'BAMA AN NCAA FIELD TEAM?

JURY STILL OUT IN MY OPINION

Just to be in the hunt is remarkable

  

Edwards rips one

   I'd like to start this blog off by saying I love Alabama basketball. There may be a lot of you that love the Tide as much as me, but none enjoys it more. In my basketball life, I have watched over 1200 Alabama games. My father and I personally viewed the longest shot in college basketball history and witnessed the Johnny Dee and the Rocket Eight play some of the best basketball ever played at the University. From that point on most of you have at least some knowledge of who was our coach and how they played. I've seen the great, the good, the mediocre, and the horrible. I'm not sure how many surviving fans can say that. I hope a lot of us are still around. This hoopla over the Tide's chance to play in the NCAA is a grain of sand on the beach.  That's not to say it isn't fun, and I'm hopeful, of course. 

     One thing I've learned over that period there is never "the most important game" the Tide has played. Every era has their most important games. This year is no different. Different players, a fiery new coach, and the yearning by fans for a new start fuel expectations. It shouldn't be any other way. If you love the Tide, you want them to win. We transfer football like greatness in our desires. That is fundamentally unfair to our basketball team. I think with my background it is fair to say it will be wonderful to make the NCAA or the NIT. That would be using the crimson colored vision approach. I'm not sure the Tide is NCAA Calibre, at least not yet. Another three or four game winning streak might change my might. We all want our beloved Crimson Tide to make the field, but all this talk about next four out, last four in, and what our current seed might be mean absolutely nothing until we play our last game in the SEC Tournament. The talk might be fun and sell newspapers, or cause us to click on a helpful site. That's all it means. 

    Alabama didn't look like an NCAA team against Mississippi State or Kentucky. We looked only marginally better against Auburn. We aren't hitting on all eight cylinders so to speak. If we play the as poorly in our last  games,  we can be beaten by both Arkansas and Georgia. We can say a few good things about a very game Auburn team, and of course, the obligatory we came back to beat theTigers.  But to have to come from behind to win that game was disturbing to me. Something is wrong. Can Johnson fix it?

    I hope that  two huge slam dunks in prime time will lead to a coming out party of Michael Kessens? Obasahan found himself trapped in defensive gimmicks set to keep him out of the paint. The best player we have figured out a way to lead his team to victory by a monumental last six minutes. If he isn't named First Team All-SEC, there is no justice. Don't look for justice. Look for favoritism as usual. Arthur Edwards returned from the living dead as well. Riley Norris's hand injury is affecting his game. Without Norris, the Tide is not going to make the NCAA.  Coleman is showing some life. Don'ta Hall played his top game of his best year, as Jimmie Taylor watched from the bench.

     Good teams make their free throws. The reason we didn't beat Auburn by 15 or more was the second worst free throw shooting I've ever seen. Luckily, Auburn was even worse from the line. That allowed us to win. NCAA teams don't last long with those type performances. Tide fans, like most fans, tend to overlook unsettling things about their teams. If the Tide can get back to their fine play before the two losses, we will make the NCAA. If we lose another regular season game, we will drop like a hot rock.

     Almost the experts have us somewhere in the field right now. That is merely a snapshot in time. The real photo will take place on Selection Sunday. Will we make it.?I honestly don't know. Place the emphasis on the honestly, please.