Herb Jones continues to excite while playing through wrist rehab amid Alabama's late-season push

TUSCALOOSA — A self-admitted numbers guy, not even Nate Oats lost track of all the ways Herb Jones helped Alabama in Saturday’s 88-82 upset of LSU — including his career-best 17 rebounds.

“I didn’t realize he had as many rebounds as he did during the game,” Oats said Tuesday. “I was just watching and Herb was doing Herb things and all a sudden it was late in the game and one of my assistants said, ‘Herb’s got 13-14 rebounds’ — it was during one of those media timeouts – and I said: ‘What?!’

“(But) as I watched the game (again during film review), and he just kept gobbling up rebounds, I was getting excited.”

So excited, Oats took the television off mute to hear the way the Coleman Coliseum crowd roared with each of Jones’ plays down the stretch, including his two indelible one-handed free throws in the closing minutes of Saturday’s game.

“The crowd recognized just how valuable he was just based on how they cheered for some of his plays late in the game,” Oats said.

That value can’t be understated this season, especially as Alabama (14-11, 6-6 SEC) enters Wednesday’s home game against Texas A&M (12-12, 6-6 SEC) in its attempt to close out the regular season on a run over its final six regular-season games.

“I’ve been talking about a three-week sprint here to the end of the (regular) season,” Oats said. “(Let’s) do everything we can to (do), get in the gym on your own, study a little extra film, everybody do a little bit extra and see if we can’t push ourselves over the edge and start winning the close games that we were losing and go on a run here to finish the year out.”

Jones is a prime example of the sort of extra effort Oats is talking about, as evident from his speedy, “ahead-of-schedule” return after undergoing surgery on a fractured left wrist less than three weeks ago.

“I think that athletes that attack rehab the way he does generally get good results,” Alabama basketball head trainer Clarke Holter said Tuesday. “(And) Herb always does whatever I ask in terms of when he needs to be here. He’s here around the clock.”

That includes spending every waking hour he’s not in class either rehabbing, practicing or working on strengthening his nondominant right hand in an effort to better utilize it in games while he’s still unable to do anything significant with his left, as he did with the two right-handed free throws against LSU.

Jones remains constricted by a black and bulky cast that is split in two parts to allow movement for his thumb, but also features half-inch of foam padding that is meant to provide protection for both the wrist and soften contact with other players.

“They don’t really restrict me because they know the kind of (hard-nosed) player I am, but it’s moreso just be careful, and I kind of pick and choose what I should do at times,” Jones said Tuesday.

That includes developing different ways to take charges — and the ensuing falls to the court — while avoiding any direct contact to his hands or wrists, as well as learning techniques for using his right hand more and more, especially offensively.

“I work on all the post moves, right-handed passing and while I’m limited in my dribbling, I work on my ball-handling too,” Jones said after joking Oats might not be in favor of a right-handed 3-point attempt.

Jones’ surgery was performed Feb. 1 by team hand and wrist specialist Dr. Kathleen E. McKeon of the Andrews Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Center in Birmingham, where he had a small metal screw inserted to repair the fracture to one of the eight carpal bones in his hand just above the wrist.

“Essentially the surgery repairs the fracture, so at that point, your goals are to restore strength, maintain a normal range of motion, and just protect the area from blunt force,” Holter said, adding the biggest concern now for reinjury is suffering a direct impact to the still-healing bone.

Oats said Jones is expected to remain in the current cast for another two games or so before transitioning to a thinner version that allows for greater range of motion for the hand and wrist.

“Clarke thinks he’s got to go two more games with the cast that he’s got now, and then they can ratchet it down,” Oats said. “Then hopefully, after a few more weeks, I don’t know if we’ll ever get to a point where he doesn’t have (protection on his wrist) this year, but we’ll be at least much less restrictive than we are now in a couple of weeks.”

Added Holter: “If he’s going consistent days without swelling, consistent days where he doesn’t have an increase in pain, then you have that discussion about when can we downsize and trim this split/brace/cast a little bit.”

With its NCAA Tournament hopes still very much at stake, Alabama could use all of Jones it can get.

As the Crimson Tide enter the final three weeks of the regular season, it sits in a crowded bubble field that includes several teams in its own conference with a golden opportunity to win its way into the 68-team field before postseason play even begins.

But that will require closing out the regular season by winning most of the games its favored in, which is all except a Feb. 25 road game at Mississippi State — the lone remaining Quad 1 game on Alabama’s schedule.

“We’re going to control what we can control, we’re going to try to win as many as we can these last six, and then we have to go to Nashville (for the SEC Tournament) and win as many as you can there,” Oats said. “(The NCAA selection committee) also looks at how you finish the year, so how we finish these next six games (is important). … So hopefully we’re hot in February and March and done enough when it comes time on Selection Sunday that we’re playing in the Tournament.”

TEXAS A&M at ALABAMA

• WHEN: 6 p.m. Wednesday
• WHERE: Coleman Coliseum, Tuscaloosa
• RECORDS: Texas A&M (12-12, 6-6 SEC), Alabama (14-11, 6-6 SEC)
• ON THE AIR: TV — SEC Network. Radio — WXFX-FM 95.1, WDXX-FM 100.1 WTLS-FM 106.5, WTLS-AM 1300

ALABAMA LINEUP: G Kira Lewis Jr. (6-3, So.) 17.5 ppg.; G Jaden Shackelford (6-3, Fr.) 14.3 ppg.; G John Petty Jr. (6-5, Jr.) 15.2 ppg., 7.1 rpg.; G/F Herbert Jones (6-7, Jr.) 9.2 ppg., 6.7 rpg.; F Alex Reese (6-9, Jr.) 9.6 ppg.

TEXAS A&M LINEUP: G Wendell Mitchell (6-3, Sr.) 8.6 ppg.; G Andre Gordon (6-2, Fr.) 7.5 ppg.; G/F Savion Flagg (6-7, Jr.) 9.7 ppg; F Emanuel Miller (6-7, Fr.) 6.8 ppg., 6.6 rpg.; F Josh Nebo (6-9, Sr.) 11.4 ppg., 6.4 rpg.

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.