Tide falls short ...

No Offense kills the Tide once more...

    

Obasohan has career high with 20

   Close, but no cigar. Again. This time the Tide dropped a 66-64 game to South Florida. The only decent thing  I can say about South Florida was the nice uniform they wore. Very sunshine. The are not a very good team, but good enough to beat the Tide. Alabama had it's moments. Retin Obasahan is quickly proving just how good he is becoming. Releford had a pretty steady game before fouling out again. Levi Randolph was solid. The normally poor shooting Tide hit a new low making only 39% from the floor. The outside shooting was at a sizzling 29%. Alabama made very nice 14-16 free throws The Crimson made only 7 turnovers which is excellent. South Florida won the battle of the boards 38-31. The 15 offensive boards which didn't help.

        The shooting numbers were skewed by Nick Jacobs making only 4-15 attempts. I'll say this - the Tide got him the ball and most of his shots were pretty good ones. He couldn't drop a ball in the ocean at the end of pier. It was one of those nights. You have to like the fact that Jacobs worked hard to get position and his teammates found him.  Some nights they don't ball. Not all his shots were good ones. You have to muscle yourself around in the paint just to get 15 shots. Kudos for the effort, but effort wasn't enough.  When you lose by two points there is probably a dozen plays that loses a game. Alabama seems to be doing what they need to do to develop an inside game. The lack of inside talent is obvious and Jacobs has made some real strides to make a difference.

    When you lose games you have to look for a silver lining. But you also have to be realistic. The Tide plays a lot of teams with good inside games.  You shoot poorly, get out boarded, and have no big man inside you are going to lose a lot of games. This team needs to shoot better, and continue to play hard. I'd hate to think where we would be if this bunch wasn't working so hard. Grant has some real problems. I'm not sure this team has the talent.This team could lose a lot of games unless they shoot better. Grant recruited three great shooters for next season. If the losses continue you have to wonder if he will be in Tuscaloosa to coach them.