Alabama basketball has decided how it wants to use its 13th available scholarship.

Nate Oats decided to give it to sophomore walk-on guard Kai Spears for this season. The Crimson Tide had 12 filled going into the season.

"We wanted to make sure nobody filled it at the break kind of like Davin (Cosby) did last year," Oats said. "We looked at Max (Scharnowski), Max has been here longer. We would have given it to Max, but Max is on a really good academic scholarship. So Kai needed it a little bit more than Max. So we kind of sat the two of them down and discussed it and let Kai know we were going to give it to him. Super happy for him. He's a great kid, he works really hard, he deserves it, as does Max."

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Spears has seen action in seven games this season, averaging 1.7 minutes. He has scored six points has two rebounds and two assists.

"Anytime we have a scholarship available and we've got a great walk-on that's doing what he's supposed to, we're going to reward him with it," Oats said. "I had the two of them up in the office yesterday. They both gave each other a big hug, were crying. Both really happy. It was a cool moment."

Max Scharnowski has been with Alabama since 2022-23 and is a senior this season. He's seen time in eight games this year and has five points to go with two rebounds.

Nick Kelly is the Alabama beat writer for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network, and he covers Alabama football and men's basketball. Reach him at nkelly@gannett.com or follow him @_NickKelly on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Kai Spears: Why Alabama basketball put walk-on on scholarship