Memphis transfer Nick King was not himself on the practice court for the Alabama men’s basketball team this past season. And the rising redshirt junior benefited greatly from it.
King, who joined Avery Johnson’s Crimson Tide team last offseason, portrayed some of the best players on Alabama’s 2015-16 schedule at practice. The transfer could not suit up last year because of NCAA transfer rules but was able to emulate LSU’s Ben Simmons, Texas A&M’s Jalen Jones, Auburn’s Tyler Harris and Tennessee’s Kevin Punter.
According to himself and his Tide teammates, the 6-foot-7, 225-pound forward showed a lot as a scout-team player.
“It was actually good being on the scout team because as you can see, Ben Simmons pushes the ball up the court, but he always throws the ball with his right hand,” King said after Thursday night’s awards banquet. “That’s something that I need to work on. And by me coming to practice and getting prepared to play Ben Simmons, I had to work on throwing the ball with my right hand.
“Working on going strong and finish -- drive to the left but finish with the right hand. So I mean being on the scout team (had a lot of) upside for me because there were weaknesses in my game where I had to come up and work on my weaknesses to be good for them, to help our team.”
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