Alabama (16-7 straight up, 10-13 against the spread) will no longer have 6-foot-11 center Charles Bediako on its 2025-26 roster after a Tuscaloosa judge denied his motion Monday seeking a preliminary injunction against NCAA eligibility rules.
Alabama head coach Nate Oats reacted to the decision for the first time Tuesday, “Super disappointed in the ruling for Charles,” Oats said. “Regardless of the ruling, we are going to continue to support him anyway we possibly can here. With the team, we have to move forward. We played 18 games before he got here. Some real quality wins without him. … Sad situation for him, but we have to move forward and continue to help him however we can.”
Alabama went 3-2 in its five games with Bediako, who averaged 10.0 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.4 blocked shots per game. He made 77.3 percent of his field-goal attempts and 69.6 percent of his free throws.
Bediako played 33 games for Alabama during the 2021-22 campaign as a true freshman. He averaged 6.7 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.5 BPG while logging an average of 17.8 minutes per game.
Bediako hit 69.2 percent of his FGAs and 61.2 percent of his FTAs.
As a sophomore in 2022-23, Bediako averaged 6.4 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.8 BPG.
After two seasons at Alabama, Bediako declared for the NBA Draft but went undrafted. He had played in the G-League for three straight years before returning to Tuscaloosa last month.
Bediako played for the Austin Spurs, Grand Rapids Gold and Motor City Cruise.
When pressed today on whether bringing Bediako back was the right decision, Oats defended the move.
“There was an opportunity to help one of our former players out,” Oats said. “He was within his five-year window. He’s trying to get his degree. Here’s the thing too. My job as a head coach is to try to do the right thing by our guys. Charles is one of our guys. That was the right thing to do by one of our guys. … We’re going to continue to help his basketball development. We’re going to continue to help his development as a student, as a student-athlete. 100% it was worth it. I would do the same thing 100 times out of 100 for any of our guys.”
As of Tuesday night, most books had Alabama listed as a 7.5-point road favorite for Wednesday’s SEC showdown at Ole Miss. The total was 165.5 points, while the Rebels were +300 on the money line at FanDuel.
KenPom has Alabama ranked #19 nationally, while the Tide is #23 in the NET rankings.
FanDuel has Oats’s squad with 50/1 odds to win the 2026 NCAA Tournament. Those are the 17th-shortest odds on the board.