Alabama basketball received some expected news on Wednesday. The Crimson Tide’s NIL collective, Yea Alabama, announced that Houston Mallette’s medical redshirt was granted, and he’ll be allowed to return for one final season in Tuscaloosa.
Mallette, who transferred in before the 2024-25 season from Pepperdine, was originally slated to redshirt the entire year. However, when Latrell Wrightsell Jr. injured his Achilles tendon and was out for the year, Alabama burned the redshirt.
However, lingering knee issues led to Nate Oats and company seeking the medical redshirt for Mallette.
“For him to only play half the conference games would be, I don’t know if that’s fair to him to be honest with you,” Oats said in January. “It’s gonna be a conversation we have with him when he gets here, probably halfway through where, “Look, how are your knees feeling?’
“Because if you bring him back, it’s gotta be, your knees are going to 100% be healthy and you can full go as many minutes as you deserve to play the rest of the year in all the games. If you can’t do that, with his knees, I just don’t think it’d be the right decision.”Mallette and Wrightsell are both set to return from their injuries in time for the beginning of the 2025-26 season, Oats said earlier in May. Speaking to reporters at the Regions Tradition celebrity pro-am golf tournament, the coach said Wrightsell had been working with Crimson Tide trainer Clarke Holter.
“He’s in there; Clarke says he’s working super-hard,” Oats said of Wrightsell, who was averaging 11.5 points per game at the time of his injury. “He’s doing everything he needs to do, so we anticipate him being fully ready to go by first game.”
