THE CHINA SYNDROME

In Baseball they always fire the Manager...

   In baseball when the owner gets dissatisfied with the progress of the team he just fires the manager. Often, there is no real reason to do so. Things are going bad and something has to be done. I'm seen Coach Grant try to coach a team that is only slightly more talented than a good JUCO team. He can do everything a coach can do to win and still lose. Grant's problem has been recruiting.
  

    We signed a top 15 class and three of the best outside shooters in America. I saw one poll that said Bama had signed the 6th best shooters, and another said the 3rd best. Either way, that's really outstanding. So the question that Bill Battles is going to have to face after the most disastrous season in modern Alabama basketball is this - do I fire the manager. I personally think that Coach Grant has reached the "China Syndrome" meltdown point. I really want a coach that can take us back  to Wimp Sanderson's level. That is a very high level. The two transfers coming in averaged over 13 ppg at their first Universities. So they have experience. That will help get back to a better level

   What was that old proverb that Shakespeare used in Richard III "For want of the nail the shoe was lost, for want of the shoe the horse was lost?..." In the end the battle was lost and the kingdom was lost as well. The nail here is a dominant big man. All of this nonsense we are going through today was because we didn't recruit another big man. Gueye wasn't great but he could intimidate in the middle and rebound. Taylor is to slim and weak to intimidate anyone this season. He is getting better but the season is lost. So what does Battle do? Does he give Grant another year and hope that Jacobs and Taylor have some akin to Saul on the road to Damascus? Or will Michael Kessens turn out to be the answer? My guess is that Kessens who was selected as the Mid-Major Freshman of the year will get the job done. Kessens is 6-9 and looks to weigh about 220. That might be 235 by next season as he hits the weight room. I'll say that in scrimmages he dominates our inside players right now. Had he been able to play this season Grant might be a hero.

     Releford leaves. He's a tough one to replace. Fortunately, Alabama signed one of the best point guards in America. Justin Coleman will carry on the Alabama tradition of having great point guards. He's the most exciting player I've seen come out of Birmingham in a long, long time. Riley Norris narrowed his final two choices to Florida and Alabama. Devin Mitchell, who is a little less known had Georgia and Alabama as the last two schools on his wish list. Of the three, Mitchell is the best shooter. Mitchell is one of the best high school shooters I've eve seen. Alabama can teach him to play defense but no one would ever consider messing with his step-away jump shot. The future for Alabama looks much brighter next year. I think if Grant stays we make the NCAA field for sure. I think a new coach would come here with so many good players he will start to drool. Any coach who might consider Alabama would look at the next years crop and be blown away. Stay or go it really won't matter. I'd like a new coach for a lot of reasons. Grant makes some coaching errors. All coaches do. But to backhand him as a bad coach is just plain incorrect. I'd vote for a new coach like the opt for new managers in baseball. But if Anthony stays we'll be good.