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00:00Welcome back to the extra point from Bama Central. I'm Matthew Gibson alongside Will Miller. On Monday, Alabama basketball had its fourth transfer portal exit from the final 14 from last season as freshman forward Sam Walters elected to enter the transfer portal.
00:15Walters is 6'10 forward from the Villages, Florida, who shot 39% from three last season but struggled with some defensive issues. Will, what are some reasons that you may have seen that Walters enter that portal?
00:27That's a good question. I know that entering this cycle, the team came in over the scholarship limit based on who was coming in next year. If hypothetically, nobody left other than Aaron Estrada, who was the only player that had exhausted his collegiate eligibility after this past season, which still isn't long in the history books.
00:47But I would think Sam probably just wanted some more minutes. He's a good shooter. His defense will probably get better. He played with a lot of effort in a lot of the games that he was in last year.
01:00In terms of those two items, I think he just wanted to be on the floor more often. Can you really blame him, especially with what he brings to the table as a scorer? I know that some people might not have had him as high up on their list of expected transfers.
01:18I know there were some people that maybe were more expected to leave than others or maybe still are. Maybe he was one of them for some people, but he wasn't high on my list. I get the sense that some people were surprised by that, but I think ultimately it's more of a minutes thing.
01:34Yeah, I completely agree. When you look at Alabama's frontcourt, it's just getting more and more stacked as time is beginning to go on. Obviously, you're adding two five-stars there in Darin Reed and Aidan Turell.
01:45With the shooting that they're adding to, you get guys like Houston Ouellette from Pepperdine and Chris Youngblood. Obviously, they play different positions, but this team is just getting more loaded as it goes on.
01:57I think, like you said, it boils down to minutes and the amount of time that Sam would be getting on the court. When it comes down to it, Sam does have those defensive issues.
02:06As hard as he plays and the effort that he gives, it's still a glaring black hole, usually, when he's on the court. For Alabama, who prioritizes defense, obviously, and the system, it's hard to get on that court when you're struggling in that area, especially when you're adding, again, two guys like Darin Reed, who plays fantastic defense.
02:25It was going to be hard for him to really find a lot of those minutes in that rotation. Obviously, he'd be a little more experienced, but in terms of talent, Reed and Turell are just fantastic.
02:36Obviously, now Alabama has one spot, too, with his portal leaving and joins Rylan Griffin and other guys that have just entered that portal recently.
02:46For Alabama, we'll see what this means going forward, but the loss of Walters is not something that they're going to really be missing too badly. I think Alabama's going to be able to reload pretty easily in that spot, so we'll see what that means for them going forward.
03:03Yeah, I would agree with that. It wasn't a bad first year by any means, though. I think he put on a good showing for potentially interested teams.
03:12As with Rylan Griffin, who was the best defender on the team as they go this past year, was going to be fielding a lot of interest.
03:19I think there'll be a good amount of interest for a guy like Sam Walters, especially considering his age.
03:24You would expect he's only gone up based on experience, like you alluded to. I don't think he'll have a serious issue finding a home. Neither will Rylan.
03:35But for this program, I think that this offseason is such a unique spot with not only the transfer gets so far, but also the talent they're bringing in recruiting-wise is absolutely through the roof.
03:50Naturally, there's going to be some guys that that creates a difficult situation for, and I think Sam might just be a casualty of that.
03:59Absolutely. And again, with how college basketball is played nowadays, 6'10 forward with a length like Walters and the shooting ability, because again, you need to shoot 39% from three, he will be highly coveted in the portal.
04:10For Bama Central, this has been The Extra Point.