Alabama’s Championship Push Arrives With Murder Indictment. New York Times.

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As coincidental as the timing may have been, it was a reminder that as Alabama chases its first national basketball championship, it will be under a cloud as a now former player sits in jail on murder charges, and two players who were at the scene have continued to compete — including Miller, who police said transported the gun that was used to kill 23-year-old Jamea Jonae Harris.

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Questions about Miller’s involvement and Alabama’s decision not to discipline either him or Bradley have continually shrouded the Crimson Tide in the last month. The team’s coach, Nate Oats, was forced to apologize after he initially characterized Miller’s involvement as being in the “wrong spot at the wrong time.”

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As Oats answered basketball questions, he was expansive and almost ebullient, describing the selflessness of his players — “All of our kids are high-character kids,” he said — and the importance of receiving contributions from the entire roster for his team to be at its best. His opening statement lasted four minutes. But as he answered questions about the murder case, Oats’s countenance turned somber. He pursed his lips, and his eyes darted around the room. He spoke succinctly, rarely stringing more than a sentence or two together. The most discomforting question was among the last. In the two months since Harris was killed, Oats was asked, had he attempted to speak with anyone in her family? Oats, in the aftermath of the shooting, solicited advice from Ray Lewis, the former N.F.L. star who was involved in a murder investigation and testified against two of his friends. But as of late last month, Oats had not reached out to the family, according to AL.com.

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And when the game was over, he did a courtside interview with ESPN and left for the locker room after slapping hands with several fans — all, it seemed, without a care in the world.

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