It’s happened again, and it feels just as yucky as it did last time. In a similar fashion to Nimari Burnett, Furman transfer Noah Gurley narrowed his list down to include both Auburn basketball and Alabama but ultimately chose the Tide over the Tigers. However, while the Auburn roster still has available spots, the Alabama roster has grown two spots over the scholarship limit.
The power forward chose Alabama out of his final eight schools including Auburn, Florida, Marquette, Miami, Duke, San Diego State, and Tennessee. Unfortunately, Gurley is a big pickup for the Tide after averaging 15.4 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 2.5 assists last season. He started all 32 games in his three years with the Paladins and will have two years of eligibility remaining due to the COVID-19 rules.
According to Rivals, Gurley ended up choosing Alabama because of his close relationship with Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats and his familiarity with the program due to the fact that Furman played Alabama twice during Gurley’s time in the program.
The good news is that there are still major transfer targets to be picked up by the Tigers, who already have two class of 2021 signees and two confirmed transfers, and Noah Gurley marks the final addition to the Alabama roster for the upcoming season. Still on Auburn’s radar is Missouri’s Xavier Pinson, who named Auburn basketball to his top 4 programs, along with UNC’s Walker Kessler who was reportedly on the Auburn campus today.
One possible reason that Gurley chose Alabama over Auburn has to do with the upcoming season’s rosters for both teams. According to fellow FanSided site BamaHammer, Alabama is actually over the scholarship limit for the upcoming season. That’s right– the Tide has more players than scholarships, and that was before the addition of Noah Gurley to the team.
Gurley marks the sixth addition to the 2021 Alabama basketball roster, whereas the Tigers so far have gathered four new players. So does someone on the Crimson Tide’s roster lose a scholarship? Does someone transfer out of the program? It’s likely that the Tide will face losses to their roster while the Tigers still have room to grow.
Even though Bruce Pearl and Auburn basketball couldn’t secure the Noah Gurley commitment, there is still more exciting transfer news ahead of us.