Oats: ‘We’re preparing to play without [Holloway]’

Since we first discussed the arrest of Alabama guard Aden Holloway on Monday morning, we’ve learned more about his availability for the Crimson Tide in the 2026 NCAA Tournament.

On Tuesday afternoon, the school released the following statement:

“The University is aware of the allegations and is working to gather more information.  The student has been removed from campus pending further investigation by the UA Office of Student Conduct.”

Holloway is facing a first-degree possession of marijuana charge and a failure to affix a tax stamp. Both charges of felonies in the state of Alabama.

A search of Holloway’s residence led to the discovery of more than a pound of weed, paraphernalia and cash.

“We got standards in our program and we’ve got ways we’ve held our guys accountable. And we try to keep everything in-house, obviously some of the situations you can’t, and this is one of those,” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said on his radio show Monday night. “We found out about what was going on this morning, I found out this morning. I guess it all went down this morning. And we had to suspend him pending the investigation. …

“We’re certainly disappointed in his behavior. But that being said, we still love him, he’s still our guy. We’re helping him get the help that he needs and we’re going to continue to help him whatever way we can. But as far as our team goes, I thought we had a great practice, we’re preparing to play without him this weekend.”

Alabama (23-9 straight up, 14-18 against the spread) is the #4 seed in the West Region and takes on Hofstra in Tampa at around 3:15 p.m. Eastern on Friday. Before Holloway’s arrest, most books had the Crimson Tide installed as a 13.5-point favorite with a total of 160.5.

As of Tuesday morning, most spots had Alabama at -11.5 with the total adjusted to 159.5 points. The Pride was in the +550 to +600 (South Point) range on the money line.

If the UA’s Office of Student Conduct wraps up its investigation and permits Holloway to return to campus at some point next week, the guess here is that he has a chance of playing if Alabama makes it to the Sweet 16.

“While at the same time, Aden is one of our guys and everybody wants to wrap their arms around and love him,” Oats added on his radio show last night. “Everybody makes mistakes in life, but they also understand, we’ve got to move on and we’ve got a whole other group of guys and the team’s got to go play Friday. I thought we did a good job of that this morning, kind of addressing the situation.

“I did tell our team, this team — more than any team I’ve ever coached — is better equipped to handle a situation like this. We’ve won plenty of games with guys not available.”

Holloway missed four regular-season games. Alabama went 3-1 SU and 1-3 ATS in those four contests, losing 79-73 vs. Tennessee as a 3.5-point home favorite. The ‘under’ went 3-1 in those games.