Injury Update on Grant Nelson Ahead of Robert Morris NCAA Tournament Matchup

The Alabama forward suffered a knee injury towards the end of the first half of the Crimson Tide's SEC Tournament semifinal loss to Florida.

Alabama Crimson Tide forward Grant Nelson (4) questions a call by the referees in the first half as the Texas Longhorns take on the Crimson Tide at the Moody Center, Feb. 11, 2025. / Sara Diggins/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Alabama men's basketball forward Grant Nelson didn't play for the entire second half of the Crimson Tide's SEC Tournament semifinal 104-82 blowout loss to Florida on Saturday due to a knee injury.

Nelson went to the locker room with Alabama trainer Clarke Holter after hobbling around the court with 3:40 remaining in the first half. The injury seemed to occur while going for a defensive rebound. Nelson played the following offensive possession and even touched the ball a couple of times while moving around the interior, but couldn't stay in anymore.

Alabama was named the 2-seed in the East Region for the 2025 NCAA Tournament on Selection Sunday. The Crimson Tide will face 15-seed Robert Morris in Cleveland, Ohio on Friday.

Alabama head coach Nate Oats said shortly after the bracket reveal on Sunday that "We're hoping to get Grant back by the first round" and will have further details after seeing a knee specialist. They saw the specialist on Monday.

“Not sure he’ll be ready by Friday," Oats said during Hey Coach. "We’re hoping at a minimum that he’d be ready by Sunday with the possibility of maybe Friday. I though he played pretty well. We dodged one, it wasn’t anything too serious with his knee but he will for sure be questionable for Friday."

Nelson was off to a very solid start against Florida as he had nine points on 4 of 7 from the field to go along with three rebounds, an assist, a block and a steal in just 10 minutes.

When the Crimson Tide came out of the halftime break, Nelson was not seen warming up nor was he on the bench to open the second half. Nevertheless, he returned to the bench about a minute into the period, but was still hobbling a bit and was wearing the Alabama shorts with the warmup shirt on.

That said, Nelson would never take the warmup shirt off. It was probably for the best as Florida came out of the halftime locker room angry and absolutely annihilated the Crimson Tide throughout the second half.

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