NASHVILLE, TN - MARCH 11: Braxton Key #25 of the Alabama Crimson Tide shoots the ball against the Kentucky Wildcats during the semifinals of the SEC Basketball Tournament at Bridgestone Arena on March 11, 2017 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

Alabama's Braxton Key to withdraw from NBA Draft, return to school

This is pretty big.

Alabama is one of the many teams in the SEC that could make a huge leap in the right direction from its 2016-17 season. The Crimson Tide has a stellar —- by its standards anyway —- recruiting class coming with five-star point guard Collin Sexton and five-star shooting guard John Petty along with a couple other recruits.

RELATED: Collin Sexton commits to Alabama

That would have already made them better than their 10-8 conference record, but now they are getting back a superb piece of the offense in rising sophomore Braxton Key.

The 6'8", 225-pound forward was the team's leading scorer at 12 points a game to go with 5.7 rebounds and 2.5 assists a game. He shot a solid enough 33 percent from behind the three-point line and 43.3 percent overall from the floor. Now that he should have scoring help, expect this team to be much better than its 19-15 record from last season.