Nate Oats says injured Alabama guard could return vs. Creighton

An Alabama transfer addition could make his debut vs. Creighton.

Up to this point in the season, the Alabama Crimson Tide have been without one of their top offseason transfer portal additions in Chris Youngblood.

A transfer from South Florida, Youngblood was the 2023-24 AAC Player of the Year where he averaged a combined 15.3 PPG on 41.6% shooting from three during his lone season with the Bulls. Prior to that, Youngblood spent multiple seasons at Kennesaw State where he averaged 13.8 PPG over three years.

Transferring to Alabama this past offseason, Youngblood was expected to be a potential starter for the Crimson Tide entering the year, but an injury put those thoughts on hold for multiple weeks.

According to Alabama head coach Nate Oats however, Youngblood is near a return from injury, and could even make his Alabama debut as early as this upcoming Saturday against Creighton.

“Chris has practiced in still a limited role,” Oats said. “We haven’t had him do everything, but I would anticipated him getting some minutes.”

“As long as he recovers from today (Friday) alright, I would anticipate him playing limited minutes tomorrow.”

The Crimson Tide are set to host Creighton on Saturday night inside Coleman Coliseum, with tipoff set for 8:30 p.m. ET on SEC Network.