NCAA Basketball: Arkansas at Alabama
USATSI

Alabama coach Nate Oats had another issue involving Brandon Miller to address Saturday following the No. 3-ranked Crimson Tide's 86-83 win over Arkansas after Miller's pregame routine involved a staged pat-down by a teammate. The pregame ritual for Miller is something that he has consistently incorporated into his routine all season, but in the aftermath of being connected to a murder earlier in the week, Oats said it will no longer take place.

"Before I get started on the game, it was brought to my attention after the game about our pregame introductions," Oats said to opening his postgame press conference. "Think that's something that's been going on all year. I don't really know. I don't watch our introductions, I'm drawing up plays during that time. Regardless, it's not appropriate, it's been addressed and I can assure you it will not happen again the remainder of this year."

Oats has spent most of the week backtracking after making what he called "unfortunate" remarks about Miller's alleged involvement that came to light this week from court testimony accusing him of helping deliver the gun eventually used in the killing of Jamea Harris to former teammate Darius Miles, who then gave the gun to Michael Lynn Davis to commit the crime. After the game, Oats again apologized for his remarks this week but said he would be limiting his conference to basketball related topics only.

"I apologize for my previous comments earlier this week. We understand the severity of it all," Oats said. "But I'm following the administration's lead on everything here, so we're going to talk about the game only, is what they'd like me to talk about."

Miller, who scored a career-high 41 points earlier this week in an overtime win over South Carolina, scored a game-high 24 points Saturday in Alabama's win over Arkansas. He played all 20 minutes in the second half and scored 17 of his 24 points in the final 20 minutes of play.