What Nate Oats said about two Alabama basketball 2024 signees
Alabama basketball officially signed its two 2024 recruits in Aiden Sherrell and Naas Cunningham this week to national letters of intent.
That meant Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats could speak publicly about them for the first time Thursday. The 247Sports Composite lists Sherrell as a five-star center and the No. 21 player in the 2024 class. Cunningham is a four-star small forward who is listed as the No. 49 player nationally.
Oats said Alabama will look to add two to three more players in the 2024 class. If those spots aren't filled with recruits, Oats said Alabama will look to the transfer portal.
Here's what Oats said about the two players Alabama has signed so far.
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On Sherrell: "Been recruiting Aiden Sherrell for a long time. In my opinion, he's the best big in the country for how we want to play. We targeted him early. It helped that he was from Detroit originally. I knew a lot of people up there. He's 6-11, moves great, can play on the perimeter, shoots the ball well. Lob target. We've had different bigs here. You go back to Alex Reese and Jordan Bruner who can both space the floor really well and shoot it but they weren't really the lob targets that (Charles) Bediako was. Bediako and (Nick) Pringle have been great lob targets. I think Aiden is the best combination of both those. He can roll out of a pick and roll, dunk the ball, pop, hit a three, he's playing in a high school program right now that allows him to play on the perimeter, which is great for his development. He's showing that he can make threes like we like. Really fired up about him. I think he's going to be a big addition to our program.
On Cunningham: "Naas Cunningham is one of the most skilled big guards, wings in the country. We've done really well with those types lately, going back to Herb Jones, (Joshua) Primo, Keon Ellis, 6-6. Keon started for the Kings last night. Leading into Brandon Miller. We've done a lot with these big guards and wings. He's coming in, he's skilled, athletic, he's got to put some weight on, but we've taken some guys like that in the past and been able to put some weight on them. I think he's got big upside. We're super excited about both these guys. We continue to add quality players we think have a chance to be pros in our program."
Nick Kelly covers Alabama football and men's basketball for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at nkelly@gannett.com or follow him @_NickKelly on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: 2024 Alabama basketball recruiting: What Nate Oats said about signeees
