Nate Oats Assesses Jarin Stevenson's Recent Growth

The freshman forward has been praised by his head coach for his recent developments.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — After Alabama basketball's win over Auburn on Wednesday night, one of the players head coach Nate Oats keyed on shouting out was forward Jarin Stevenson.

It wasn't Mark Sears, who scored 22 points, it wasn't Grant Nelson, who posted a double-double, but a freshman who came off the bench and scored just six points.

Oats was asked about Stevenson again during Friday's press conference ahead of Saturday's game against LSU. He once again raved about his recent development.

"He's got more confidence, he's playing more aggressive," Oats said. "He's more consistent with his physicality. We saw he could be more physical right away on campus, it just showed up once or twice a day. Now it's a lot more frequent. It's more of his DNA that he can do it on every play. He's learning the system, defensively he's playing with a little bit more of an edge. He's got a lot better sense of urgency to him."

Stevenson's 23 minutes played against Auburn on Wednesday were two off of his season high, and the past two games have given him the most playing time he's seen during SEC play.

At 6-foot-11, Stevenson has always provided depth in the Crimson Tide frontcourt, but earlier in the season he saw very limited playing time against bigger, physical teams like Arizona and Mississippi State.

Oats attributes a lot of that to the learning curve that comes with being a reclassified freshman, since Stevenson is supposed to be a senior in high school and is just 18 years old. 

"You've got to get used to playing at this level, when every possession matters, and every guy you're going against is another really high-level athlete," Oats said. "For a kid that's supposed to be in high school still, he's come a long ways and he's playing really well for us right now."

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