MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — Dylan Fasoyiro scored 19 points as South Alabama beat Spring Hill 95-61 on Monday night.
Fasoyiro also contributed four steals for the Jaguars (3-2). John Broom scored 14 points and added nine rebounds and four steals. Myles Corey went 5 of 9 from the field to finish with 13 points, while adding three steals.
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Walter Peggs Jr. led the way for the Badgers with 30 points. Bo Barber added nine points and four assists.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
Ty Simpson said he was entering the NFL Draft on Jan. 7, but then, the Alabama quarterback received NIL offers from multiple teams. The University of Miami reportedly offered him $6.5 million to stay in college another season.
Simpson, though, officially is headed to the pros.
Colin Gay of The Tuscaloosa News reports Tuesday that Simpson has submitted paperwork to the NFL, making him eligible for the 2026 draft.
Gay reports that Simpson’s base salary at Alabama was $400,000 and doubled to $800,000 with incentives.
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Simpson is expected to participate in the 2026 Senior Bowl in Mobile, per Gay.
He completed 305 of 473 passes for 3,567 yards with 30 total touchdowns and five interceptions in 2025.
TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— To say that the Alabama basketball team is familiar with the repertoire of junior Mississippi State point guard Josh Hubbard would be understating the level of impact Hubbard has had against the Crimson Tide in the recent past. On Tuesday night, No. 18 Alabama (11-5, 1-2 SEC) gets to deal with him again in its trip to Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville (8 p.m. CT).
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Hubbard led all Bulldogs scorers both times Mississippi State played Alabama last season, putting up 38 points during the matchup in Humphrey Coliseum last January and 21 in a lopsided loss in Tuscaloosa the following month. This season, he averages 29.3 points per game against SEC opponents. He’s one of the best guards in the league, and plays like it opposite the Crimson Tide.
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Alabama head coach Nate Oats hasn’t forgotten what Hubbard has done against his squad. Alabama may have escaped Hubbard’s season-high scoring game with a win last season in Starkville. That doesn’t mean the team is comfortable giving him a chance to repeat a performance where he made 14 shot attempts from the field and six three-pointers.
Oats said the coaching staff advised last season’s team of Hubbard’s talent before facing him in his home arena, but felt like there were too many plays the 2024-25 Crimson Tide let up against him on the road, especially early on.
“We better have a better plan than we did last year when he had 38. They’re a good team, and he can score it. We gotta have some guards be ready to play him. They can’t fall asleep off the ball,” Oats said on Monday afternoon. “As soon as you fall asleep, he’s sprinting off an off-ball screen or sprinting back to get it back from the big after he threw it to him.”
The Bulldogs’ (10-6, 2-1 SEC) star player is currently averaging 22.8 points, 2.3 boards and 3.8 assists per contest while shooting 42.8 percent from the field. Unsurprisingly, Hubbard is Mississippi State’s leading scorer; he also leads the Bulldogs in assists. Oats (as many would) interprets the challenge of stopping Hubbard as an approach requiring the Crimson Tide to spare no expense defensively.
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“You gotta be alert that he’s probably coming back towards the ball at any point. When he’s got the ball in his hands, he’s been elite in ball screens. If you don’t have your big up to level the ball screen, he comes off. He’s pretty good shooting pull-ups,” he said. “It’s a lot of pressure to put your guards on, but if you bring your big up, [and] he gets too aggressive, he’s also been splitting and turning around.”
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Oats has been vocal about wanting Alabama’s guards to defend better. On Monday, he chalked up sophomore Jalil Bethea’s recent decline in minutes to his defensive form. If the Crimson Tide coach wanted a trial-by-fire test in that department for his backcourt players, Hubbard is more than capable of obliging. That goes for the frontcourt as well.
“Our bigs gotta be ready to do their job correctly, and we probably gotta have a little bit [of] change-up in our ball-screen coverages with him,” Oats said. “Our guards can’t fall asleep. They gotta be elite, and he’s also pretty good at drawing fouls… He kinda kicks his legs out on his jumper. Seems like it’s kinda part of his jumper, but he seems to draw a lot of fouls, so we gotta be able to guard him without fouling too.”
Defending without the foul was not an area in which the Crimson Tide excelled during Saturday’s loss to Texas at Coleman Coliseum. Four players finished the game with four fouls, one of whom was junior shooting guard Aden Holloway. Freshmen Amari Allen and London Jemison, along with forward Keitenn Bristow, also picked up four fouls. Guard Houston Mallette had three.
Alabama has won eight games in a row against Mississippi State. Its last loss in the series came at Humphrey Coliseum on Jan. 15, 2022. Four of the Crimson Tide’s past five losses against the Bulldogs have been on the road. Keeping Hubbard, who has reached 30 points or more in three of his past six games, in check is a critical component to Alabama avoiding that fate in 2026.
James Smith and Qua Russaw will be college teammates once more after transferring from Alabama last week. Per On3’s Hayes Fawcett on Monday evening, Smith and Russaw have committed to continue their careers at Ohio State.
Both former Crimson Tide starters and high school teammates at Carver High School in Montgomery, Ala., the two players came to Tuscaloosa as part of the 2023 recruiting class. Smith saw the field at Alabama first, playing in nine games during Nick Saban’s final season, while Russaw took a redshirt for that season.
During the 2025-26 campaign, Smith played in every game and started 12 contests, logging 28 tackles with 2.5 sacks along the defensive line. Russaw began the season as a starter at Wolf linebacker, then was injured during the first half of a game against Georgia on Sept. 27.
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Russaw made it back to the field in time for the regular season home finale, playing against Eastern Illinois on Nov. 22, but finished his third season with the Alabama program playing in only nine games. Yhonzae Pierre broke out at the Wolf spot in Russaw’s absence, and Russaw’s entry to the transfer portal became known one day before Smith’s intentions to join him there. Russaw recorded 14 tackles and one sack this past season.
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Both players put themselves in a position to be among the key players on the Crimson Tide’s defense in year two of the Kalen DeBoer era. Russaw and Smith each played in every game over the course of the 2024-25 season. Smith earned praise for his explosiveness during fall camp last year.
“James is such an explosive player,” defensive coordinator Kane Wommack said on Aug. 25. “[He] is in a really good position going into [Florida State] game week. Excited about him.” Also during fall camp, Wommack described Russaw as the freakiest athlete on the defense.
“He’s a special talent,” Wommack said Aug. 6. “What I like about Qua is [him] knowing when to and when not to, from a physical standpoint, be too aggressive. I think he’s learned a lot last year with the experience that he has.”
When Russaw got hurt, DeBoer said it wasn’t expected that the injury (a broken foot) would end his season. As it turned out, the Rose Bowl loss on Jan. 1 against Indiana was the last game in a Crimson Tide uniform for Russaw and Smith. The two combined for one tackle, an assisted stop credited to Russaw.
