Happy Monday, everyone. It wasn’t a great weekend on the diamonds as both teams made difficult road trips. The softball team dropped two of three at Florida, and baseball did the same at LSU.
On the links, Alabama alum Justin Thomas won for the first time in three years.
“I didn’t realize how much I missed winning,” Thomas said on the 18th green as he stood next to wife, Jill, and 5-month-old daughter, Molly.
His previous win was the PGA Championship at Southern Hills in May 2022. His game slipped. He missed the FedEx Cup playoffs for the first time in 2023, and he was left off the Presidents Cup team a year ago.
His game was back in order — he cracked the top 10 again — and needed only a victory to confirm his place back among the elite.
“I think it was the last thing missing, if you will,” Thomas said. “It’s hard to say, because obviously careers are so long and there’s so much up and down and lots going on that you never know what point of your career you’re at until it’s over.
“At least for me, I felt like it was the last thing that I needed to do for my own well-being.”
Thomas is currently ranked 8th in the world.
A couple of defensive linemen are among those Nick Kelly is hearing buzz around after spring camp.
Jeremiah Beaman, defensive line
Tim Keenan III and James Smith are two regulars from last season’s rotation on the defensive line who return. But Alabama’s going to need more help on its interior past Keenan and Smith.
Enter Jeremiah Beaman. He figures to play a role in the rotation. The Birmingham native seems to be on the rise and have a chance to contribute in his sophomore season.
Edric Hill, defensive line
Like Beaman, Hill is trending up. Hill has a year more of experience than Beaman, so he may have an even larger impact. Hill saw time in nine games a season ago, backing up Tim Smith and James Smith. But Hill seems to have made large strides from where he was a season ago.
The Tide will need some big bodies to step up there.
Kalen DeBoer spoke about where Jalen Milroe needs to grow in order to reach his full potential.
With Milroe now off to the NFL Draft, Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer was asked what caused the inconsistencies in the Texas native’s game during a Friday appearance on The Next Round Live.
“The thing with Jalen, I think a lot of it is, just like any other quarterback, it’s like, what’s going on around you too?” DeBoer said. “The quarterback is going to be the one that takes everything on. I tell our quarterbacks, a kid drops the ball, that’s on you, catch it for them. So just like everyone else, I’m putting it on the quarterback. It starts with you, you gotta make that ball even more catchable than it was, even though they just flat out dropped it. So there’s a level that Jalen had that’s a high ceiling.”
Tyler Booker’s stock has seemingly slipped a bit, leaving Jihaad Campbell as Alabama’s only truly likely first rounder.
While Booker is regarded as one of the top guards in the class, his standing as a firm first-round draft selection has waned. He has been consistently picked in mock drafts behind guards like North Dakota State’s Grey Zabel and Ohio State’s Donovan Jackson. Expect teams like the Arizona Cardinals and Jacksonville Jaguars in the second, or even the Detroit Lions and Baltimore Ravens at the end of the first round, to be in on Booker, who could be a plug-and-play starter from day one.
Last, with Michael Davis finally set to stand trial for the shooting of Jamea Harris, Brandon Miller is among the names who may have to testify.
Four former members of the Alabama men’s basketball program, including current Charlotte Hornets forward Brandon Miller, are on the witness list for the May 5 capital murder trial of Michael Davis in Tuscaloosa, according to court records.
The former players — Miller, Jaden Bradley and Nick Pringle — as well as former student manager Cooper Lee could be asked to testify. None of the men on the witness list have been accused of wrongdoing in the case. They could be served subpoenas and then be expected to appear in court. The trial will take place in Alabama’s Sixth Circuit Court with Judge Daniel Pruet presiding.
Miller is a witness in the case, as the DA deemed him from the beginning. Yet, there are still mouthbreathers who would have you believe that Brandon decided to risk his life, let alone his NBA career, and the life of the Alabama team manager who was riding with him, by leaving Applebee’s to drive into a gunfight. He has maintained that he was simply Darius Miles’ ride for the evening and was going to pick him up, which makes sense to anyone with functioning brain cells.
That’s about it for today. Have a great week.
Roll Tide.
