BAMA GETS SPANKED IN THE RUPP

Retin Obashon should be SEC MVP

   

We wanted to know how far away Alabama is from being a top team, and on Tuesday night we saw what Exhibit One was. The Tide for all its heart and effort is a long way from being an SEC contender. Kentucky might be the best team in the SEC, but they are not a great team. So many things went bad for the Tide tonight there isn't enough time or space to list them all. And I don't intend to try to list each and every one. We'll get past this and the future, even this season, will get better. This loss will cause the Crimson and White to do one of two things. The Tide can quit, or they can burn the video, never speak of it again,or refocus for the future.


      Anyone who knows anything about basketball didn't think the Tide would win the game. I didn't. Hoping you win and being able to win are two different things. Tonight was a dose of reality of what this program must do to be successful.  The discussion that Bama is an NCAA Tournament player is a remarkable accomplishment for this team.  Most of that credit belong to Coach Johnson and Obasohan. This was the Xavier game all over again. That doesn't mean Alabama won't win some more games this year. The last two games are a rude awakening to the fanbase who wanted to believe the Tide was back. Believe this - it is going to take another couple of great recruiting classes to be a top dog.  Alabama had an almost complete meltdown on Tuesday night but we speculated that this could happen at some point this season. Keep in mind that the loss hasn't set the program back. It just gives fans an idea how far we are away from great.

   

If you think, the Kentucky point guard is the best player in the SEC you'd be mistaken. Retin Obasohan carries Alabama on his back. It is much easier to look good when surrounded by great talent. Obasohan has had the best senior season of any Tide guard in our basketball history. As bad as Kentucky beat Alabama you could easily see that Retin destroyed Kentucky. The Cats couldn't stop him. They didn't have to shut him down; they stopped everyone else. It was as bad as Sheman's March through Georgia. If it had been a prizefight, the referee would stop it. 

   All this talk about getting an NCAA bid is fun. We'll all continue to talk about it, and hope we can still get there. We can, but we aren't a contender. But we aren't a pretender either. We are toddler learning to walk. What do we need? We need a good post player; we need a power forward named Nick King to live up to his high school billing. We'll find a player to take Retin's position, but he can't replace him. We have been spectators to one of the greatest seasons a Bama player has played. As bad as I feel about Tuesday night's game, my optimism for the future is even better.