Releford plays final home game...

He has played his way into Alabama hearts and history...

   

    Alabama fans need to take the time to come to Tuscaloosa this weekend and say thank you to Trevor Releford.  As a player he has been one of the best point guards to ever wear the Crimson and White. I've seen them all play all the way back to Coach Lambert. We have had so many great point guards it boggles the mind. I think Releford isn't second place to any of those great players. His ranking and place is a little more difficult to determine because of the teams he played on. In my own mind I try to imagine him playing with all the past great Alabama teams. I'm not sure any of those points would stand head and shoulders above him. People constantly say it is hard to compare different players from different generations. I can go back more than 5 decades, a half century, and compare them without any trouble. Would Releford have been another Conners, Whately, or Williams? Let me put it this way - those teams would have been just as successful with Releford at the point. I do believe as a general rule that players from every decade could play with any of the teams you choose to compare. Leon Douglas would be a beast today. Wendall Hudson would be a star. Ronald Steele would still be an SEC Player regardless of which team he played for. Reginald King or Douglas would have made this year's team into a winner. 

       That is where Releford falls among the Alabama greats in my opinion. That's because he is one of the greats. He isn't big, he isn't very fast, but he is a real basketball player. I think that's his edge over some of his predecessors. A lot of those guys were great athletes who could play basketball. Releford is not as physically as skilled as Williams. But he is a better player. Trevor may never be an NBA star but that isn't the measure of a college player. The games are different. They are all very impressive players. It may be fair to say that no single player has ever made as much difference to his team than Trevor Releford. If Releford played on a nationally prominent team he'd be an All-American. He wasn't that lucky, but that doesn't diminish his skills.

     Each season that Releford played his numbers in scoring have gone up. His outside shooting improved due to hours of practice. His ability to mingle among the redwoods is a natural gift. It also was a necessity because of his size. The little guard never quits, never takes a night off, and rarely let's you down. The sheer number of his minutes played is staggering in a game that never stops. You don't get to all get together every offensive trip down the floor to decide who will shoot. Even if you did that it would rarely happen anyway. Basketball is an ad hoc game. You develop plays as you go. Sure, there are plays. Only a few ever work. For every pick and roll or back screen that works a hundred don't. A coach can lay out a great game plan. But he can't really make a lot happen without a good triggerman. Trevor Releford is the best one I've ever seen. 

     If you love basketball, I mean really love the game, he is the most fundamentally sound offensive and defensive guard I've ever seen. He is the most intuitive player I've ever had the pleasure to watch.  Releford has what coaches like to call "court sense". He sees the floor in a different way from other players. He knows where his teammates are and also where they aren't so to speak. He's the type guard who will land a pass in your face if you aren't watching. Trevor is like a traffic cop on an Italian street. He's done all of his best work in one of the most chaotic periods of Alabama history. His supporting cast hasn't always been stellar. He hasn't complained. He just laces up his sneakers and goes  out and plays as hard as he can. Some players find a special place in your memory.  He has in mine. I'll always try to remember the time he played at Alabama as 'His Time'. It will be easy to remember him as a player and not pulled down by the kind of teams  he found around him.  He is without a doubt the little engine that could, and then did. He is what Alabama sports are all about.