Happy Monday, everyone. The Gym Tide had a rather underwhelming regular season by their standards, but came out of nowhere to post their highest score of the year at the NCAA Regionals.
Alabama gymnastics will be returning to the NCAA semifinals, alongside Florida, after the two had strong showings in the Tuscaloosa Regional finals.
Alabama was trailing Cal for second at the midway point, but a season-best score on the beam put it ahead going to floor, the Crimson Tide’s best event. There the Crimson Tide handled business to turn in a season best score of 197.675 and advance over Cal, which scored 197.575.
Florida got off to a fast start on bars and kept going strong, scoring above a 49.5 on both bars and floor. It scored a 197.7 to take first place in the regional finals.
The ladies now advance to the eight team NCAA Championships, to be held in Fort Worth starting on April 17.
It wasn’t a great weekend on the diamonds, as baseball lost two of three at Auburn and softball did the same at LSU.
The basketball team got some great news over the weekend as four players confirmed their return, headlined by big man Aiden Sherrell, and a portal commitment from Jalil Bethea from Miami, who was a top ten prospect in the 2024 recruiting class. Jalil’s high school coach sees a good fit.
Miami transfer Jalil Bethea will be playing for Alabama next season, he announced Sunday.The 6-foot-5 guard averaged 7.1 points, 2.1 rebounds and 1.2 assists in his freshman year. Bethea is a former five-star recruit coming out of Archbishop Wood High School with high upside.“He brings play-making ability and he is a 3-level scorer and the play style is definitely a great fit for him,” Archbishop Wood coach John Mosco told ZAGSBLOG about Bethea. “They play fast and shoot a lot of threes.”
In football news, the quarterback competition rages on. Ty Simpson came into the offseason first in the pecking order and thus far nobody has been able to change that, though Keelon Russell continues to show his immense potential. A couple of other freshmen continue to get buzz after the second scrimmage.
Dijon Lee might only be a freshman, but the 6-4, 197-pound cornerback is already catching people’s attention.
The former five-star prospect from Carson, California showed a knack for being around the ball. He’s going to fit right into Kane Wommack’s defense that prides itself on taking the ball away. Starting cornerback Domani Jackson is out for the spring with an injury, allowing more opportunities at cornerback for other guys. It appears Lee is already taking advantage.
But another freshman stood out perhaps even more. Maybe even more than most players on the roster. Freshman receiver Lotzeir Brooks drew serious praise from onlookers. He caught at least one touchdown and shined during the scrimmage.
Ryan Williams was held out due to some sort of injury but there has been no indication that it is anything serious. It sounds like Brooks took full advantage of the opportunity, and Lee is going to be hard to keep off the field. He should be firmly in the mix at dime if nothing else.
The freshman linebackers also continue to get good marks.
“The three freshmen, they’re going to be really good players,” DeBoer said. “We ask a lot out of that position. They’re the ones that wear the earpieces, make the calls. Now going into Year 2, we’re even more diverse than what we were and putting a little bit more on their shoulders.
“Kind of taking those next steps as a defense with the concepts we’re putting in, refining some of the things we did last year, adding to some of those things as well.
“Abduall, Luke, Duke, all three of them have been making plays out there, running sideline-to-sideline. That’s one thing they do best. And then QB is a guy that’s out there directing traffic. He had a really good spring, as well. I’m proud of the way those guys have just taken the bull by the horns and rolled with it.”
This is a really cool piece from Colin Gay on Jaylen Mbakwe’s freshman season, including his short stint in the transfer portal.
“I didn’t need any outside talk trying to sway us on what it was that we were going to do,” Willis said. “But that solely was (his) decision. I follow my son. I do whatever he wants me to do for him at that time. Whatever decision he makes, I’m behind him 100%. So this was a conversation we had. It was something he thought he wanted to do, but at the end of the day, it wasn’t the best decision for him to make.”
Willis said Mbakwe loves Alabama. She hardly ever sees him, she said with a laugh, saying that’s a significant indicator of his love for the Tide.
Willis is just ready for Alabama fans to continue to understand who Mbakwe is.
“I want them to know and understand who he really is as a person,” Willis said. “He’s really a good person. He’s a good player. He’s a fantastic player to me. But more importantly, he is a great person and if people would get to know that instead of basing it off of what they see, or what is put out there in the media, you would see more positive things that are said on social media.”
Derrick Henry also considered transferring out after his freshman season, and that turned out quite well. Hopefully Bak will be able to write his own success story.
Speaking of Henry, Micah Parsons told him a pretty funny story about his recruitment to Alabama, and why he ended up at Penn State instead.
That Tuscaloosa heat and humidity is no joke, nor were Nick Saban offseason workouts.
Last, Jalen Milroe has accepted an invitation to the NFL Draft, which leads one to believe that some team – the Steelers, Browns, and Saints have been floated as possibilities – has their eye on him in the first round. He is widely projected to be a Day 2 selection, but there is some nuance in that first round contracts carry a fifth year team option which can be valuable for a project QB. Bryce Young spoke highly of his former understudy.
“I’ve talked to him a good amount,” Young said this week during an appearance on “CBS Sports HQ.” “Just saw him recently. And, obviously, the player that he is, how dynamic he is, what he can bring to an offense from him being able to expand a playbook, really put defenses in a bind with what he can do both throwing and passing is one of the huge things that jumps off the sheets.
“But the stuff that people don’t really get to see outside of just the stat sheet is just how great of a leader he is. He’s someone that commands a locker room, that commands a team. Even when he wasn’t starting when I was there, everyone respected him. Everyone knew that he was going to be the guy. And then having a lot of teammates being around while he was the guy, him being the leader of that team, everyone wanted to play for him, wanted to be at their best for him. He’s someone who’s a winner, who believes in winning, does all the little things to make sure that he’s going to be successful. And I know he’ll continue that at the next level, and the habits he has, the work ethic he has, on top of all the stuff that he brings on the field, which is a ton.
That’s about it for today. Have a great week.
Roll Tide.
