Watching UAB beat North Carolina was an eye opener

You have to question which program has best team in the State

Chad Frazier

      Watching the UAB Blazers nail North Carolina was pretty tough to swallow.  You mentally compare the Blazers with Alabama. You just do it out of habit. We always want to have the best program and team in our State. Sitting there watching UAB dismantle the Tar Heels opened my eyes. At first I wondered if this was just a bad UNC team?  Were the Blazers just having a lights out night?  The truth is that neither was true. Carolina lost to UAB and then went on to beat #1 Michigan State. On top of that UAB wasn't shooting well at all. They covered up that shooting percentage with a lot of offfensive rebounds.
  

         Then there was the Chad Frazier factor. We wanted him and UAB got him. The JUCO guard is a great player. Frazier and William Lee to UAB and not the Capstone? What's going on here?  If UAB and Alabama played I think UAB would soundly beat Alabama. If the game was played in Tuscaloosa that might not be the case. In Birmingham or on a neutral floor I think UAB is the better team. Injuries, transfers, and just bad luck is killing the Tide. What is hurting Alabama is that we always seem to be one player away from good. If Nick Jacobs can keep playing as well as he has played lately the Tide will be better. But the Tide needs a good inside man. Jimmie Taylor will get better and then we'll lose Trevor Releford. One player short again, or will Justin Coleman be able to replacce Releford. Eventually, he might be able to do so. The first year will be tough. The truth is our program is living in the just average neighborhood. We have enough good players to surprise some good teams.We also will surprise ourselves with poor play.  I was talking with a friend of mine in Los Angeles. We are going to the UCLA/Alabama game together. He asked me if we were really as bad as we looked against Drexel. I actually thought we played pretty good at times in that game. His  take was that was a pretty bad lose. In reality it was a pretty bad loss. We could have won the game. We could have beaten Oklahoma. That's where we are these days. We could  have done this, or we could have done that, but don't seem to be able to get it done.  We need a Larry the Cable guy moment on this team. We did play well against North Florida but what does that mean? 

     What it means that we just aren't there yet. I'm not sure we are getting any closer. The SEC schedule is the toughest draw in the conference. That won't help.  I'm concerned about where we are right now. I thought that we would be a better team by this time in the Grant era. I hope we can turn it around. I'm not sure we can. We need to quit making turnovers by the dozen. We need to shoot better from the outside to give Nick some chances. It appears that Rodney Cooper has decided to take a sabbatical. We might not be the best team in the SEC. I can live with that. But not being the best team in our State is unacceptable. That will never be acceptable in any form or fashion.