While Alabama was exorcising some demons on the football field against Ole Miss this past weekend, Avery Johnson and staff were looking to the future in a big way.
As the 2017 version of the Crimson Tide roundball team began practice, Alabama coaches are hoping are a bunch of future Tiders looked on with excitement and optimism for the future.
Two 2018 prospects, Javian Fleming and Robert Woodard, made the journey over from Mississippi to take in the Tide’s first practice and a football gameday in Tuscaloosa.
Alabama appears to have made a big impression on Fleming as he announced he had eliminated all but two schools, Alabama and Georgetown, from consideration and had plans for a commitment date very soon.
As I mentioned in my last piece on Alabama’s current targets, Woodard plans to hold off on signing until the late recruiting period.
The Tide also played host to an impressive crop of 2019 prospects in Austin Crowley, Kira Lewis and Trendon Watford, all four-stars or better on the recruiting sites.
Crowley, a 6-6 shooting guard from Mississippi, has also received SEC offers from Ole Miss and Mississippi State.
Lewis, a Hazel Green native, is ranked as the third best player in the state in the 2019 class and has also garnered plenty of interest from Auburn.
And then there’s Watford, the 5-star forward who described Alabama’s practice as “a new atmosphere for basketball.”
All three players appear to be highly coveted regionally and nationally, with all boasting offers from big-name basketball schools throughout the country.
Meanwhile, Alabama also might’ve gotten a good indication on where things stand with a key 2018 prospect (that wasn’t in town this weekend), Jared Butler.
Virginia, thought to be Alabama’s top competition for Butler’s signature, took a commitment from a point guard Kihei Clark on Monday.
Butler outranks Clark on most recruiting sites, so this could be an indication that Butler has informed Virginia of his intentions to commit elsewhere.
Continue to follow along as keep tracking all the latest news and notes surrounding Crimson Tide recruiting.