Former Alabama defensive back Earl Little Jr. has committed to transfer to Florida State, he announced Saturday evening on Instagram.
Little becomes the second Tide player to pick a new school after entering the NCAA transfer portal this week. Center Seth McLaughlin announced earlier Saturday he would transfer to Ohio State.
Little, a redshirt freshman, spent the past two seasons as a reserve defensive back and special teams player after signing with Alabama as the No. 84 overall player in the 2022 class. He did not play after tearing the labrum in his right shoulder Nov. 4 against LSU, and told 247 Sports at Rose Bowl
media day last week he would be ready for the spring.
Little was considered a possible replacement for Malachi Moore, who started at STAR this season for Alabama. However, ESPN reported Thursday that Moore is expected to return for a fifth season, which made Little’s role in 2024 less certain.
Alabama’s basketball team surely wanted to win its Southeastern Conference basketball game against Vanderbilt at Memorial Gymnasium Saturday, but there were times you wondered. The Crimson Tide looked for all the world as Bama Coach Nate Oats has proclaimed one of the best teams in the nation, but also looked like a team that limped into the start of SEC play like the team that had lost five games.
Finally, by the barest, Alabama was a 78-75 winner over the Commodores, improving Alabama to 9-5 on the season, while Vanderbilt fell to 5-9.
Alabama next returns to Coleman Coliseum for its first SEC home game of the season, Bama hosting South Carolina at 6 p.m. CST Tuesday (SEC Network). The Gamecocks opened league play earlier Saturday with a 68-62 upset win over Mississippi State.
There were three early ties in the game and Vandy had a couple of leads in those first few minutes of single digit action, but Alabama’s three-point win came with Bama having the lead or tied for all but 12 seconds of the 40 minutes.
With 34 seconds to play, Mark Sears made two free throws and Alabama had a 76-69 lead. An unguarded second chance trey by Jorda Williams cut it to a 4-point lead. Grant Nelson, usually deadly on free throws, made one and missed one with 19 seconds to play. Seven seconds later Jason Riverra-Torres, made a layup. With eight seconds to play, Bama’s Rylen Griffen missed the front end of a one-and-one. With 4.7 seconds to play Vandy made one of two free throws to pull it to within a two-point game. With 1.1 second to play, Griffen made the first of two free throws, making it 78-75, but fouled going for the ball after his miss.
With six-tenths of a second to play, Riverra-Torres missed the front end of the one-and-one and Bama had escaped.
