Taylor Bol Bowen 'Healthy Now' and Confident for Alabama in Postseason

TAMPA, Fla.–– Taylor Bol Bowen's season got off to a strong start with the Crimson Tide after transferring in from Florida State. He scored in double figures in six of Alabama's first eight games, but Bol Bown would soon be facing his first injuries of the season.

The 6-10 forward has missed five games this season, four of which were in SEC play. Some games, like at Florida on Feb. 1, Bol Bowen was only able to play a few minutes off the bench. But he slowly was able to ramp up his minutes and has started looking like the old Bol Bowen as the Crimson Tide entered postseason play, scoring 15 points in Alabama's Round of 64 victory on Friday.

"It’s definitely been a lot of ups and downs and dealing with adversity with injuries and everything," Bol Bowen said. "I’m just glad to be able to be healthy now, to be able to be compete.”

Bol Bowen said he feels healthy now and has felt good "for a while now," but it wasn't always that way.

"It made it really difficult, during SEC play especially," Bol Bowen said. "I missed a ton of practice, a few games, a handful of games I was going in and out dealing with multiple injuries."

He looked fully healthy in Alabama's win over Hofstra, flying up and down the court. He helped replace some of the scoring that was missing without Aden Holloway, but he was also active on defense. While he only pulled down two rebounds, Bol Bowen also added three blocks.

"To get him to play that well makes us a totally different team," Alabama head coach Nate Oats said Saturday. "When our front court has depth and they're playing extremely well, we're a different team, and hopefully he can take the confidence from that game and keep building for tomorrow's game.”

Bol Bowen spent two seasons at Florida State and did not get to play in the NCAA tournament. Oats said the forward really relished the opportunity as the Crimson Tide prepares for another tournament game Sunday evening against Texas Tech in the Round of 32.

"I think Taylor has done a very good job getting his head exactly where it needs to be, and I couldn't have been any happier than I was for Taylor when he was playing so great because I think his mind has been right for about a month now and he just needed to get back in the groove and flow," Oats said. "This is his first NCAA Tournament game. These guys that transferred from some other places that weren't able to play in the NCAA Tournament didn't have this opportunity to play in these games, I think sometimes our freshmen don't realize that -- don't take this for granted. This doesn't happen even at Alabama all the time. I think this is the first time in -- tied for the first time in six straight NCAA Tournaments.

"These other places, you don't always go to the Tournament, so you get to play in a tournament, get to play in this type of environment. Taylor was over there stretching in warmups talking about how cool it all was. I was like, the arena? He's like, no, March Madness. We've played in big arenas before. Played at Madison Square Garden, super cool, played up at the United Center in Illinois, great. But I think the March Madness part of it to Taylor is super happy."

Bol Bowen's confidence is high, and he hopes to continue playing well as the Crimson Tide keeps dancing in March Madness.

"I’ve been feeling good for a while now," he said. "It’s just getting those reps out and getting back in playing and whatnot. I think my team’s been seeing it at practice, just putting a lot of work into the game to try and finish it off right."

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