TIME FOR TIDE TO LOOK AHEAD

MY BIGGEST FEAR ABOUT GRANT...

 

   Those who read my blog know how much I've supported Anthony Grant. Sorry, I can't do that any longer. The second half at Missouri sold me that his time has come and gone. My biggest fear is that Grant will have a modicum of success with his new recruiting class and the two transfers next year.  What happens then? Do we drag out the Grant era like we did Gottfried?  Of course, what we think is is of little importance. The only opinion that matters belongs to the AD.  Will Battle give Grant a pass on this season only to find him rehabilitated the next? I hope not. Coach Grant has had an adequete time to show some improvement. The man can coach and I'll give him that. 

Without his coaching we would have had a lot more blowouts than the one which happened in Missouri over the weekend. Remember Gottfried on the road?  We were road kill, and we've essentialy been been road kill this season to date. I bet the worse is yet to come. He hasn't shown an ability to recruit well enough to win in even a weak SEC. 

I can give you a hundred reasons why Grant has taken us where we are today. Some are valid. None are excuses. When you can't recruit you can't win. 

He apparantly can't recruit or keep a big man, and he doesn't seem to be able to find real shooters. If you cannot shoot well or rebound you aren't going to win. We are just an embarrasment to past Alabama teams. I don't try to compare us to Kentucky or Duke.  I do compare his teams to others who proceeded him.  We gone backwards. In the Missouri game it became exactly how far we have fallen behind. 

I'm not going to kill a dead horse here, but I hope our AD has the common sense not to waste a potentially good team to drag out the departure of a good man who hasn't had things go his way.  I hoped that Mal Moore wouldn't have given Gottfreid that one extra year. That was five years ago. Let's not make the same mistake. I think Grant will get one more year, and I hope he proves me wrong. I love the Tide. Nothing would make me happier.  

        Sorry I've been down this road with Hobbs and Gottfried. The sign says, "dead end".  I think we are all going to find out just how much basketball means to a football legend at the end of this year. If Battle makes the wrong call we go another five years into the ditch. Pay someone 4 million or so dollars for a proven winner and we can win again. Nothing in between will really matter. More than any sport basketball is a coaching sport. Two things matter - coaching and recruiting. You must have both. Who knows? We might beat Florida. We might win 14 games in the SEC. World peace might be just around the corner. Anything is possible. The best indicator of the future is the past. My head tells me that even when my heart tells me otherwise. I just love Alabama too much to sit around and let things get worse without at least saying something. 

I will now step off the proverbial soapbox.