Bama has been invited and where do they go next?

Grant has a plan and getting there wasn't it....

        Now that Alabama has been invited to the NCAA Tournament the question is what next? What would be realistic in terms of success for the Tide? I don't think any Alabama fan is unrealistically optimistic to believe the team will go to the Final Four. I have no idea what Coach Grant is telling his team, but you can be sure that it isn't that our team has achieved their goals, and now we can relax. Grant strikes me as a man who believes in taking one step at a time. The first step was making the field and now he begins the second step. It has nothing to do about North Carolina. It is about Creighton. The word North Carolina will never be spoken by the staff or the coach. If the players are smart they won't say those words either. If they are really, really smart they won't think about North Carolina.

It's close to midnight on Sunday. Videos are being watched. Opinions are being gathered. The coaches are attempting to reach some consensus about what will give them the best chance to win. That means they are talking about defensive match-ups. How much zone do we play? How much man do we play? Who draws which defensive assignments? What do we do with McDermott? Do let Green guard him, and pull him away from the basket where we need him the most? Do we put Randolph on him on the perimeter and then give him some help from Jacobs or Green depending on how the Jays run their sets and out screens?

Do we put Releford on their outstanding point guard? Or do we let some else, like Steele, try him out first? Should we put Releford on him and see who wears down whom? This would have been so much easier if Mitchell was around. The match-ups would just kind of fall in place. Now the coaches have to put together a patchwork of a plan just like they have from the first game after the suspensions began. Coaching may not be rocket science, but that doesn't mean it an easy profession. All coaches have strong egos. All coaches want to win, yet they must be able to balance that with losing. Basketball is as much about losing as winning. Some might even say the ability to succeed through the loses is what makes Coaches winners. Some might argue that Alabama's just making it to the Tournament is enough for this season. After all this has been a season where the only consistent thing about the year was the inconsistency. I wouldn't suggest that you share that attitude with Coach Grant or any of the players about having reached a successful level. In an inconsistent year there was indeed one consistent – his name is Grant. The players knew the rules. They knew the penalties. The knew the drill.

Plan one for Grant is to beat the Jays. There is no plan two. If Bama beats Creighton then there will be a new plan one. Grant lives in the present moment. That is probably a good thing to have if you are a coach. That doesn't mean that Grant doesn't have a long term plan. The Creighton game is just the next step of the larger plan. Grant has his critics. Read the posts on TiderInsider and you can read them. “Good riddance” is one that I remember. A comment like that proves that even idiots have the freedom of speech in America. I don't think a lot of people understand how far our program had been hurt or had fallen.

Rebuilding a basketball program is probably harder than building one in the first place. I remember CM Newton telling me that one thing he had in his corner was there were no expectations from the public. He was quick to add that a man named Bryant did however. In the days that CM and Wimp were quietly turning the basketball program into a national power the internet either didn't exist or was of minor importance. The Internet is proof that any idiot with five hundred dollars can be part of the world wide web, and can further his idiocy regarding freedom of speech. Alabama is lucky to have Grant on several levels. First, he is a man of integrity and a faithful family man. Second, he is a great coach and motivator. You have to be a great motivator to convince young men of this generation to act selflessly toward a common goal. Some were convinced easier than others. I have personally talked with some recruits that just don't want to go through the hard work it takes to be an Alabama basketball player. Playing basketball at Alabama isn't any easier than playing football under Nick Saban. Both men are similar. Both are very complex men in my eyes. Grant doesn't have the luxury of having a huddle at the end of a play. He doesn't have coordinators in the press box sending down suggestions. That is one of the main differences between football and basketball coaches. Basketball coaches do what they do on the fly. Assistant coaches might suggest something, but they don't have the power to change a thing. One of the greatest gifts a coach can have is an assistant who will stand up to the head man and say 'you're wrong.' If David Hobbs had been able to find a David Hobbs he might still be at Alabama today. Grant demands loyalty to a degree that is hard to imagine. His idea of loyalty was born in a relationship of personal tragedy with John Pelphry and Billy Donovan, and not just recruiting and chalkboard stuff. Grant can recruit. Grant can coach offense and don't think he can't. But like Wooden, Calipari, and Richardson he understands that basketball games are won on defense. I can remember watching CM and Wimp practice and wonder if they ever worked on offense. They did work on offense of course. Sanderson would change complete philosophies on offense if he thought it would help him win. One thing that Wimp didn't change was his belief that you won with defense. Grant hasn't taken defense to a different level at Alabama, he is simply working with what he has on the bench. Next season, if Lacey, Randolph, and Releford start knocking down threes in bunches he will lighten up on the defense a little. He won't let his players slack off on the defensive end but the techniques might allow for less pressing to give his shooters better legs to shoot from.

As the hour approaches one o'clock in the morning the videos are still hitting pause and rewind. More conversation is taking place, more coffee is being consumed. The coaches will quit in an hour or so, because tonight is just a first blush about what to do. They will all take their notes home, and write up their reports and meet with the coach to tell them what they think. Grant will then consider what they say and tell them what he is going to do. Grant can be influenced to a point, but only too a point. There will be no gimmicks. There will be no tricks. There will be fundamental in your face basketball. Alabama may not beat Creighton but if they don't I'll promise you that the Jays will never want to hear the word Alabama or even read it on a map. One thing Grant believes in is never let an opponent walk off the floor and think that was easy. Make them believe that we never, ever, in our entire lives, want to play that team again. That's part of the long range plan by the way. Alabama plays with the idea of intimidating you on defense. That has a familiar ring doesn't it?

Creighton vs. Alabama is a great game for viewers - TNT is the station

The Ying and Yang of College basketball...

Selection day for the Jays

This game is like the unstoppable object vs. the immovable object. The Jays are all about offense. The Tide is all about defense. All things being equal I'll go with defense 99% of the Time. I see no reason not to think that the Tide won't figure out a way to slow down the Jays enough to win. The bigger question in my mind is how good can the Jays defense be against a mediocre offense? Upfront let me say that Bama is my pick to win. It should be very close however. 9/8 seeds are as close as the Selection Committee can find to pair. The line represents that. After opening at a pick up a lot of money went toward the Tide who is now a 1.5 favorite. A line number like that means pay your money and take your chances. This is going to be one of the most intriguing game in round one. If you like offense tune in to watch. If you like defense do the same. The only thing is that only one of those things are going to happen. The magic number for Alabama is 65. Can the Tide hold the high scoring Jays to 65 or under. If the Tide can't they probably can't win.

I have no doubt that Alabama has seen plenty of offenses as good as the Jays, but I wonder if the MVC team has seen a defense like Alabama? I doubt they have. If they had they would have remembered that game, and from listening to the Creighton players they don't see the Tide as being able to effect their offense much at all. Everyone that the Tide has played except Vanderbilt has struggled. I see no reason to believe the Jays will be different. For the Tide they are going to see one great player in 6-7 power forward Doug McDermott. He is the nation's 3rd leading scorer, and was just named to Second Team All-American. His father, Greg, coaches the Jays. McDermott narrowed his final two choices down to Creighton or North Carolina. Harrison Barnes and Doug were high school teammates. The fact the North Carolina wanted him tells me something. He is a very special player. He is athletic, but is real basketball player. He shoots almost 50% from the perimeter. He also pulls down 8 rebounds a game. Inside or outside he's a load and one of the best player that Alabama has played this year.


These two teams represent opposite sides of the coin. Only one will prevail and I'm going with defense.