Bama Opens SEC with A&M Tonight...
Tide is a five point favorite

   

Stop Caruso and stop the Aggies?

 Here we go. Tonight, Alabama opens its SEC season against a pretty good Texas A&M team. The line is -5 for the home team. It is imperative that Alabama win every home game this season. I'm not foolish enough to think the Tide could upset Kentucky at Coleman, but stranger things have happened. The Crimson Tide now is 10-3. 9 of those wins count toward their potential selection in March. Tip-Off is at 8:00 CST in Tuscaloosa and can be seen on the SEC 

Lucky for Bama fans we have
such a great pair to broadcast games.

Network, and is carried by radio on the Alabama Sports Network. The gifted and always witty Chris Stewart, and color man Bryan Passink will call the radio portion tonight. Bryan played for Alabama, and boy did he have sweet jump shot. I wish he still had some eligibility left. I know its kind of strange to start a blog post about the broadcasters and not the game. Hey, these guys have hung in under some cruel and unusual circumstances. The last couple of seasons could not have been fun. The team of Stewart and Passink have hung in there like grim death. Follow them on Twitter for the latest news. They actually post more real news about the Basketball team than a lot of so-call Newspapers. For example, the Al.COM had one small article about tonight's game. Talk about a back-water sports page. Let's send the guys a tweet and tell them how much we appreciate them.

 

House has helped A&M

  Last season, Rod Caruso turned into a great player. He's 6-5 and plays the point. Most people believe that to beat A&M you have to keep Caruso from controlling the game. I'd love to see a Caruso-Randolph man to man fight, but I think Bama is going to zone a lot against the Aggies in hopes of getting through the first half with Taylor and Kessens out of foul trouble. The Aggies are 9-3 and have have plenty of confidence going into Tuscaloosa tonight. Texas A&M is a team on the rise. The Aggies has the third best recruiting class in the nation according to ESPN.  The program is trending toward the top. Like Alabama, the Aggies had a pretty good pre-SEC run. They avoided any embarrassing losses and beat some half-way decent teams. Caruso is the team leader, but forward Danuel House, a Houston transfer, has made the Aggies a much better team. House is 6-7 and weighs a little over 200 lbs. He's a lot like Rodney Cooper in build, size, ability. This should be a highly fought game. A&M believes this is a place to steal a road win. Bama will be protecting their home turf.

    Where does Alabama stand today? The Tide is not-ranked, unmentioned, and ignored. That is simply the national perception of the Crimson Tide now. But this team can change that with a few wins. A win tonight would move the team to 11-3 and that has to be getting close to the edge of the NCAA field. Tonight is the place to start to change the perception of the program. 

    Grading the Tide? I'd give them a solid B right now. Had the team won any of the games they lost, you might consider a little higher grade. The team is better than last season. That was pretty low bar to cross, however. Grant seems more inclined to slow down the pace than his early season decision to open up the scoring. What happened to change that? I think it is a combination of poor showings offensively by Cooper and Hale. Both players are key to the Tide, and both need to play better. Hale is pushing himself to hard. Cooper is an riddle wrapped in a puzzle to me. I'll give him credit for his defense and his rebounding. Despite the his scoring problems he has helped the team on defense, and has provided some leadership inside. One SEC assistant coach told me that if you put "any" pressure on Cooper from the perimeter he will hurry his shot. That's obviously true. Cooper cannot quick shoot the basketball in same way that Tarrant can. Rodney is good enough when left alone. Hale thinks the next one is going in despite missing the prior five shots. That's good and bad. Mainly, I think he is just pressing the issue too much. He needs to settle down and let the flow of game come to him, instead of trying to force the issue. You have to like his hard play around the baskets. He is penetrating and trying to slam home the shot.

    Kessens and Tarrant have been key additions to the team. Michaels is getting his game back, and has adapted to the tougher competition. He isn't going to dominate anyone inside, but he can help with some scoring and rebounds. Taylor is force inside. On defense he can block shots, but he makes a lot to shots to be altered. That can be better than a block. Put Kessens and Taylor together on the floor and you have good combination of offense and defense. If Cooper or Hale could play better it could really help our interior offense.

With Randolph you get a lot of steady plays. He's been around and is not intimidated by SEC defenses. He's starting to cut back on his shooting some. I'm not sure if that is by design or he's just be overplayed more often. One thing for sure, you can count on him in the clutch. He's cooled off some from a rocket start, but he's dependable, smart, plays great defense,and can finish off plays. He looks like a Gazelle on those lob slams off Tarrant passes. That is pretty impressive. He reminds me a lot of the great T.R. Dunn in so many ways. A Tennessee coach called Dunn, the ghost. "you might not see him but you are always afraid he's there." Randolph's double pump short jumper saved the UCLA game. The UCLA game is important to Bama. It was so informative. The first half showed us how good we can be, and the second half showed how far we have to go.

Lost in the shuffle of all that is going on is Justin Coleman. He needs to have some increased minutes. It is beginning to look like Grant is afraid to give him that time to do slim margin Bama enjoys on the offensive end. He is the future of SEC basketball. Next season, it will be Tarrant and Coleman that holds down the back-court. I think he needs some playing time.

Tarrant has been great. He has the tools to be a All-SEC guard. He is a good shooter, defends well, and has great court sense. He understands the overall flow the game and makes adjustments to changes better than most players. He is not just a great athlete. Alabama has always signed great athletes. Rickey is a player. He's a throwback player. He isn't flashy. He is like a rock. With Tarrant and Randolph holding down the back-court you have to feel good about scoring, defense, and turnovers. I think this team has a lot of upside. If everyone stays healthy we could be pretty good at the right time. We are going to lose some games in the SEC. The league is pretty balanced right now. Well, not counting the one NBA team we have in Kentucky. This team might make the tournament.

What does the team need to do?  This is an answer right out of coaching 101. They need to:

1. Starting making all those free throws we've missed lately,
2. Try to break even on the boards;
3. Hold turnovers to around 10-12 per game.
4. Hale and Cooper need to return to active duty,
5. Follow the example of Levi Randolph.

And, of course, they need to shoot the ball around 50% from the floor, and 40% from the outside. Cooper and Hale need to look at their shooting position and work on moving into the shot. Hale in particular is often off his back foot. Cooper is so unorthodox with his release, it is always going to be good or bad. We are a much better team than last season. Norris has been a great addition to the team, and he's going to get much better. You really haven't seen him shoot. He's playing within the system and following his role which is just what he needs to do. One night he is going to explode. Don't be surprised. He is a deadly shooter. He is fearless when shooting the ball. He thinks he can make them all. Most of all, he doesn't take a lot of bad shots. Justin can really help. I have to admit I'm surprised that he isn't getting more minutes as we talked about above. I believe Bama will win

'Bama 73 - TAM 65