Green Won’t Play Against Arkansas

The last time Alabama played against Arkansas, the Crimson Tide’s Tony Mitchell scored 11 points and had six rebounds. He won’t score against the Razorbacks this Thursday as he has been suspended for the rest of the season. In the Jan. 28 Bama-Arkansas game, JaMychal Green scored 14 points and had eight rebounds. He hasn’t been suspended for the season, but he won’t play against Arkansas, either.

Alabama Coach Anthony Grant said that senior JaMychal Green, who was reinstated to the Crimson Tide basketball team for practice Monday would not play in Thursday’s game. He said following the game he would make a decision regarding Green playing in games going forward. Green has been suspended for the past three games.

Alabama (17-9 overall and 6-6 in Southeastern Conference play) takes on Arkansas (17-10, 5-7) at 6 p.m. CST Thursday at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville. ESPN2 will televise the game.

The Bama coach also said that he did not know if Tony Mitchell, a junior, would return to the team next year. Mitchell had been withheld from four games before his suspension was made permanent Monday.

Green is Alabama’s leading scorer (14.1 points per game) and rebounder (7.2 per game). Mitchell had been second in both categories (13.1 and 7.).

Alabama will have sophomore Nick Jacobs back. Jacobs suffered a blow to the mouth that resulted in an infection and root canal last week and missed Bama’s last outing, a 62-50 win over Tennessee, and all but a few minutes of the previous game, a 61-52 loss to Florida.

The Tide also has Trevor Releford healthy. He did not start the Tennessee game after having had concussion symptoms from an injury suffered in practice. Releford was Alabama’a leading scorer with 18 points in the earlier meeting against the Hogs.

Alabama’s 72-66 win over Arkansas started a run of six games in which the Tide has won four games. Although the Razorbacks have lost four of their last five games, they have been very good at home; the Hogs are 16-1 in Fayetteville. Although Alabama is just 2-4 in SEC road games, Bama is one of only four SEC teams to have multiple league road victories.

The Tide win over Arkansas in Tuscaloosa saw Bama shooting 50 per cent from the field, well over Alabama’s 45.1 per cent on the season. It was the last game in which the Tide scored 70 or more points – something Alabama has done in only three SEC games this year, including the 77-71 loss at Kentucky.

Alabama continues to be a very good defensive team, holding opponents to just 58.1 points per game, 11th best in the nation, and permitting just 38.1 per cent field goal shooting, eighth best.