TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Through nine games this season, Alabama has already started four different starting lineups.

Already on the opening evening, the starting lineup was different than expected, with assumed starters Grant Nelson And Latrell Wrightsell He had to come off the bench in the first two games due to a minutes restriction. Alabama head coach Nate Oats continued to tinker with the lineup over the next few games, but with the emergence it seemed as if Labaron Philohe had finally decided on a lineup.

The starting unit of Philon, Wrightsell, Nelson, Mark Sears And Cliff Omoruyi He started four games, the most games of any unit so far this year, and seemed to be the team’s preferred lineup going forward. But that plan was thwarted once again when Wrightsell suffered a season-ending injury, leaving a vacant spot to fill.

During Oats’ press conference on Friday, he discussed how he plans to handle the starting lineup going forward, initially indicating that four of the starters will remain mostly unchanged.

“Some years we had rotating starters, other years we had the same five starters most of the year. We have some people that I think will be there most nights,” Oats said. “I think you’ll see Sears, Labaron, Grant and Cliff there as usual.”

As for that last point, there are a few solid options. Jarin Stevenson started the last game against North Carolina and played well, starting several games this year as an oversized three point guard. He has played much better in the last few games after overcoming his shooting weakness earlier in the season, creating a size imbalance for opponents.

Derrion Reid He started the first two games at third this year and has great size and excellent defensive instincts when Oats needs a stopper for an opponent’s dominant wing scorer.

Then there is Chris Youngblooda South Florida graduate who was expected to compete for a starting spot in the preseason before undergoing ankle surgery that caused him to miss the first month of the season. He is expected to make his season debut tonight against Creighton.

“We’ll see where we go. We started Jarin (against North Carolina) because I thought he would be a good matchup for RJ Davis with his size and length and I thought he did a great job. Some of these things are determined by matchups,” Oats said. “Chris probably won’t start this first game, but Chris will play, Houston (Mallette)will play, Jarin will play, Derrion will play. We’ll see Aiden Sherell, Mon Dioubatehe will play.”

Considering how good Oats is, he could also use three guards again like he has in the past Aden Holloway has played off the bench, combined with the additions of Youngblood, who is coming off the injury, and Mallette, who burned his redshirt, to provide some more bench defense options.

“We have a lot of options whether we use three guards with Holloway, obviously he plays really well. They have the opportunity to play three guards again,” Oats said. “Without Wrightsell we lost that, but there’s Sears, Labaron, Holloway, Chris and even Houston. You can play three guards, you can also go big and play Jarin and Derrion at the three and stay pretty big at the four. “

What Oats is basically saying is that anyone can play on this team, and there are many starting lineup options that can often be weighed depending on the matchup at hand. Depth and versatility are a major strength of this team, and we’ll see how that shows in how Oats selects his starters each game.

“We have really good options, I’m not sure where we’ll end up starting, but we’ll talk about it as a team,” Oats said.

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