No. 1 seed Alabama cruised through the first round of NCAA tournament on Thursday, downing Texas A&M Corpus Christi 96-75 — and they did it with virtually no help from star forward Brandon Miller.

Miller has been dealing with a groin injury,  and was held scoreless for the first time this season as Alabama advanced to play Maryland in the Round of 32. The projected lottery pick was optimistic about his status for the rest of the tournament afterwards.

“[The injury] is getting better by the day,” Miller said, according to ESPN. “I feel like I was just there to support my team.”

When asked if the injury was the reason he was on the bench for long stretches of the Round of 64 contest, he downplayed the severity of his ailment.

“If that's what you want to call it…we can go with that.”

“Miller, who averaged a team-high 19.7 points per game, played only 19 minutes and missed all five of his field goal attempts. He averaged 33.2 minutes per game entering the tournament,” wrote Alex Scarborough of ESPN late Thursday.

Alabama Basketball coach Nate Oats said the star injured his groin during the Crimson Tide's win in the SEC championship game on Sunday, per ESPN.

“It was nice to be able to put up 96 without Brandon scoring a point,” Oats said after the game. “We were trying to play him limited minutes. We were able to keep him under 20. Hopefully, he can get a lot of rehab today and tomorrow and look a lot more like himself on Saturday.”

Alabama Basketball's Brandon Miller finished the game with five rebounds, three assists and three turnovers over 19 minutes, and confirmed that he will play in the Round of 32 this weekend.