Nate Oats uses Charles Bediako as bizarre excuse for Alabama roster that couldn’t measure up to Michigan

CHICAGO — Alabama’s season is over largely because it wasn’t big enough. As simple as that. No. 1 seed Michigan knocked off the Crimson Tide 90-77 using a typical dominant burst in the second half to deliver the final blow. Michigan beat the Tide handily, and the numbers back it up.

Michigan outscored Alabama 25-12 and had a 20-10 advantage in points in the paint over the final 20 minutes. Alabama’s four-man squad of London Jemison and Taylor Bol Bowen didn’t manage a single rebound in the second half.

Making the Sweet 16 for the fourth straight year is an undeniable accomplishment for Nate Oats and this Alabama program, but Friday’s second-half groan illustrates the gap between the elites, like Michigan, and that second tier, where Alabama resided this season.

“We know we have to change a little bit,” Oats said. “We knew we were undersized. We were a little light in some places, especially our four-seater.”

The muscles in the Michigan group were much easier to spot than the Alabama ones. Michigan had bricks in its pants; Alabama did not. Oats had to ask Bol Bowen (a stretch 4 who weighs 202 pounds) or London Jemison (an ever-improving freshman who weighs 205 pounds) to try to keep Morez Johnson, Aday Mara and Yaxel Lendeborg off the glass.

Oats pointed to injuries to freshman big man Collins Onyejiaka and sophomore Tarleton State transfer Keitenn Bristow as part of the calculation. He insisted he was forced to play freshman forward Amari Allen at the 4, even though “he’s definitely a point guard.”

That’s right.

But that’s not the whole story, and Oats chose to take a different route and reopen an old Pandora’s box, featuring Baylor’s James Nnaji, Charles Bediako and numerous lawyers.

“When we saw the opportunity to gain some leverage after all the adversity we went through after Nnaji was declared eligible and most people, including ourselves, thought, you know, if they were to declare Nnaji eligible, Bediako would be, and one judge thought so too,” Oats said. “He definitely would have helped the situation with the rebound.”

Even if Oats is right, the justification rings a bit hollow. The fact that Bediako was able to return from the G-League and even play five games was a miracle to some and an inside job to others to get the good judge in Alabama to grant a temporary restraining order. Bediako served as Alabama’s “get out of jail free card” to atone for some miscalculations in the transfer portal, and when he was declared ineligible in early February, the flaws on this roster were as obvious as they were in non-conference play when gargantuan clubs like Arizona and Purdue beat Alabama on the boards.

With Bediako, Friday is a different match, but Oats, always honest, might have been better served keeping this one in the rooms as it simmered until the end.

“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” Oats said. “We had something else in store.”