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