Will Aden Holloway Play For Alabama in the Sweet 16? - Friday, March 27, 2026

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We're not in the Derrick Daniel State Farm Studios today.

We are in the hotel getting ready for tonight's match-up between Alabama and Michigan, so we're

going to be heading over to the United Center here in just a little while today.

But we're going to talk about the game one last time with our friends, Theo Fernandez,

and Hunter to Cyber Everett, you asked.

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Let's have a lot of fun today.

We're going to talk about Yaxel Lindivor, the liar.

Yaxel, the liar Lindivor, we're going to talk about Aiden Holloway, is he going to

be on a flight to Chicago today?

I want to get Hunter's perspective on some of the questions I threw at Theo yesterday

about how do you charge the three guys in the front court for Michigan.

Is there a path for Alabama victory?

And then we will predict the game tonight.

So that sounds like the game plan, Theo.

You look great today.

We miss you.

How are you?

Good morning.

I'm doing great.

It's been just holding down the fort here in Tuscaloosa, right, running everything.

It's been a good time.

Missed you guys.

Pleasure to us in Chicago, but having a fun time here.

Well, I'm going to throw you on the spot, but are you going over to the facility and

two hours to talk to the kids to coach the board?

Yeah.

Me and Henry have all that coverage.

So we're going to get all the content from the board and have a fun time.

It'll be fun.

I'll probably ask them like four questions with nobody there.

Yeah.

It'll be you and Henry having a 2-1-1 interview with coach the board.

That sounds perfect.

There we are.

You can see that on the BAM of Central YouTube channel as well.

We're hanging out here with Hunter, Decider, Hunter, already up and out on this morning

with an Aiden Holloway story as more developments have happened in the Star Guard's case.

Good morning, Hunter.

Thank you for your time.

Maybe say hello to Everett.

How are you?

How's the trip going?

All right.

I'm happy to be back.

It's been a while.

How's it going, Everett?

Glad you're a huge fan of me.

That makes me super happy.

But I mean, why do we have to have some sort of breaking news every single morning regarding

how the I'm basketball?

I'm in bed.

I'm about to go get breakfast.

About a, I have a feature that went out this morning that was about a post on my own

social media.

I'm sort of the second away from publishing and then I see all this hollow stuff.

I'm like, great.

So it's definitely going to be the topic of conversation today, whether or not he'll

play.

Perfect.

Why don't you lead us right into the story you've just wrote and what it means for tonight,

what it might not mean for tonight.

Just kind of get us kicked the ball off with this Aiden Holloway development today.

Yeah.

So, Holloway's lawyer named Jason Neff, he requested to the judge that Holloway can travel

out of state, inciting that he could travel to Chicago without saying, let him go to

the sweet 16.

And it got approved.

I was kind of surprised that that happened when I saw that this morning.

And is he going to play?

Is he not going to play?

I mean, he hasn't practiced with the team since he's been suspended.

I mean, actually, I don't know that for sure, but at least in Tampa, he was not there

in Chicago.

He has not been here yet and they had a practice yesterday.

So, I'm not sure if he's going to play.

I think you do.

I'm not sure if Theo does, but I think it's kind of a toss up.

Yeah.

So, I'll just let you lead it.

Do you think we will see him?

I'll give my opinion and then we'll get Theo's opinion as well.

But Jason Neff, giving you basically and the, and the, and the test was a chord.

I think it's Daniel Fruit, right?

Judge, Judge, Judge, Judge.

Um, for this one, it's, um, Joanne, Janet, or something like that.

Okay.

All right.

I didn't have that right.

But basically, he's been granted a waiver to travel out of state.

And the presumption is that he's going to be making his way to Chicago today.

So Hunter, will we see number two taking shots in this game tonight?

All right.

First of all, um, it's a guess.

So, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

First of all, the, uh, the SEC two years ago came out with this thing called the Avail

Boater, Avail Boater Report and they released it, um, the day before the game at, as an

initial report in the two hours before the game, they do the final.

Holloway was listed as out in the initial report, but then last night, this request comes

into the court and they approve it this morning.

I mean, I've done all these Avail Boater Report articles over the last two years for both

the fall and basketball.

And I've never seen someone that was out one day, the available the next.

This is obviously an extraordinary circumstance, but I just, I don't know if I see him playing

tonight with everything going around.

I think that's a good point.

And one that I didn't consider in my initial guess before we got started, um, we were kind

of talking about this right before we hit go, um, I, I, my gut feeling says he will play

tonight.

My gut feeling says that this is going to be pretty similar to the Nick Pringle situation

where Nick Pringle flew to the tournament site, uh, commercial and made it and, and, and

was available and participated, uh, for the crimson tie pretty, pretty early.

I think he had some sort of team rules violation.

It wasn't a legal situation at that point.

Um, it was more of a team rule situation, but I think he might have got an argument with

a coach or something, something that effect, nothing crazy, um, but he flew to the tournament

side himself.

I think that Aiden Holloway will be flying to Chicago today at minimum.

I would bet, uh, a decent amount of money on, on at least that, yeah, that he will fly

to Chicago today, um, the availability report does create a little bit of doubt because

that availability report hunter from my perspective is really about the gamblers, about making

sure the gamblers know who's going to play and who's not going to play, um, and of course

those things can change, uh, but they may be sticklers.

I have no idea.

I have no idea what the punishment is for not lying on the availability report, but not

having the exact information correct, uh, like because obviously it's not a lie because

yesterday you did think you're probably going to be how he was not allowed to travel out

of state, uh, until this morning about an hour ago, uh, so, and so that, uh, information

is updated, but my gut feeling is that, yeah, that, that Aiden Holloway will play.

Uh, uh, you didn't go to Tampa, uh, what didn't practice there, but I imagine he was

a part of the practices or, or around the practices, we should say that, um, this week

in Tuscaloosa as he's trying to figure out his situation.

What it sounds like to me, hunter, is that, um, now we're working with the judiciary,

the, the, the, the, the discipline board with UA through the whole week, and it sounds

like they kind of, uh, cleared that hurdle yesterday, and it went towards the end of the

day, five, six, seven o'clock, and said, okay, well, our next hurdle is getting a waiver

to get out of state, and now that, I guess that has been cleared this morning.

I expect Aiden to, uh, come off the bench this evening and, and, and play for Alabama.

See, uh, what, what do you, what do you think about this?

You woke up and you kind of started our conversation before we are going pretty surprised.

Yeah, I was, I did not see this coming right after all that thought, you know, we'd kind

of waved the white flag on Holloway plain.

Yesterday's injury report is in no way, Biden, it has no impact on whether or not

Holloway can play, which I was looking up the nuances of this and how this rule worked,

and all that. And I was like, well, why don't they even put out this injury report, right?

It does, because there is no, the only thing you really,

the only thing you really face is maybe some scrutiny if you put a guy on the injury report

in that he plays, but yes, it is kind of designed for gamblers, right? That is the main reason

it exists. But there is nothing stopping a team from saying, hey, we ruled you out, but things

have changed. You're playing now. Now, if he's ruled out, I'm the one that comes out two hours

for tip. That is the official one. That's the one that matters. Where a long way from one times

the M star 845 Central 635. Oh, I'm off on 635. So it's 430 Central is the first time we are going

to find out when this guy plays or not. So what do you think, Theo? Because I said, I think

he will play a hunter. It kind of says he doesn't think he's going to play. What do you think, Theo?

Bring the tag. The world where he does not play is a world where NATO has this guy available,

right? Has full approval to put him on the court and chooses not to. Does that sound like

NATO's to anybody? That's not NATO's. I'm going to go out on the limb and say that he already

has been cleared by the Office of Student Conduct because, quite frankly, why would you go out and

even request to travel out of state, right? If you hadn't already been approved. And if

pure speculation, maybe I'm wrong, maybe they were just trying to submit everything at once. And

maybe the Student Conduct Office hasn't approved him. And then that would, whatever, then he's not

planned. I think you will at the very least be in Chicago today. And I, if I was betting right now,

we will see Aiden Holloway on the court against Michigan tonight.

All right, Theo. So we'll spend it. We'll go the same way, but opposite, back around.

If he plays, what's this production? Is he going three of seven from beyond the three-point line,

or is it going to be an O of nine stinker? And everybody's going to say, you shouldn't have played

him anyways. What kind of production would you expect out of Aiden Holloway? You know,

before you answer this, Illinois is a recreational state from marijuana. So Aiden maybe either

rising to the challenge, rising to the occasion or, or, or, or not, based on, based on usage in the state

of Illinois, Theo predict Aiden Holloway's stat line if he plays tonight. Aiden Holloway will

be the first person to check into the game at about the 17-minute mark. And he will score above

15 points. Theo, I love stories. That's the best part about sports. It's the reason I choose to go

out and cover all this, and why I've built my career at it. Look at this story.

Aiden's unreal. Aiden's just like, you take a step back and you look at how this must look from

an outside perspective, and also how it looks with the familiarity of the program that we have.

It is an incredible story, and I think that it will get a very, I think it'll get a satisfying

conclusion as far as Aiden Holloway going out and actually making, you talked a few weeks ago

about what would it take for this move to be worth it, right? For Alabama getting Holloway on the

court to be worth it. I think Holloway will deliver a performance that leaves no doubt about, yeah,

this is worth it. Oh, Theo, I love your perspective and your optimism. And I too love stories.

I also think he's going to play tonight, but I think the story is going to go the exact

other way. I just feel it in my, I have two feelings in my gut. One that Alabama finds a way to win,

but then another that Holloway puts up a stinker, and if he puts up a stinker,

Alabama is not going to win. So it's a competing, let me decipher my feelings here.

I, I want to believe that Holloway is going to go three of seven from the three point line,

three of six from the three point line, get to the free throw, I pretty well, no turnovers,

you know, 16 points, 16 points, four rebounds, four assists, a steal, and you put up a night

performance. But I also think the story is juicier if he goes O of seven and has like two points,

is like two of 10 from the field, and has a couple of turnovers, and the headlines just

write themselves with stone out of the NCAA tournament, and you know, flames out of Mark's madness,

and all kinds of things that you can go with that. So, oh, man, no matter how this game unfolds,

no matter what, Holloway does, no matter what, like no matter how Alabama does as a team.

If Holloway takes the court, it will be a defining moment in the tenure of NATO. Certainly,

it would be, this is a, this defines careers, right? This is something that sticks with the guy

forever for better or for worse. When you look at what is on the line tonight, from a legacy perspective,

from a, how was this guy remembered? Even from a, what do people remember about Alabama's

2026 season in 10, 15 years? It is this right here.

I mean, first off, you guys both say that if he does play, he comes off the bench, right?

Yeah. He's now a starter. Yeah. Okay. Got it. If he does play, which I don't really think he will,

that's not any experience or anything, it's just a good feeling. We're all guessing right now.

Yeah. I would say, yeah, he would probably come off the bench. I can't imagine he starts. That'd be

crazy. And if he does play, I think his minutes will be limited. A, because of everything that's

happening and B, because he hasn't practiced with the team outside of maybe Tuscaloosa.

Doesn't have all that chemistry there necessarily. He'll still play a good bit because he's

in Holloway. He's one of the best players in the SECs. I'm a 13, all SEC for reason.

He's the second leading score for Alabama, but I would say that he probably gets somewhere around.

Let's say 20 minutes, 22 minutes, eight or nine points, probably three assists, a couple of rebounds

and steals something like that. Either way, I think he'll, if he were to play, I think he'd be a

factor, but he just wouldn't be himself. He would act as that six man that he was last year.

That was his role last year. He was the six men behind Mark Sears while Mark and LeBaron

ran the back court last year when LeBaron was a freshman. And I don't see a huge game tone,

but regardless, it's going to be like the biggest story. If he does play and how he does,

I mean, whenever I sign the stories for tonight, I'll say, if he's playing, I'm like, all right,

you just write how he did. That's just one story. And then you get quotes from after the game.

And yeah, I just, I don't think he'll be that big of a factor tonight if he plays,

but if he does, it'll be a huge story. Oh, man. It's going to be great.

I just jumped right off that. I think you just argued for why Holloway will be a big factor.

Because we've talked this week about, well, maybe this offense looks different

with LeBaron leading it, right? Maybe it unlocks certain things about LeBaron.

If we are bringing Holloway in this late in the season, right? Right now, before this game,

after being away from the team, he's coming back, like you said, and being a similar player,

20 did last year. How many points did he score against BYU in the sweet 16?

23.613 for me on the arc. We talked yesterday, Neon Joe, about how basically we're looking at this

game, like, okay, that's 25, three point, the record that you set, that's the kind of performance

you need against Michigan. This could realistically give the Crimson Todd the best of both worlds,

right? He gives the LeBaron, leaving the offense, controlling the game, and oh, Holloway is in

the coming and drain a bunch of threes. And he's just going to come out and shoot the lights out.

And yeah, let's avoid further speculation, but don't you think this guy's probably pretty

mentally focused right now? All right. You'd hope so after the two weeks that he's had. You'd hope

that he has had a rougher two-day stretch, and now it's feeling mentally clear and focused and

ready to go. So yeah, you'd hope so, Theo. I think that's not a bad point either. This is just

such a dramatic end of the season. The season has been crazy. It's hard to believe you're right here

at the finish line. When you think about, oh, good fun transfer portal class last summer. You're

like, great. These guys look interesting. There's some high-level skill. There's some raw talent.

Who knows? And then it's, oh, busted toe for Gillil with the, oh, sick for Noah Williamson.

Oh, it's just injury after injury. We can't get into fall camp very well. And up, up and down.

You smash St. John's in the garden. Oh, you'll be doing all the way up in the United

Center. Oh, but you're still getting crushed in other like you lose at home. Like it was just

such a rollercoaster. And then at Iaco, welcome back from the, you know, yesterday. I'm like,

it was just a crazy year. And so like, think about going back to your point. Your comment earlier,

Theo, about stories. Like, it's already been a crazy year. What's the craziest storyline at this

point? Yeah, I think I'm, what's you feel? It's him going seven, say, you know, six of fifteen

from the three-point line. And Alabama is not going down the number one team in the country. Like,

give me just too fitting to see Alabama upset number one Michigan and how the way leading the chart's

night. Let's, let's move forward just a little bit and say, oh, just one thing to be two seconds.

Please, just for both of you, open any questions. Do you think he should play?

Theo. How do you define? Should you allow to play?

From a pure ethical legal, what, at that perspective, ethical and standpoint, should he be playing?

Ethics and legality are very low on the list of things that matter in college athletics.

Been very low on the list for my entire life. Why shouldn't he play? It's the same perspective I

had with the Charles Betty Akko situation where you can say, oh, is this ruin in college athletics?

Is this unfair? You're telling me other teams wouldn't take advantage of that exact same situation?

He can spend so much time debating about what's right, what's wrong, what should be done?

What do people remember? Who won?

Holloway gives you the better shot to win, put them out on the court. That's who NATO has been

his whole career. It's not going to change and I have no input. I'm not going to go out here

and say it should change. Yeah, I'm with you, Theo, in a sense that the potential crime that has

been committed by a Holloway is not a violent nature crime and it's still in a hypothetical

situation. I really against violence in a major way, Hunter makes me my skin crawl to think about it

in any sort of direction, paid it. And while I do think that Aiden's decision was not smart,

not very smart at all. You can't have that much weight. If that's what you choose to do,

you need to be smarter about it. You can debate with the wisdom of having marijuana,

using marijuana, absolutely whatever your opinion is on that, you're right. It's fine. I don't

want to push anyone off of their own opinion of that. But the fact of the matter is it was a crime

that really only impacted everything else is hearsay. The crime is possession of marijuana.

Everything else is hearsay. And the possession wasn't absurd amount. But didn't you look at the

convoluted rules about laws about marijuana throughout the country? Obviously,

different states see it differently. In Alabama, they're staunchly against it. And so he did

break the law. You possession of a large amount of marijuana in a state that thinks that's a

criminal act. You wrote the law. He's already dealing with the legal penalties of that. He's

been arrested. He's done bond. He's got a court date. That process, that process is rolling.

If he had a violent crime, he'd be still, you know, sitting like he'd likely be sitting there

waiting on his court date and not out on bond. And so I tend to just kind of lean on the legal

process here and say, you know, he is out on bond. He's apparently cleared himself with

the disciplinary board, the UA disciplinary board. At this point, yeah, I think that he should be

playing if he can. And let's figure out if the, let's figure out what kind of thing he needs to

deal with in the courts when that day comes, which will be sticks for seven weeks or so from now.

So yeah, he asked you if he should be playing. I understand the pro clutching about,

oh, he just had so much marijuana in his house. I get that. But he's currently dealing through

the process. And in this country, and I said, until proven guilty, it's supposed to be a thing.

I think he should play tonight if he's available.

I don't think he should play. I know, I just spoke a lot. No, you're fine. No, I don't think he should

play. Okay. Bottom line is, it's felony in the state of Alabama. Nados and Alabama suspended him

from the team. He's removed from campus. He's suspended. Like I just said, until the investigation

ends pretty much. That's what they said. And the investigation is not done. And if he travels here

in place, I just think it's kind of a super unethical kind of deal. But yeah, that's it.

There you go. So we'll find out what happens tonight. We'll be all over at abamacentral.com

because it's going to be the most intriguing storyline of all of the four games across the

this evening, sweet 16 game. I want to move us forward, Theo and Hunter, back to Yaxal Lindeborg.

We talked Yaxal a little bit with Theo yesterday, Hunter. And I asked him, how do you guard Yaxal Lindeborg?

Well, I asked Nado, it's the same thing. And I asked Nado, it's about in a recruitment of Yaxal,

because you remember in the transfer portal, Alabama was in on Yaxal for about three hours.

Like it was so, it was so, so, so, so, such a tiny amount of time that Yaxal and Alabama were

linked to one another before Yaxal ended up admission in a day or three later. So we asked Nado,

it's about recruiting Yaxal, the possibility of him coming to heat to Alabama, and how that

needs to be definitive. Well, the, how do you defend him question that went out of the window,

when, when Yaxal got on the microphone and said the exact opposite things that Nado said about

his recruitment, but then he had dusty May backing up Nado's. So Nate says, oh, we tried,

we were in contact. We realized we probably didn't have the resources. And so we didn't really chase

it that hard. We just kind of moved on. Yaxal basically says, I wish they would have recruited

me. I feel slighted by them for not recruiting me. I've got to introduce for this game to give them,

you know, show them what they missed out on kind of an angle. And Dusty said, oh, well, don't tell

Yaxal, but Alabama did try to recruit him out of the portal. And it's like, yo, man, you Yaxal,

we're trying to say that Kentucky offered you seven to nine million dollars.

Part Coke has since denied that. But I'll tell you this, if that's the offer that you turn down

to go to Michigan, well, Alabama didn't have seven to nine million dollars to try to recruit you

in. What this sounded like to me was, Alabama called his agent and asked if he was interested.

And the agent probably said, yes, at XYZ number and Nate, oh, and the, you know, the staff

basically said, oh, we don't have XYZ number. Thanks for your time. And they never even told Yaxal

that Alabama was on the line because Alabama didn't even have the starting point number to get

him interested. Did you digest any of this yesterday, just kind of the, because the room, the,

the media room was at a nice calm five for most of the day. And all the way through Nate,

Oates's pressure conference. And then Yaxal gets on there and says this. And to me, the room went from

a five to a seven started buzzing. And then Dusty May got on there and said, oh, well, don't tell

them, but Alabama did try to. And it went from a seven to about eight, not eight. And so the, the,

buzzing in the room was going nuts yesterday. Once you make of Yaxal, say, oh, I'm sliding

by Alabama. I'm extra motivated for this game. Is it just the very athletes searching for a reason

to be, to be disrespected? Yeah, I think you're, I think you kind of hit the nail on the head.

If I were to speculate on that, I would probably land somewhere around where you did.

Although, let's also consider that maybe if Alabama had allocated some money differently,

then we're looking at a world where you can bring in a guy like Yaxal, right? I mean, I do

probably agree with the idea that Alabama wasn't willing or didn't have the money to put to him.

But I also think that maybe there could have been, you know, and we've talked a lot about this

transfer portal class, right? Which has far in a way, just been swinging a miss for the most part

for Alabama. Well, maybe we could have prioritized different things and looked at, obviously,

hindsight is, you know, hindsight makes everyone look like Nidia, but I do probably believe

that Alabama's number with the way they tried to build this roster was nowhere near where Michigan

was willing to pay. Yeah, that was definitely probably the biggest story of the day.

So, Michelle was exactly right about the media room going from like a five or like a seven.

Like, I'm writing my own thing and then I hear Yaxal say that and just my eyes light up,

everyone's eyes light up, they look around. They're like, what? And then everyone changes their

story. Joe had a story on the axle about defending him, as he said. And it was at like 800

something words and it was about to publish it. And they just changed the whole thing right

fully. So, because of what Yaxal said, it changed the entire angle. And it was this kind of

weird situation. I mean, when in the off season last year, I was saying, I was like looking at

transfer portal targets and everyone's saying, oh, Yaxal end up wearing this kid from UAB,

could be the guy. And then obviously, he wasn't. He went to Michigan and then we learned why

he wasn't the guys by being this, I mean, not necessarily in-state guy, but someone who was in

state a year before. But it was kind of a weird situation there. But in terms of defending him.

Yeah, I asked you yesterday, just real quick, I asked him yesterday, and I said, it's

either Bulbola or Abari out, right? Correct. So, what do you think? Well, what are you doing from

me? Yeah. Well, first off, coach to Cyberg, people to master my words, save us. First off,

last game against Texas Tech. We got a guard with Christian Anderson, and he's more of a guard,

and that's what the trail right so did so well against him. It's not going to happen this game

necessarily. As Yaxal's a forward, the trail's probably not going to guard him, or at least not

for long, because Yaxal's bigger than him, makes sense. It comes down to a Mario and an

Taylor Bulbola. Both of them have other ups and downs this season, but Taylor's starting to get

hot. Amari's was fine against Texas Tech, but he couldn't even have the season as well as we

had hoped, especially after my feature. The first game after was good, but after that. But, I mean,

this is the legacy game for him playing in his backyard. Exactly. You're playing in the mid-west

you're going against someone who is a unanimous first team all-american. There's only five people

in the country or four others who have that same status as him. And I mean, I'm pretty sure it was

Niemari Burnett. You played Alabama and I was at Michigan. I'll just see him tonight. But I think

after the round of 32 game, he called Yaxal the Dominican LeBron. So if you're associated with

LeBron James, it's already kind of hard to say that you could be stopped, but Amari and Taylor

are the key guys tonight, not for their offense, but their defense. We know what Alabama can do

offensively, but they need to find a way to lock him down for 40 minutes. And that's pretty much

an impossible task, but if they do something like that, then they got to shut it with him.

All right, Hunter. So he expounded on his answer yesterday about defending him and talked about

how great teams, when you go up against great teams, you've got to decide what you're going to give up.

And so maybe think about what happened two years ago. I guess don't care a lot of topsy. You'll

let Elliott Kado take some threes and he met a couple of early and then started missing a bunch.

And so you maybe think about, okay, well, what is Alabama going to allow in this game? We've

already talked about it this week. Elliott Kado has improved three-point shootings. You're not

just going to sag off of him. We all remember them already is a pretty nice little three-point shooter

when he's open. And so you're not just going to let him shoot either. So defensive mastermind

hunter decided, what do you give up against these Michigan Wolverine? Because you got him to

defend something and you might need some extra help in the post so they didn't mind. And I think

Mars Johnson is a load and and the axles his own beast right there. What do you allow Michigan to do

to say, hey, if you make or miss that, it's fine. That's that's what that's the shot we want to take.

That's the kind of possession we want you to have. What are you trying to force Michigan into?

I think it's simple. You have to only really stop the axle. And the reason why it's only him

is because I don't really trust Alabama to do the rest. They're bottom ten. I mean, you could look

at all the efficiency numbers and Alabama's improving in this and that. And they did do well defensively

against Hofstra and Texas Tech. But different, different. Yes. And they're way different than Michigan.

They're way they're not at nearly as good. And on top of it all, you're in and you're out,

Alabama's one of the top teams offensively in college basketball in terms of points for game

and just punch other figures. But defensively, they're always bottom ten and points allowed.

I guess that would be top ten, whatever you want to call it. And this is a Michigan team that's top

ten in scoring. And if a Michigan top ten scoring team is going against an Alabama bottom ten

defensive team, that's bad news already. Alabama's the underdog in this game for a reason.

Obviously, they can win it. It's definitely possible. But they are the underdog for a variety of

reasons. And their defense is going to play a huge role. And if they continue to do what they did

against Hofstra, Texas Tech again, totally different standards. And they have a shot. But you just have

to start with the axle and just hope for a few of this is like Elliott Kendo did a while back.

They know it's in company. They've had a week now to prepare for this game. What do you think

they've seen on tape? What are they going to allow Michigan to take in order to take away,

you know, maybe maybe some more dangerous weapons? What do you think the defense game plan

is going to be tonight? You allow them to shoot. It's easy. I mean, you allow you make

Elliott Kendo and Mari Burnett make the shots to beat you. Like if you quite frankly, if you

get outplayed in the back court, if the guards going out and scoring on you is the reason you lose,

then you probably weren't in a position to win either way. You take the one part of the game that

is your strength, right? Not the Michigan can't run up and down the court and run and gone and shoot

and all that because they can. Your day notes, you believe your team can do it better. Anything

that you can do to force Michigan into shots, even if they are, and this is one of the things

that I've been thinking about like you're okay sometimes with we're just going to sprint up

and down the court with Michigan and we're going to make threes and they're going to make a bunch

of threes too. The more three-point attempts Michigan takes to a certain extent, the better.

As long as it is happening quickly, as long as it's happening in the same kind of rhythm that

you're trying to play in, is my take on it. So it's going to be difficult because Michigan, like

Michigan doesn't want to get suckered into that, right? They know that yes, we can shoot but we

we're going to dominate inside. Anything you can do to make Michigan forget that, even if it's

sometimes daring guys to shoot, even if it's sometimes letting up a higher percentage three

than you would sometimes like, especially early to set a tone. I think they know it's just going to

be okay with letting some of those shots fly. All right, so I think something a little

differently from both y'all. I think you're going to try to run Kadow off the three-point line

and make him drive because I think when he's driving, he gets a little erratic as far as making

decisions when bodies are all in the pain and when people are collapsing. I do think his three-point

shot has improved and so what I would suggest, and this coming from somebody who's never coached

the basketball game in their life, but is to run Kadow off the line, try to try to force him into

driving and try to force him into ugly looks at the rim and then box out and get the rebound.

Basically, I think you have a decent chance of Kadow trying to take the game on himself saying,

oh, I can get to the rim. I can get into the lane and you're going to see mis-floters. You're

going to see miss shots at the rim. You're going to see bad decisions trying to pass to

him or trying to pass to Mars Johnson. I think that that would be my starting point if I would

go to the coach. Great. I get that. All right, so we're right here at about 36-37 minutes and I am

out of main topics for the main two from yesterday and setting up this game. Hunter, I want to ask you,

if you've got any other big picture topics on this game and same with Theo and we'll get everybody

to give a prediction and get out of here. Tommy Tidwell, I appreciate you hanging out with us

on the Facebook machine. We talked about 15 minutes or so about Aiden the Holloway playing

tonight. If he's going to fly up or who, if he thinks we're going to play, if he's not going to play

predicting his stat line, all kinds of things. The very first kind of 15 minutes this shows,

if you scroll your line all the way back to about six minutes in after past the intro,

you can hear all about our comments on Aiden Holloway. Hunter, any big picture things we're missing

from up on this Michigan game tonight? Probably nothing for tonight, but I don't know,

you'll probably discuss this in future podcasts, but I guess a real quick should I allow them to lose

what happens next? Who goes? What happens with Holloway? What do we think here?

I think you'll see a lot of transfer portal stuff activity. I think Holloway stays with

the program for next year, but you'll see it'll just be another offseason with the NIL and transfer

portal. You'll see my gut feeling says you'll see Keaton Bristow, Collins on your Geocha, both in the

portal. I think you'll see David on Hannah Back. I think you'll see Logan Jimison Back. I think you'll

see Aiden Holloway and Aiden Cherelle Back and everybody else. I mean, you've got graduation for

Ritesel, Ritesel Millett and Williamson. So they're all gone. You, Oboen, I think you're trying to

keep. I think you'd love to keep Jewel Bethaea, but I think that's pretty unlikely. Yeah, I think he's

probably going to go into the portal. Bylonne NBA, Mari Allen, probably NBA, probably, but maybe

transfer portal for Big Bag somewhere else. It may be stays as well. I think all three are pretty

decent kind of choices for Mari Allen. Is that everybody? I think that's about everybody.

Yeah, I think you got around them. Yeah, and that's just gut feelings. That's just gut feelings.

What do you say about Jimison? Demesite, I think, coming back. Okay, yeah. So we'll see.

Theo, any other big picture thoughts ahead of sweet 16s against Michigan?

No, I mean, look at the end of the day, like, yeah, this is a matchup that Michigan is a

better team. Michigan is built to win this game. Michigan is built to expose Alabama's flaws.

And yeah, I mean, we talked, we talked to men and I guess just circling back to the conversation

about how do you stop? Yeah. So is there anything you allow Michigan to take and

no combination of any of our answers works perfectly? No. That's the problem with this team, man.

Like, they are, they are so good. And I will, I was reflecting on it earlier.

This would be the most impressive win of the NATO's era. That's where I'm at with this game right now.

I think that's that I think that's dead on. And you're probably holding it up against

the number one victory over number one North Carolina two two seasons ago out in San Diego.

All right. So it's time to make our predictions. But before we do, we need to remind you that

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Okay, business in. It's a Friday edition. Tonight we'll determine if we're doing a show

tomorrow or not. You know, I'm going to ask you if you're available. So it might just be a

me, a solo or a me and Hunter show. We'll find that out in just a little bit. But in fact,

if that will win, we want to break down the win and set up the elite eight matchup against either

Iowa State or Tennessee Nightmare scenario. But first, at 6.30 p.m. on TBS, Alabama takes on

Michigan in the sweet 16. The Michigan Wolverines are an eight and a half point favorite right now.

They open as a 10 and a half point favorite. It has now been bent down to eight and a half.

A couple of people bent on Alabama. Lord Kitty Popper Roy says Alabama will lose 91 to 83 tonight.

So we'll see if the analytics man will be right.

Theo Fernandez, age before beauty, go right ahead. What do you think about this game?

Final, final thoughts and leave us with a prediction.

Yeah, I've been I've been alluding to it all week. I think Michigan will win this game.

I might be authority on Alabama and basketball after saying this team wouldn't even make the sweet

16 for a month and a half. I don't know. But I do with or without even how

which I do think we'll be with. I said by that, but I do think that Michigan is just built for success.

I am going to give Alabama some credit and that I think we're going to hit the under eight break

of the second half and Alabama will still have a realistic chance.

Like I think as far as comparing this to other games that I've seen this program play,

I think 2024, final four against UConn, a game where you knew coming in,

Alabama's facing a team significantly better. But the Crimson Todd showed really a lot of

fighting that one, right? I mean, you were really in that game late, played them pretty well.

You walked out, I think, and man, that was just a really good team that maybe overvedged us,

but we hung in there. I'm going to go, I think this game will get up there in the final score

numbers. I'm going to go Michigan 95, Alabama 82. Very good. Michigan 95, Alabama 82, Perthio,

Hunter Decider is tonight the final night of Alabama basketball season. Yes. Yes, it is. So

I think this game kind of compares to last year's Elinate against Duke, where they got this superstar

player, the Axel motherboard, and then Cooper flag. But then he's got this crazy supporting cast.

And last year I'm looking at it, Cooper shot six of 16 from the field. It's not that great. And yet

Duke's still won by 20. Michigan has that star power, not necessarily five first round fix or

something like that, like Duke kind of had, but they still have enough star power to win this game

easily, even if the Axel doesn't do well, because I still think that could be a good part of the

game plan is to cover the Axel, but they just, they have too many weapons and album is not good enough

on defense to get the job done offensively, whether or not Aiden plays. I don't think it'll be that

big of a factor in determining the outcome. I still think it's going to get lost regardless.

95, 82 was pretty on par with what I was thinking. So I'm just trying to think of like a somewhat

different score. I'm going to go with 91 to, let's go with 79. Yeah, 91 to 79.

I just think Michigan's two powerful for Alabama. I got to give them out of the credit. I thought

I'll just say in my own bracket, you guys could see it. I had Texas Tech winning that game.

I just thought that without Aiden Holloway and the poor performance against Ole Miss, a couple

of games before, that it's going to lead into this one. Obviously, I'll be in Hofstra by 20,

but it was close for a while. Hofstra even had a 10-point lead at one point. But if

Alabama, Michigan gets a 10-point lead in this one, Alabama's not coming back. Simple as that.

There we go. So two of our teammates on the Michigan Wall of Reads, I will stand alone.

I will say that tonight will be a historic night and that Alabama will win. I just typed down

91-88 is kind of what's in my gut. Yeah, I just think that there's going to be a very,

we're going to walk out of this game thinking holy crap. I never thought that Alabama could have

done X or whatever they're going to do on defense tonight. Not necessarily from an effort standpoint,

but I believe that NATO will have a very interesting strategy defensively for this Michigan team.

And I think that you've probably had all week to put it in and to game plan it. And so

I think that Alabama's going to have something that Michigan's going to like, it will be a

rink rule for Michigan to deal with in the game. And we'll see if they can do that in game and

make an in game adjustment. Obviously, they're extremely talented. And I do think those three

of four words are incredible. But you know, you get hot, you get hot, and you believe in yourselves,

then you can win. I know this team believes in themselves. And we know that, you know,

if Alabama loses, Houston-Ballette may actually die tonight on the court. So like, they'll give

their all. I think that I think the effort and energy will be there. And you know, you add

eight in the Halloween last minute. What does that do from an emotional standpoint? Is it just worth

two minutes at the very start of the game or does that emotional lift carry the whole 40 minutes of,

oh, we didn't think we were going to have our guy. But now we do. And now we can take down the

big bad Michigan Wolverines. I think that Alabama will win. I think it's going to be close throughout.

I won't be surprised if Michigan does win. It's just I'm just trying to list them on gut right here.

And my gut does say that it's going to be a happy night for the Crimson Tide fans. And we'll see

what happens in the United Center. It'll be there at 630. We'll have Katie Wyndham, follow our

Katie Wyndham underscore Hunter Disciver at Hunter Disciver and myself at Joe Gatheur 6. We'll

all be in the United Center, follow Theo Fernandez, Theo Fernandez, double underscore baseball,

Auburn tonight. Yeah, I think it'll be a really fun series that have a renewed confidence in

this team after seeing the fight. And just the response in general to what really looked like a

point where the season could go off the rails. So Tyler Fay, you threw a no hitter last week.

What do you have this week? Obviously not another no hitter today. But like if you go seven innings,

which I think is the standard for especially after what he's done, you give your team a chance.

The bullpen really looked phenomenal over the weekend. The best it has all year.

There's reason to believe that Alabama really could win this series against the fifth ranked Auburn

Tigers a team that's been really good. And I will tell you, if you aren't listening to this and

you're in Tuscaloosa and you're on the fence about going into tonight's baseball game, it is going

to be one of the best one of the coolest sporting events I think we have ever seen with the game

going on and then screen set up all across the stadium to watch Alabama vs Michigan. You're watching

with all these allies. I just think like I'm excited to cover this game. I think the fan experience

is going to be equally as insane for everyone in attendance. So show up to Suel Thomas for what

should be a big time series between two teams that are playing great baseball right now.

I know I know they're calling it like a double feature and you said it's going to have the game,

the basketball game, the month screens all over. Is that include like the jumbo tron as well or do you

know? Yeah, so my understanding is that the jumbo tron like instead of between it and like

promotions and stuff that they're going to be running the game. That's great. Okay. They will

basically they're going to have a massive screen in right field for all the students to watch.

Along the first baseline, like kind of the rally point area, they're going to have a bunch of

TV screen set up for fans to kind of stand, you know, sit in a place where they watch both at the same time.

High energy at the Joe tonight. So yeah, look, get out there. I bet the tickets are not expensive at all.

See, Alabama take on Auburn. Uh, weather probably better in Tuscaloosa than it is here.

It's huge for a chilly tonight. Yeah, perfect. Perfect. It's been 82 and sunny all. It's been

the best week weather wise. We've had this year. So get out to the Joe. Hang out with

the overlanders and watch Alabama basketball against Michigan with all of your Alabama Crimson

type fans as you are for the boys and game won against Auburn. You can follow all our coverage

at bambessential.com. So it's going to be a huge night on the website. If Alabama wins,

we'll figure out a way to give you an episode tomorrow to set up the Elite Age game.

If Alabama loses, oh heartbreak that will happen. If Alabama loses, we will talk to you on Monday

to wrap up this basketball season and really, really get heading diet head first into spring

football. So that's going to be the plan for the next day and a half. We hope that you join us

on your favorite podcast platform. You subscribe to us on the Bambessential YouTube channel.

And we will talk to you again very soon right here on the Joe Gay Through Show on Bambessential

Thanks for joining us on today's edition of the Joe Gay Through Show on Bambessential.

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