Alabama MBB Head Coach Nate Oats Won’t Speculate on When Holloway Could Return

TAMPA, Fla. - Alabama men's basketball is in Tampa, Florida, for the Tide's first-round matchup against the Hofstra Pride in the Round of 64 in the NCAA Tournament. The Crimson Tide will play the Pride without its second-leading scorer, junior guard Aden Holloway, after Holloway was arrested in Tuscaloosa earlier in the week and charged with first-degree possession of marijuana and failure to affix a tax stamp, both of which are felonies in the state of Alabama.

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Court documents and reports indicate that 2.1 pounds of marijuana were found at Holloway's residence on Monday after officers secured a warrant to search his home. Holloway's attorney, Jason Neff, told Tide 100.9 that the 2.1 pounds of marijuana was strictly for "personal use," and there was no intention of distributing it. Holloway was removed from campus pending an investigation by the University of Alabama Office of Student Conduct, resulting in his suspension from the Crimson Tide men's basketball team.

Holloway did not travel with the Crimson Tide to Tampa for the first weekend of the NCAA tournament and will not have a hearing until next week at the earliest to reinstate him on campus and with the team; he appealed for a hearing to happen "early part of next week," according to his attorney. Alabama men's basketball head coach Nate Oats won't speculate about Holloway's return, sidestepping his opening question during his press conference in Tampa, but did leave the door open for a potential return if Alabama does make the second weekend of the big dance.

"You know what, I'm not sure where that's all going to go. We'll kind of address things as they come up," Oats said on Thursday, "but for right now, the team is just preparing to play with who's at practice, and he's obviously not there.

"We'll prepare to play without him and address that matter if it comes up."

Despite Holloway not being with the team this week in Tampa, the Crimson Tide's head coach isn't letting him sit alone after making a mistake.

"Yeah, I've met with him in person, talked to him on the phone multiple times," Oats said. "Look, I'm an adult. I've made mistakes. We all have things we'd like to do differently.

"Now is not the time to ignore a kid that you've built a real relationship with. Now is the time he needs more love from the adults in his life than at any point.

"When I got into coaching, way back when I first got out of college and I was a Division III assistant making no money and then I went to a high school job in the Detroit area for 11 years, I really -- to basically coach for no money for 16 years, you'd better be doing it for the right reasons because you're losing an awful lot of money spending all the hours, money, time traveling to kids for official visits. I've got to remind myself I'm a high school coach that's caught some breaks up here. But I don't want to lose why I got into this thing in the first place.

"You get into it to help impact young men's lives. Well, if you disappear when they make a mistake, I'm not so sure that's a genuine relationship you've built. I've got three daughters. They've made mistakes. You don't disappear on them when they need your help. I won't be disappearing on him. I talked to him yesterday morning on the phone. I talked to him the night before that. I've talked to him every day so far.

"I'm going to continue to talk to him, love him, help him through this, and we'll see where it all takes us," he said.

Alabama will face Hofstra in the Round of 64 in the NCAA Tournament on Friday, March 20. Tip-off is scheduled for 2:15 p.m. CT.

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Wyatt Fulton is the Tide 100.9 DME and Brand Manager, primarily covering Alabama Crimson Tide football and men's basketball. For more Crimson Tide coverage, follow Wyatt on X (Formerly known as Twitter) at @FultonW_.