Coleman hopes legal troubles resolved

TUSCALOOSA | Yamene Coleman, a sophomore center on the University of Alabama basketball team, said Thursday that he hopes that a resolution to his off-the-court problems is coming soon.

Coleman was arrested in July and charged with eight counts of credit card fraud in a series of incidents that involved his use of a University of Alabama dining card to charge pizza and other fast food during the spring.

The sophomore from Camden has continued to be a part of the Crimson Tide team pending resolution of the charges and traveled and played on the team’s September trip to Canada.

Coleman spoke about his status for the first time as Alabama held its pre-season Media Day at Coleman Coliseum on Thursday. The Crimson Tide will hold its first practice of the season tonight at 7. The practice will be open to the public.

Coleman mentioned few specifics.

“It’s really nothing much to talk about,” he said. “I think it’s about to be cleared and hopefully I will be able to put it behind me.

“That was the first thing I thought when it happened. My thought was, ‘Hopefully I can get this over with and get my mind back on helping my team.’”

Tide coach Mark Gottfried also said he hoped Coleman’s case would be resolved soon. When asked if the charges would be dropped, however, Gottfried gave no definitive answer.

“I couldn’t say that right now, because I don’t know,” he said.

However, Gottfried said he would continue to support Coleman, as he has since July.

“I think Coach understands [the situation],” Coleman said. “We’ve talked about it. He has supported me. So have my teammates.”

The 6-foot-9 Coleman, who played in 21 games last season, averaging 1.8 points and 2.4 rebounds per contest, will be one of the players looking to provide inside depth for the Crimson Tide. Richard Hendrix, the Tide’s junior power forward, is the team’s chief inside threat, but will have to carry more of the load after the graduation of center Jermareo Davidson.

“Richard’s got to have some help,” Gottfried said. “Plus, Richard has had conditioning issues, and he has had foul trouble in his career. His conditioning is better. He got up to 273 pounds at one point and he weighed in the other day at 253. But there will still be times when he is not in there and one of those three guys — Yamene, Demetrius [Jenison] and [freshman] Justin Knox — are going to have to help out.”

Gottfried said he was “excited” going into the first day of practice, but added some cautionary words when he said that he felt the Crimson Tide was “looking up” at most of the teams in the Southeastern Conference at this point.

“Our league has great balance,” he said. “But that is part of the excitement of this time of year. This year, we have a lot of questions, but I am excited about seeing what we will be.”

Reach Cecil Hurt at cecil.hurt@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0225.