Alabama’s Oats Updates M*A*S*H Unit

Who's healthy? Who's not? Will the SEC's leading scorer even play for Alabama at No. 6 Tennessee?

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Tide Basketball Nation needs to know!

At 4-0 in the SEC, Nate Oats' Alabama basketball team will have its hands full and then some Saturday in Knoxville.

Star guard Mark Sears limped his way through Tuesday's Missouri win.

Oats provided an update on  his SEC Player of the Year candidate Friday.

"He's been able to fully practice these last two days," Oats said. "He's not 100% but we haven't held him out of anything in practice. It's progressing everyday so hopefully he's better tomorrow than he was today, but he's the leading scorer in the SEC, so we're going to play him if he's anywhere close to 100%."

Sears has to play for Bama to have any shot of upsetting the Vols. The veteran from Muscle Shoals via Ohio U is averaging 19.6 points, four rebounds and 3.7 assists per game this season.

Tennessee is a big and physical team, and Oats also gave an update on center Mo Wague, who is recovering from a recurring foot injury. Wague played but five minutes against Missouri in Tuesday's win.

"[Wague] hasn't practiced much," Oats said. "It's a little bit harder when you can't practice to be in sync with everyone else for the games but he's available as frontcourt depth when we need it. He's going to play hard, it just he's got this injury we have to deal with the rest of the year."

Oats know Bama needs Wague's physical presence, including his five fouls.

The Tide takes on the Volunteers at 1 p.m. Saturday at Thompson-Boling Arena. The game can be heard on Tide 100.9, 95.3 The Bear and 1230 AM WTBC. You can sync it up on your TV and turn down the volume on ESPN2.

The Tide Hoops Pregame Show with Hunter Johnson and Cary Clark starts at 11 on Tide and TBC. Tip time is set for 1 p.m. CT.