Rick Barnes has enough to worry about in leading Tennessee into Tuscaloosa to face No. 17 Alabama in a primetime SEC showdown on Saturday night.
The game will be featured in ESPN’s spotlight slot at 8:30 p.m. ET, and the game will also feature Alabama big man Charles Bediako, the new and old Crimson Tide player who has been the subject of controversy since his recent return to the program and the sport.
Since a Tuscaloosa circuit court judge ruled that Bediako was allowed to rejoin Alabama after originally playing with the Tide from 2021-23, there has been a large outcry from college basketball coaches who aren’t happy with what went down. There have even been coaches who’ve said games that Alabama plays with Bediako should not be allowed to count toward the Crimson Tide’s NCAA Tournament portfolio.
Alabama head coach Nate Oats has stood defiantly in the face of all the criticism, and he even confirmed to reporters on Friday that Bediako will likely play in Saturday night’s showdown against the Volunteers. So, what does the opposing coach think of Oats bringing the former G League player back into the college basketball fold?
“We do it the same way. We’re going to prepare. Obviously, we talked about it like everybody else, and that’s the extent of it,” Barnes told reporters on the eve of the matchup. “I’m not making this comment based on this case or whatever happened earlier. I don’t know all the ins and outs of it. It’s simply, everybody comes to college, and when you make the choice to give up your college eligibility, you’re giving it up.”
Barnes knows that initial choice to leave the college game can be tough, but his point was you live with the consequences. Except now, the Bediako case seems to give a player a loophole with that life choice.
“Once they start that clock and they make that choice, they’ve made that choice,” Barnes said. “Some of those choices haven’t been good through the years. But once you make the choice, you make the choice.”
The result of the game will take care of itself on Saturday night, with the Bediako saga hanging over the showdown and the rest of the SEC season.
“We could sit here all day and talk about all the different angles. In a nutshell, that’s what I think,” Barnes said.
Bediako saga aside, Alabama (13-5) will be trying to win its 3rd in a row back at home after 2 straight SEC road wins.
Meanwhile, Barnes’s Vols will be trying to bounce back from last Saturday’s horrendous home loss to Kentucky, when Tennessee (12-6) blew an 11-point halftime lead in an 80-78 setback.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
