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Alabama basketball forward Nick Pringle suspended before Arkansas State
- Story byThe Tuscaloosa News
- Alabama basketball forward Nick Pringle suspended before Arkansas State
Alabama basketball forward Nick Pringle is suspended indefinitely for conduct detrimental to the team, coach Nate Oats said Friday.
"Nothing serious off the court or anything," Oats said. "In-house, just there's a standard we want our guys to uphold, and he wasn't upholding it. I still love Nick. Hopefully he can get himself figured out and be back with the team shortly."
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Alabama will face Arkansas State on Monday then No. 1 Purdue in Toronto next Saturday.
Pringle is a 6-foot-10, 230-pound senior in his second season with the program. Last season, he played in 36 games for the Crimson Tide , averaging 3.5 points, 3.1 rebounds and 0.2 assists per game with an average of eight minutes per game.
He started the first six games, but then he was replaced in the starting lineup for the Clemson game. Mohamed Wague, a West Virginia transfer, took his place. This season, Pringle is averaging 6 points, 4.4 rebounds but only has three blocks all season.
"All the guys off the bench are going to get a little better chance now," Oats said. "I think he played 21 minutes last game, so if he can't get back by Monday, those are 21 minutes that will get distributed. I think Mo Wague will get some. Sam (Walters) will have a chance to get more minutes. Guys like Davin (Cosby) and Mo (Dioubate) will probably get a chance to get some minutes. They both had good practices here lately. Everybody will have a chance to get some more minutes, and we will see how they do with the initial minutes they get to see how many more minutes they get throughout the game."
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Alabama has missed the presence of Charles Bediako as a rim protector on a defense that has struggled overall. Oats has challenged bigs such as Pringle to step up on the defensive end.
"Nick doesn't have a blocked shot yet on the season" Oats said Nov. 13 before the South Alabama game. "He hasn't improved as much as I'd like to see him improve. That's a big challenge that we've made to him. If he's going to be a rim protector, he needs to block some shots at the rim. We need him to get better."
Then Pringle answered the call. Oats said after the win over the Jaguars that Pringle was much better. After the Mercer game, Pringle won the hard hat, playing the best game he had yet for Alabama, Oats said. Pringle tallied 14 points, grabbed six boards and blocked two shots over 19 minutes of play. He also had a steal.
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Nick Kelly covers Alabama football and men's basketball for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at nkelly@gannett.com or follow him @_NickKelly on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter .
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Nick Pringle: Alabama basketball forward suspended
