Taylor Bol Bowen is feeling confident for Alabama in the postseason after overcoming injury setbacks. The forward transferred from Florida State and had a strong start to the season with the Crimson Tide. Bol Bowen scored in double figures in six of Alabama’s first eight games, but then faced his first injuries of the season.
Injury Struggles During SEC Play
The 6-10 forward missed five games this season, four of which were in SEC play. Bol Bowen was only able to play a few minutes off the bench in some games. However, he slowly ramped up his minutes. Bol Bowen has started looking like his old self as the Crimson Tide entered postseason play, and he scored 15 points in Alabama’s Round of 64 victory.
“It’s definitely been a lot of ups and downs and dealing with adversity with injuries and everything,” Bol Bowen said. “I’m just glad to be able to be healthy now, to be able to be compete.”
Bol Bowen said he feels healthy now and has felt good “for a while now,” but it wasn’t always that way. “It made it really difficult, during SEC play especially,” Bol Bowen said. “I missed a ton of practice, a few games, a handful of games I was going in and out dealing with multiple injuries.”
Impact on the Team
Bol Bowen looked fully healthy in Alabama’s win over Hofstra, going up and down the court. He helped replace some of the missing scoring without Aden Holloway, and he was also active on defense. Bol Bowen also added three blocks.
Alabama head coach Nate Oats said, “To get him to play that well makes us a totally different team.” Oats added, “When our front court has depth and they’re playing extremely well, we’re a different team, and hopefully he can take the confidence from that game and keep building for tomorrow’s game.”
Relishing the NCAA Tournament Opportunity
Bol Bowen spent two seasons at Florida State and did not get to play in the NCAA tournament. Oats said the forward really relished the opportunity as the Crimson Tide prepares for another tournament game Sunday evening against Texas Tech in the Round of 32.
“I think Taylor has done a very good job getting his head exactly where it needs to be, and I couldn’t have been any happier than I was for Taylor when he was playing so great because I think his mind has been right for about a month now and he just needed to get back in the groove and flow,” Oats said. “This is his first NCAA Tournament game. These guys that transferred from some other places that weren’t able to play in the NCAA Tournament didn’t have this opportunity to play in these games, I think sometimes our freshmen don’t realize that — don’t take this for granted.
Oats added, “This doesn’t happen even at Alabama all the time. I think this is the first time in — tied for the first time in six straight NCAA Tournaments.”
“These other places, you don’t always go to the Tournament, so you get to play in a tournament, get to play in this type of environment. Taylor was over there stretching in warmups talking about how cool it all was. I was like, the arena? He’s like, no, March Madness. We’ve played in big arenas before.”