The State of our Program...

   

     Maybe it’s a good time to have a ‘state of the program’ article. It has been very interesting to read what many posters have to say about Anthony Grant. Views of how the Coach has done to date are widely diverse. One of the favorite games of Alabama fans like to play is finding fault. Funny thing about finding fault is that no objective standard exists.

         The football team has won three of the last four national championships. Fans who post negative things about Grant are sometimes illogical at best. If you applied their standard of review they should admit two of those three national football championships were luck. After all, we had to hope and pray that teams rated higher than Bama lost a game. Those losses were essential to Tide chances for a berth to play in the national championship game. The teams we needed to lose did just that.       

 

 

    Alabama football was the recipient of some good luck. That doesn’t mean that the Tide football team wasn’t the best team in the NCAA those two years.  They probably were the best, but they were one of the luckiest.  Luck, good or bad, is a part of any sport. A good kicker misses a short field goal. A receiver drops a pass. A blade of grass bends just so and a winning putt drops.

     To use an old saying – if it wasn’t for bad luck Anthony Grant would have no luck whatsoever. I think most of us would agree with that. Good luck isn’t always the residue of hard work. Sometimes it makes me believe that luck is like stepping on a snake. That’s bad news but it can become good news if it isn’t a rattlesnake. The state of Alabama basketball isn’t great. It’s isn’t nearly as bad as some anti-Grant wants you to believe. It’s almost as if some of our fans hope that Grant fails. Even in the dark days of Coach Gottfried I can’t remember hoping that the Tide lost.     

   

    What would you think if Alabama lost T.J. Yeldon and A.J. McCarron?  No good thoughts. Grant lost Pollard and Lacey. He lost Mitchell.  That is three good players, and that’s big blow for any team. I don’t buy into the school of thought that Grant caused Lacey (or the other two) to leave. I won’t go as far as saying good riddance, but Lacey was given every chance to play the shooting guard and the point. He failed (for the most part) at both. Pollard decided that he had more important things to do than play basketball. Mitchell was immature and arrogant. Each of these players failed in many ways. To say that Grant caused them to fail is just untrue. One of the few problems I’ve ever had with Grant was the way he seemingly pampered Lacey. I’ve long believed that Randolph and Cooper could be better players. Moussa Gueye left. The big African just wasn’t an SEC caliber basketball player on the offensive end. The Big Swede got hurt. He was improving by leaps and bounds. Retin is a better player right now than Lacey was all season long. At the end of the season he got more minutes than Lacey and he earned them. Maybe Lacey saw the writing on the wall. I hate we lost him but he will not be greatly missed by this writer.   

 

     None of the above means that Alabama isn’t having some problems. We are definitely having some problems.  The top 6A Player in the State just signed with UAB. I don’t like that. He had a conditional offer. I’d rather miss on a few in state players, but let our in state players know they can play at Alabama when they graduate. I’d like all good in state players to assume they are going to Alabama. They don’t have to be great. Jim Farmer wasn’t highly rated when he finished high school. He turned out to be a hidden gem. Grant has shown us that he can get the best players in the southeast to visit. Now he needs to sign a few of them. Second best at the poker table is worst luck of all. We need to start signing some of these national stars or think of a different recruiting strategy. One or two players can make a program work.

 

 

       I wonder how successful CM Newton would have been if he had lost Leon Douglas, or would David Hobbs still be our head coach if Antonio McDyess had stayed another year or two at Alabama. Sometimes bad things happen to good coaches, and Grant has had his share. How many times has Bama been to the NCAA in the last decade? Which coach got us there? It was absolute stupidity for Hootie Ingram to have fired Wimp Sanderson. I believe that Grant is the first “great” hire since the plaid one departed. Wimp Sanderson was the most under appreciated coach in America during his tenure at ‘Bama. We aren’t close to the Wimp era yet, but we aren’t that far away either.  There seems to be this belief that Bama underachieved last season. Honestly, are you kidding me? That rag tag bunch played with heart and duct tape. Whine about Grant if you wish, but last season’s rendition of the Crimson Tide overachieved.

    

    I have personally spoken with nine top prospects who are seriously considering Alabama. A couple of week’s ago I drove over to Georgia to get some background to do an article on two kids who have Bama in their top two. Those two players would maker a huge difference. But, we have to sign them. Enter Pettway for that purpose.  Having Pettway as a full time recruiter is going to make a difference.  Bama has some inherient problems that they must address and that is obvious:

 

1.       Grant needs to be more accessible to the fans. Cool Hand Luke is one thing, but being a overtly stoic is another;

 

2.      We are first and foremost a football school. I don’t care what anyone says but Bama is a unique job. It is a tough job. We need someone like Grant who can carry that on his shoulders.

 

3.      Alabama needs fans to help sustain the program. I’ve seen over 1100 hundred Alabama games. Start early, start now to attend games.
 

4.      The University needs to hire a publicity person to promote basketball. I’ve said that for decades. Winning cures a lot of attendance problems, but we need a personal commitment from all bb fans to step up their game. People like Bunk and Randall are great examples. It appears that Bunk has been given some type of asylum in Texas but he still comes to games.  

5.      Nick Saban needs to offer some of his personal clout with recruits, the program and getting the Tide some more good home games. Let’s do some home and away football games with UCLA and Arizona. We’ll play you in football but you’ve got to come to Coleman on a two for one home game contract.

 6.      We have a decent basketball facility if you sailed over on the Mayflower. The UofA should be ashamed to expect be time basketball in Tuscaloosa without a comparable floor of Arkansas, Florida, and other big time programs.  ESPN has changed the landscape of expectations of recruits. It’s hard to sign a Rolls-Royce player and ask him to play in a Chevy.

 

7.      It is my personal belief that our basketball games have become more like carnivals than serious athletic events. I’m sorry; I don’t give a tinker’s damn watching cartoons of car races. The winner gets 50 bucks. That brings in exactly zero fans. Let the students shoot from half court for a year’s tuition.  Give regular patrons frequent flyer miles.  Discounts on food and drinks for those who attend games.  Let a couple of fans sit on the end of the bench.

        There are a lot of programs who have become successful with less. Butler and Gonzaga come to my mind. So how did they do that? First, they made a commitment to recruit four or five year players. Second, they sold basketball to their fan base. Here’s an example I can speak to personally. When Creighton and Alabama were going to play in the NCAA I got an invitation to give a couple of speeches about Alabama’s program to Creighton boosters and fans. 

   

  

Our program is in good hands. There are no “feel good pills” to giver fans when your program bottomed out under a prior coach. I can still recall all the flack when I said it would take a minimum of five years to get back to being a competitive program. We have been competitive since the day Anthony Grant landed in Tuscaloosa.  He did that with a lot less than most coaches had in the armory.  So I am going to make this prediction – in three seasons we will be a top ten program, and people will sing to angels on high about Grant.  But to do that it will take cohesion and support from the fan base. Those of you who know me understand that I am not afraid to put my personal basketball reputation on the line. I supported Mark Gottfried with all I had until it became obvious a change had to be made. I’ll do the same with Anthony Grant. The time has not come. All good things come to those who wait.  There is one thing that Alabama fans don’t have and that is patience. Bill Battle does. So did Mal Moore. Those guys know more than me.