2025-2026 Alabama Basketball final roster and projected depth chart

In addition to the nine new faces in Tuscaloosa (and the link to check those guys out is just below), the ‘25-’26 Tide returns five players, after losing 75% of its roster.

But, Alabama is bringing back a surprising amount of firepower — almost 35% spread across the group, with Philon and Biz holding the lion’s share of minutes and production.

• Junior sniper, combo-guard Aden Holloway is back. Holloway’s redemption arc at Alabama has been fantastic. He matured into the Tide’s best perimeter shooter, though he did have a rough patch here and there as the brutal SEC season slogged along. Biz shot an electric 41.2% from beyond the arc, and netted 11.4 a night. He shot 15% better from the floor than in his Freshman campaign at Auburn, and got to the basket more — where he was a 60.4% floor shooter. His defensive P/M was way, way up, as he continued his development into a bit better of a defender (though he still needs much improvement there). He wasn’t asked to run the point as much at ‘Bama, but his TOs were up by 25% per 40, and that will need to be lessened somewhat, even given the Tide’s possession-friendly offense. Hard to undersell that offense though — Biz was third on the team in offensive win-share.
• You could probably guess Alabama’s best defenders: Grant, Mo and Cliff, sure. But few realize that 5-star freshman PF/C Aiden Sherrell was actually 4th on the team in defensive rating. Playing behind four other bigs, Sherrell saw 9 minutes a game, and posted a very modest stat line (3.4/2.8). But good things happened when he was in the lineup…by and large. He was very active on both ends of the glass, shot a solid 33% from the perimeter, and was one of Alabama’s best at converting in the paint (67% inside the post).
• Houston Mallette, who had been one of Alabama’s core best seven players before his injury, is also returning. Per 40, he was among ‘Bama’s best defenders, was shooting 50% from the perimeter, and was on track to average 16/12 over a full game. If Noah Williamson is the Swiss Army Knife of the frontcourt, then Mallette fills that role among the wings. He can run the point, has nice size and moves well to the rim without the ball, he can and has played the three, has a great shooting touch and can play the SG. He was never in it about money: He’s always wanted to coach, and I look forward to seeing him grow as a player, maybe get a pro shot, and perhaps even grab a seat on ‘Bama’s ever-rotating bench, as Nate Oats has become a head coaching feeder.
• We don’t need to talk about what Latrell Wrightsell Jr. meant to the Tide. He is one of the country’s best shooters, and Alabama greatly missed his steady FT shooting (85%), his sterling perimeter play (46%) and even the other things he added to a more well-rounded game. Per 40, only Mark Sears was more valuable among the guards.
• And of course, Labaron Philon returns, trying to play his way into lottery money. Philon led the team in steals, was second in assists, led in assists-per-40, led the backcourt in rebounds and offensive rebounds, as well as blocks. He was so efficient on the glass, that only Mark Sears reeled in just two more defensive boards…on twice as many minutes. Overall, he was 4th on the team in win-share. There are some areas he needs to improve on, however. He really needs to cut down on turnovers. As reckless as Mark seemed at times, he only had 99 TOs in almost 2000 minutes. Labaron had 64 in just 912 minutes. He was easily ‘Bama’s most reckless player with the ball despite a 2:1 assist ratio. His three-point shooting needs work, and you’d like to see him get to the line more (and shoot better once he’s there). The upside is that he was also easily ‘Bama’s most efficient defensive backcourt presence.

Starting Lineup

So, what do we make of the roster, both old and new?

It’s interesting that the Crimson Tide basketball program lists them as follows:

C: Noah Williamson, Collins Onyejiaka*
F: Taylor Bol Bowen, Keitenn Bristow, Aiden Sherrell, Amari Allen, London Jemison
G: Labaron Philon, Houston Mallette, Latrell Wrightsell, Javion Hannah, Jalil Bethea, Aden Holloway, Preston Murphy Jr.

So, obviously the staff already has an idea of how they want this team to run, and it looks like a conventional C/PF/F/SG/PG scheme, though the versatility is there to go big with a true center, two PF and two guards (as we saw the Tide do last year), as well as feature small lineups of PF/F/SG/CG/PG (as we have also seen).

After breakdowns of the players, as well as the positions the ‘Bama staff has assigned, here are our projected starting lineup and depth chart:

C: Noah Williamson (Collins)
PF: Aiden Sherrell (Bristow)
F: Taylor Bol Bowen (Jemison, Allen)
SG: Latrell Wrightsell, Jr. (Bethea)
PG: Labaron Philon (Holloway)
Sixth Man SF/G: Mallette (Allen)
Sixth Man Big: Bristow (Collins)
Sixth Man Small: Bethea (Hannah)

Obviously, how all of these moving parts eventually mesh, and whether the new guys and incoming freshman can get up to speed, are vast contingencies. But on paper at least, ‘Bama runs two deep at every position on the floor, and has the firepower and flexibility to do so whether it goes with a shooting lineup or one that is post-centric.

I would expect this year’s Tide squad to see at least nine, and perhaps as many as eleven players, involved in a significant rotation before the SEC schedule begins.

That’s our pick. What about yours? Who would be your starting five? What did we get wrong?

Roll Tide