Even though Florida takes on South Carolina at 9 PM tonight on the road and looks to get back into the winning column after losing last Saturday to Auburn, it’s this upcoming Sunday’s matchup against Alabama that is bound to be the talk of the SEC. Beyond the fact that the game will be on ABC, Todd Golden hasn’t been shy about making it clear he isn’t a fan of what the Crimson Tide is doing roster-wise.
After Alabama’s own win against Missouri on Tuesday, they made it known they are aware of the outside noise being hurled their way.
Alabama will “be ready” for Florida
In case one needs a refresher on why no one in college basketball likes Alabama these days, the Crimson Tide has added Charles Bediako to their roster in the middle of the season after getting a temporary order from a judge, who just happens to be an Alabama booster, to force the NCAA to allow Bediako to play.
Why might Bediako playing be a problem?
Well, he has been in the G-League since 2023.
Bediako played two years for Alabama, then went undrafted, then played in the G-League, and has now decided he wants to come back to college. There are multiple case studies every year of players from Europe coming over and having complications getting cleared. Urban Klavzar, for example, had a delay in playing for Florida due to his time playing European basketball.
The major difference is that Bediako played two full seasons for Alabama before leaving, and he is now in his third season in the G-League. If Bediako had just kept playing for the Crimson Tide rather than the G-League, his eligibility clock would have run out after last season, as last year would have been his 4th year of college basketball.
Todd Golden calls out Alabama
Last week on his radio show, Golden was not shy to call out Alabama and the nonsense this whole situation has become:
“They were able to finagle the situation where they got a judge in Alabama who is actually a donor at Alabama to write a temporary restraining order to allow this guy to play games at Alabama. I think there’s a lot of people who aren’t necessarily happy about it and don’t necessarily agree with it.
But with all this intervention from judges, there’s only so much the league can do, there’s only so much other member schools in the league can do. We just need some people to stand up and start taking a stand.”
This brings us to Alabama guard Latrell Wrightsell, who talked about the upcoming Florida game after the Crimson Tide knocked off Missouri in a blowout on Tuesday:
“They called us out, so we’re gonna be ready for them on Sunday. Not much else to talk about.”
News flash, everyone in college basketball is calling you out. Tennessee had a viral post on Saturday after beating Alabama, poking fun at the fact that Bediako should be in the G-League. Fans are catching on that Bediako is an option to vote for online to become a G-League All-Star.
If the NCAA allows this to stand, what is to litteraly stop anyone who didn’t use up four years of college basketball from coming back to play? Al Horford still has a year of college he didn’t use. Bradley Beal still has three years.
It’s all insane, and it just means on Sunday, we should all get our popcorn ready.