things."
Oats has said that Pringle's minutes aren't solely based on how he plays; it depends more on matchups and how the forward plays during his first stretch, which will be a strong indicator on if he returns to the court. Since the Mississippi State game, Pringle has only played more than 10 minutes once, with the bulk of his playing coming in spot minutes or garbage time. The exception was against LSU. He scored 10 points and grabbed seven rebounds in 19 minutes.
Still, Pringle is self-aware, knowing that he has to continue to improve, and more importantly, his basketball IQ — which is a testament to how far the Seabrook, South Carolina native has come.
"I just want to learn more about the game." Pringle said. "I feel like not buying in my first year of college set me back a little bit, but it's coming. Asking questions has become an interest of mine. I used to not like asking because I thought I knew it out. It's a learning process."
See Also:
Alabama's 3-Point Shooting Opening up More on Offense
Alabama Basketball's Bench Continues to Inspire Offensive Production
Alabama Basketball Up to No. 3 in Latest AP Top 25, Coaches Poll
