Alabama basketball's Herb Jones out 'indefinitely' after wrist surgery Saturday

TUSCALOOSA — The Alabama men's basketball team will be without one of the Southeastern Conference's top defenders "indefinitely" after junior wing Herbert Jones underwent wrist surgery Saturday morning, the team confirmed just prior to Saturday's game against Arkansas.

"We are all disappointed for Herb," first-year head coach Nate Oats said in a statement. "He is one of our leaders and has been through a lot this season with his elbow injury at the beginning of the year and having to recover from that. He had been playing as well as he has all season (recently), and this is certainly a tough blow to our team. Herb is as tough as they come — both mentally and physically — and we know he will come back stronger and better from this."

Jones, who suffered the injury in the first half against LSU, underwent "successful" wrist surgery Saturday morning at the Andrews Sports Medicine clinic at St. Vincent's Hospital in Birmingham and is "expected to make a full recovery," according to the team's statement.

Alabama is also reportedly expected to be without graduate senior guard James “Beetle” Bolden, who has been dealing with an illness involving his gastrointestinal tract.

“Beetle’s day-to-day. He’s actually a game-day decision,” Oats said Friday. “If he can keep food down, and he can get his energy back up, he’s going to play. None of the testing procedures he’s done are going to stop him from playing. It’s just if he’s got enough energy to play, and hopefully he can with all the guards (Arkansas) plays.”

Jones, who leads Alabama in most defensive categories and has won the team’s “hard hat award” a team-leading 11 times already this season, has been on a tear of late averaging 11.7 points, 7.8 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.1 steals per game over Alabama’s last six contests. 

Jones, who has started 19 games while averaging 9.9 points and 6.3 rebounds per game this season, also leads the team with 418 “hard-hat” points, including a team-high 62 deflections, 23 floor dives, 18 charges taken and 13 dunks this season.

“We know Herb’s going to take charges, we know Herb’s going to get deflections, loose balls, rebounds, we need to get everybody else doing the same thing,” Oats said Friday.

Without Jones, the Crimson Tide will need others to step up defensively, including fellow junior wings John Petty Jr. and Alex Reese.  

Alex Byington is the Montgomery Advertiser's Alabama beat reporter. He can be reached by email at abyington@montgome.gannett.com or on Twitter at @_AlexByington.