Furman Transfer Noah Gurley Joins Tide Hoops Renaissance

Y’all, this is getting silly. Nate Oats and company (again, shoutout to Bryan Hodgson and Antoine Pettway for the elite recruiting they’ve been doing) are undefeated in April. Noah Gurley, a grad transfer from Furman who dropped 15 points on the Tide in their non-conference match-up this past December, has become the latest to commit to playing for Alabama in the 2021-22 year. The 6’8 stretch-four averaged 15.4 PPG on 48.8%/33.9%/69.1% to go along with 5.8 RPG, 2.5 APG, 1.1 BPG, and 1.0 SPG this past season. He is the third player to commit to the Tide in the past six days, and make no mistake about it, his signature is the biggest one in the short-term.

Gurley could start immediately for the Crimson Tide. The veteran big can do it all on both ends of the court, and with his ability to dribble, pass, and shoot, he is a perfect fit in Oats’ up-tempo, widely-spaced schemes. Check out some of his highlights against SEC competition below:

This is another major win for Oats and Alabama. At this point, the Crimson Tide has to be considered the clear favorite to repeat in the SEC and should honestly be a preseason top-five team. I’ve been saying it for a year now, but what Oats has done in Tuscaloosa is nothing short of remarkable.

Roster management is going to get a bit tricky though, as Alabama is now at -2 in available scholarships for next season. I’m not going to speculate on the future of college kids’ careers, but the math simply doesn’t add up. We’ll just have to see how it plays out, but the Crimson Tide will be fielding arguably the deepest, most talented team that’s ever graced the cavernous halls of Coleman Coliseum next year. That’s really saying something for a program that has seen numerous All-Americans and long-term NBA players.

It’s an unbelievably good time to be a Gump.