Alabama Basketball's Senior Class Embodies Modern College Basketball
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Senior days in college basketball used to be celebrations for players who went to a school, and played there for all four years of their eligibility.
Nowadays, with the transfer portal and the elimination of the one-time transfer rule in college basketball, senior days look a little different. Perhaps in no place is that truer than Alabama, who will honor six members of its senior class against Arkansas on Saturday.
Those six players include five scholarship players — Aaron Estrada, Mark Sears, Grant Nelson, Latrell Wrightsell, and Nick Pringle — and one walk-on — Max Scharnowski.
While Scharnowski spent his entire career in Tuscaloosa, not a single one of Alabama's five scholarship seniors began their collegiate basketball careers at Alabama.
“The way college basketball has become over the last few years with the transfer portal and kids coming in, they’re all really good players, they’re all a big part of us winning this year," Alabama head coach Nate Oats said of this year's senior class. "I think the days where you see a really high-level player stick around for four straight years, you’re not going to see as much of that.”
The notable part of Alabama's transfers, is that they all came from lower levels, and some went through two, even three schools before they wound up in Tuscaloosa.
“Sometimes the transfers make sense. You look at a lot of the transfers we took: Aaron, Grant, Nick, Mark and Wrightsell all started at a lower school. So if you’re playing really well, it’s not like they’re running from competition. They played really well where they were at and they were able to work their way up," Oats said. "Estrada started at St. Peter’s, played great and was able to move up. Grant was at North Dakota State, Pringle started his career at Wofford. Sears went to Ohio and Wrightsell went to Cal State Fullerton.
"We’re a higher level than all those, so I think those are transfer decisions that make sense, to move up and play against the highest level and I think you’ll see a lot more of that moving forward."
Each one of Alabama's transfers started at a lower level and used the transfer portal to their advantage as they worked their way up the ranks. Sears probably came from the highest non-high-major level at the MAC, while Estrada came from the CAA, Nelson came from the Summit League, Wrightsell came from the Big West and Pringle came from the JUCO ranks.
But there's another aspect of college basketball that's become a major factor for seniors the past couple of years, and that's the COVID year. To rehash, every player that played during the 2020-21 season was given an extra year of eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
That means the only Alabama senior who is out of eligibility is Aaron Estrada, who is on his fifth year playing college basketball.
Despite the fact that the rest of the Crimson Tide's senior class still has the option to return for another year, Oats wanted to keep the focus for his team on the here and now, and not put his players in difficult situations when it comes to future decisions.
“We’re going to honor all six of our seniors. It’s different with senior day now, with the COVID year you’ve got all these guys that aren’t done with their eligibilities," Oats said. "The only one that’s exhausted his eligibility completely after this year is Estrada. But we didn’t want to put guys in positions to have to decide whether to honor or not. We’re just going to honor all six of those guys. The other guys will graduate, and we’ll talk to them about whether they wat to use their COVID year or not after this year.”
The one player who doesn't have the option to come back is Estrada, a player who's taken a whirlwind of a journey to wind up in Tuscaloosa. He started at St. Peter's, then after his freshman season transferred to Oregon. After spending one season at Oregon, he transferred to Hofstra where he was the 2-time CAA Player of the Year before arriving in Tuscaloosa last summer.
"Honestly man, it's been everything I could dream of," Estrada said of his time at Alabama. "Just playing for a high-major, I started every game, I played major minutes. I was a big contributor to our success. I just feel like this year, we really grew together as a team."
Oats particularly spoke of Estrada, and how much he wants the team to be successful in March this year for him, knowing it's the last season of his career.
"I talked a lot about, I think we owe it to Aaron to give him everything we have," Oats said. "He’s poured his heart and soul into this program in the year he’s been here. He’s never played in an NCAA Tournament, the year he was at Oregon was the COVID year. We're going to be playing in the NCAA Tournament, [...] to get him as many games in the tournament as possible would be great for him.”
Even Pringle, who will have his senior day celebration alongside Estrada on Saturday, was more focused on it being Estrada's final home game than thinking about what he will do with his last year of eligibility in the future.
"I'm really just trying to be where my feet are, honestly," Pringle said. "Just being here for my guys, especially Aaron, this is his last year. Trying to give it all out for him. It's tough to think about, man, knowing a guy that you love a lot, is just a few games away from not playing in college anymore."
Oats has adapted to the changing landscape in college basketball as well as any other coach in the country, with the wins and championships to show for it.
From a class full of seniors who can still come back another year, to the one player out of eligibility being on his fourth school in five years, if you want a picture of modern college basketball you don't have to look any further than Alabama's senior day in 2024.
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