Alabama men’s basketball was back in Coleman Coliseum as prep began toward the 2023-24 season.

Gone is nearly 70% of the Crimson Tide’s returning offense, as well as two first-round picks in Brandon Miller and Noah Clowney. So are all of head coach Nate Oats’ three assistants. On Monday, a reporter asked if Oats felt a little lonely this offseason. Oats joked he would’ve if he had the time.

“There was definitely a little bit more (turnover) than what we probably expected, a lot more anticipated. Shoot, talking to some of the coaches out there, some of the rosters getting 100% turnover from one season to the next,” Oats said. “The fact we got three out of 12 guys coming back, you know, not as many as we like, but a little bit par for the course.”

Following the program’s second-ever run to the Sweet 16, Alabama’s new-look roster is coming together. Transfers Grant Nelson (North Dakota State), Aaron Estrada (Hofstra) and Latrell Wrightsell Jr. (Cal State Fullerton) world with returners Mark Sears, Rylan Griffen and Nick Pringle in the portion of practice media was able to watch.

Inactive in five-on-five drills were two fresh faces: West Virginia transfer Mohamed Wague and freshman Mouhamed Dioubate. Oats said both of them and reclassified forward Jarin Stevenson uncovered a different injury when they got to campus and took a physical.

Dioubate had knee surgery in the offseason and is no longer wearing a brace, working his way back with dribbling and shooting drills. Wague had “a procedure” on his foot and is now out of a boot. Stevenson has since returned. Dioubate and Wague are about a month, Oats said, from participating to live action.

“I feel like we’ve done a really good job with both the transfers and the freshmen making sure they’re high-character kids,” Oats said. “We started to get involved with some and backed out just because we didn’t want to bring anybody without high character into the program.”

Oats was referring to Jaykwon Walton, a former G.W. Carver-Montgomery standout and Wichita State transfer who announced his intent to attend UA in March. But a month later, Walton was arrested with second-degree possession of marijuana and Oats announced the program was “no longer recruiting” Walton.

Alabama still has an open scholarship spot.

One of the veterans of the program, Griffen, said he’s “excited” to learn from the three assistants. UA needs to learn how they communicate and transpose information. Griffen also said Oats implored Griffen to be more of a leader to help the newcomers understand Alabama’s culture.

The Crimson Tide will start the season against Morehead State on Nov. 6.

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Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].