Nate Oats Updates Health of Team Heading into Mississippi State Matchup

Alabama will likely be without guard Latrell Wrightsell Jr. against the Bulldogs, but Oats is hopeful the schedule over the next two weeks allows his team to get healthy for the final months of the regular season.

Latrell Wrightsell Jr. celebrates a big play against Purdue in the second half of the game on November 13, 2025. | Sarah Munzenmaier/Alabama Crimson Tide on SI

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— Alabama's starting lineup against Texas on Tuesday was its 10th different starting configuration of the season just 16 games into Nate Oats' seventh season as the head coach of the Crimson Tide.

"We've never had 10 different starting lineups through an entire season," Oats said during a Monday press conference. "We're only halfway through the year. We've had to have 10 different starting lineups, so not ideal, but got some guys getting different reps. Hopefully it makes us better for February and March. I hope everybody’s trending the right direction."

Heading into Tuesday's matchup at Mississippi State (10-6, 2-1 SEC), No. 18 Alabama (11-5, 1-2 SEC) is expected to be without at least three players. Freshmen Davion Hannah and Collins Onyejika are both out for an indefinite period of time, and graduate guard Latrell Wrightsell Jr. is "probably doubtful" to miss his second game in a row with a right leg injury.

"He didn’t practice today but was vocal on the sideline," Oats said of Wrightsell. "I think he wants to be in, but Clarke [Holter] is not comfortable yet with where he’s at with the right leg injury he’s got going. I would say he’s probably doubtful unless something happens because even with Sherrell, Aiden was able to practice at least some before Saturday’s game… Trelly didn’t do much of anything today, so I’d say he’s probably doubtful for tomorrow.”

Forward Aiden Sherrell returned to the lineup on Saturday, but only played 24 minutes in the loss to Texas.

Alabama is at a crucial point early in the SEC slate after dropping its last two games to Vanderbilt and Texas. This week the Crimson Tide plays two road games at Mississippi State on Tuesday and at Oklahoma on Saturday. After that, Alabama has its midweek break next week and won't play against until a home game against Tennessee on Jan. 24.

The way the schedule sets up should give the Crimson Tide an opportunity to get healthy heading into the final stretch of the regular season.

" Sherrell’s a lot closer to being 100 percent today than he was a week ago, five days ago," Oats said. "Hopefully Wrightsell, if he doesn’t play Wednesday, we’ll see what Saturday looks. Then after Saturday, we've got our break. So we’ve got two games, and we don't play for a week, and hopefully by the time we come back from that, we’ve got everybody healthy.

“So we're getting closer, we'll be closer to it tomorrow. Hopefully nothing happens in the game tomorrow and playing Saturday’s game without sustaining any injuries in those two games. I think after that week off, we should be as close to 100 percent as we could be, and then we’ve just got to get things rolling from there. But we’ve got two games between now and then, and we’re 1-2 in league play. We can’t afford to drop two more. We’ll kind of be out of the mix at that point."

Alabama will take on Mississippi State Tuesday at 8 p.m. CT on SEC Network.