Sports

Why Alabama basketball is traveling to Canada to play Purdue – AL.com

Published

on

The best laid plans of Tide and men often go awry. When Alabama men’s basketball scheduled its trip to Toronto to face Purdue, it seemed like a great opportunity for a homecoming.
The Boilermakers had top big man Zach Edey. The Crimson Tide had Charles Bediako.
Both of them were Ontario natives.
“You get the two seven-footers going against each other, that’s where it started,” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said. “By the time we realized Charles wouldn’t be here this year, it was kind of down the path and we just said said ‘Let’s go with it anyways.’”
Bediako is now playing professional basketball. He left early for the NBA, currently with the San Antionio Spurs organization after going undrafted.
Edey is still in West Lafayette, and is one of the top players in college basketball.
Alabama will play Purdue in Toronto on Saturday. The game fits with Oats’ strategy of scheduling tough games early in the season.
The Boilermakers are ranked No. 4 nationally on the AP poll and are entering the game off a blowout win against Iowa. Edey presents a major challenge for a UA team that has struggled with protecting the rim.
The trip to a foreign country has also presented a challenge for Alabama’s director of men’s basketball operations, Josh Pierre, who arrived in Tuscaloosa in November of 2022.
“This will be his first time handling a foreign trip,” Oats said. “Everybody’s got their passports. Just make sure we don’t get on the plane leaving here without a passport. But it’s up there in Toronto. I lived up there in Buffalo for six years, it’s going to a foreign country but it’s a lot different than going to Europe. They’re used to a lot of people passing between that US and Canadian border.”
Alabama enters the game after beating the brakes off of Arkansas State at Coleman Coliseum on Monday. The Crimson Tide sits at 6-2 on the season.
The game is scheduled for Saturday at 12:30 p.m. CT at the Coca-Cola Coliseum in Toronto. The matchup will be aired on Fox.
“I like playing tough teams and I like the venue,” Oats said. “So we get Zach Edey’s homecoming parade, we were there for it. We just didn’t bring Charles with us on the parade.”
If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated 4/4/2023), Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (updated 7/1/2023).

© 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. All rights reserved (About Us).
The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local.
Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site.
YouTube’s privacy policy is available here and YouTube’s terms of service is available here.
Ad Choices

source

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Trending

Exit mobile version