The Alabama Crimson Tide have been the best team in the SEC this season, jumping out to a 16-5 overall record and an 11-1 mark in SEC play.

However, they’ve been dealing with their share of key injuries. Jordan Bruner has been out for nearly a month. Then, on Tuesday at South Carolina, Juwan Gary was injured shortly after starting the game against his hometown Gamecocks.

Another big issue is that star F Herb Jones, a frontrunner for the SEC Player of the Year award, is dealing with a back injury that probably won’t get any better without rest.

During an interview with Aaron Torres of FOX Sports, coach Nate Oats discussed plans for Jones, saying there’s no plan to sit him for a couple of games at the moment. Instead, he said, they’ll wait to see if they can clinch the SEC regular-season title early before giving the star some rest:

Currently, Alabama is 11-1 in SEC play. Tennessee, Arkansas and LSU are all 7-4 in league play. Thus, it’s not improbable that the Tide would clinch the regular-season title early.

We’ll see what happens down the stretch, but this isn’t the same team with Jones battling this nagging back injury on a nightly basis.