Alabama starting guard Aden Holloway was arrested on felony drug possession on Monday, four days before the fourth-seeded Crimson Tide play their NCAA Tournament opener.
The university said Holloway was “removed from campus” and not with the team as it begins practice in preparation for a first-round game in Tampa against No. 13 seed Hofstra (24-10) on Friday.
“The student has been removed from campus pending further investigation by the UA Office of Student Conduct,” Alabama said in a statement.
Holloway, a 21-year-old junior, was charged with first-degree possession of marijuana (not for personal use), a Class C felony in the state. He was also charged with failure to affix a tax stamp, another felony. He paid the $5,000 bond and was released from jail Monday morning.
Police said a “West Alabama Narcotics Task Force seized more than a pound of weed, paraphernalia and cash from his residence.”
On his radio show Monday night, Alabama coach Nate Oats addressed the subject and said the Tide were preparing to play without Holloway this week.
“We got standards in our program and we’ve got ways we’ve held our guys accountable. And we try to keep everything in-house, obviously some of the situations you can’t, and this is one of those,” Oats said. “We found out about what was going on this morning, I found out this morning. I guess it all went down this morning. And we had to suspend him pending the investigation. …
“We’re certainly disappointed in his behavior. But that being said, we still love him, he’s still our guy. We’re helping him get the help that he needs and we’re going to continue to help him whatever way we can. But as far as our team goes, I thought we had a great practice. We’re preparing to play without him this weekend.”
Holloway was second on the team in scoring at 16.8 points per game and averaged 3.8 assists and 2.8 rebounds while shooting 43.8% from 3-point range in 28 games (27 starts) in 2025-2026. He played his first season at Auburn in 2023-24 before transferring to Alabama.
“I did tell our team, this team — more than any team I’ve ever coached — is better equipped to handle a situation like this,” Oats said. “We’ve won plenty of games with guys not available.”
–Field Level Media
