Nate Oats: Alabama preparing to play without Aden Holloway after arrest

Alabama head coach Nate Oats said the 4-seed Crimson Tide is preparing to be without Aden Holloway to start the NCAA Tournament following the guard’s arrest on Monday morning.

“Look, we’ve got standards in our program, and we’ve got ways we’ve held our guys accountable,” Oats said on Hey Coach. “We try to keep everything in-house. Obviously, some of the situations you can’t, and this is one of those. The situation is a little different when we found out about what was going on this morning — I found out this morning. I guess it all went down this morning.

“So, we had to suspend him pending the investigation by the UA Office of Student Conduct. We’re certainly disappointed in his behavior. But with 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 gonna continue to help him whatever 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. We’re preparing for Hofstra, who’s very good. They’ve got a good backcourt of their own. And I thought our guys, while at the same time, Aden’s one of our guys and everybody wants to wrap their arms around him and love him, everybody makes some 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 gotta go play Friday.

“So, I thought we did a good job of that this morning, kind of addressing the situation, what we currently knew at the time and got our guys focused on practice. And I thought we had a really good practice.”

The Crimson Tide’s second-leading scorer was charged with first-degree possession of marijuana not for personal use, a Class C felony, and failure to affix a tax stamp after agents with the West Alabama Narcotics Task Force searched his residence and recovered more than a pound of marijuana, paraphernalia and cash. Holloway was later released on bond.

Last week, Holloway was also involved in a traffic stop with University of Alabama police.

The University released a statement on Monday, which revealed that the junior guard had been removed from campus “pending further investigation by the UA Office of Student Conduct.”

Holloway has played in 28 games for Alabama this season, starting 25 of those contests. The junior guard is the Crimson Tide’s second-leading scorer, averaging 16.8 points per game while shooting 48.1% from the field, 86.4% at the line and 43.8% from 3-point range. Holloway was named a third-team All-SEC selection by the conference’s 16 head coaches last week.

Alabama (23-9, 13-5 SEC) earned a No. 4 seed in the 2026 NCAA Tournament and will face 13-seed Hofstra in the first round on Friday, March 20, in Tampa (2:15 p.m. CT on truTV).

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