Alabama basketball player Brandon Miller and the program have been under intense scrutiny in recent days.
Former player Darius Miles emerged as a suspect in the murder of a young woman in Tuscaloosa and Miller is alleged to have brought the gun to Miles before the incident occurred.
Miller and the team did not help matters or ease scrutiny on Saturday. During the team’s introduction before their home game against Arkansas, one of his teammates patted Miller down, as if he was searching for a weapon.
Head coach Nate Oats quickly said after the game that the incident would never take place again and admitted that he had no idea that the players do this.
On Tuesday, Oats said the players explained to him what happened.
“We addressed it as a team,” he said via Tuscaloosa News. “As soon as I brought it up to them, they immediately understood how it could be interpreted. We all felt awful about it. They explained to me, it’s like when TSA checks you before you get on a plane. Now Brandon is cleared for takeoff. We as the adults in the room should have been more sensitive to how it could have been interpreted. I dropped the ball. We’ve addressed it. I can assure you it won’t happen again.”
Miller has, apparently, been doing this all season long before games.
About Stacey Mickles
Stacey is a 1995 graduate of the University of Alabama who has previously worked for other publications such as Sportskeeda and Saturday Down South.