Why Nate Oats plans to play Charles Bediako vs. Tennessee

A county judge’s decision this week to grant temporary NCAA eligibility to former Alabama Crimson Tide big man Charles Bediako sent shockwaves through the college basketball world. The decision clears the way for Bediako to play for Alabama this weekend in a big SEC matchup against Tennessee. Following the ruling, Alabama head coach Nate Oats said he definitely plans to play his former player, as per The Field of 68.

While Nate Oats doesn’t necessarily agree with the current state of college basketball, he believes he is simply following the rules laid out before him as far as doing his job to make Alabama a better team.

“The system is clearly broken, and I’m all for figuring out a way to fix it. But since the NCAA has already allowed professionals to play, virtually every team we’ve played this year, or will play, has a former professional player on their roster, tell me how I’m supposed to tell Charles, and the team, that I’m not going to support them when he’s been deemed legally eligible to play,” Oats said during a press conference.

“Charles is still within his five-year window, he’s 23-years-old, he’s pursing his degree here at Alabama, we’ve got a roster spot open so this is not taking opportunities away from high school recruiting or anybody else,” Oats continued. “Charles shouldn’t be punished for choosing to go the academic route out of high school, rather than the professional route like the international players did.”

What’s at the forefront of the outrage regarding the decision to allow Charles Bediako to play for Alabama, is that he has already signed a professional contract with an NBA team. Bediako had signed a two-way contract with the San Antonio Spurs, and was on the team’s roster to begin the 2023-24 season before being waived due to injury.

In the case of the other G League players such as London Johnson, Abdullah Ahmed and Thierry Darlan, they had never signed an NBA contract. And even in the case of James Nnaji, he had never signed a contract either albeit being drafted.

Bediako played at Alabama from 2021-23 before declaring for the NBA Draft. He went undrafted, and had been playing in the G League.

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