KENTUCKY SENDS THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA A MESSAGE...

HEART NOT ENOUGH TO BE 'CATS

   

 Alabama isn't Kentucky in the world of hoops. Despite having three shots as an underdog with the Wildcats, the Tide didn't win a game. They weren't even close. Alabama could have gotten lucky with the Cats in only one way - the SEC schedule could have made them play each other only once. The Tide is now 18-14. Had the Tide been fortunate enough to draw the Cats only once, the Tide could have possibly won 2 more games. That would make their season record a decent 20-12. Would that have been enough to make the NCAA? Perhaps, but the problem is there are a lot more Kentucky type teams in the Tournament than in the SEC Conference. At one time winning 20 games was an almost sure ticket to postseason play.  That's not the case anymore. So Tide fans can relax, beating the Wildcats wouldn't have made much difference in the overall scheme of this season.

        One thing that Tide fans should take away from the SEC Tournament is the gap between where we are and where we hope to be one day. It won't happen next year or the year after that. Alabama is, at least, two more recruiting classes away from being a great team. Moreover, those classes have to be good classes. Good recruiting years might separate the Tide from the pack. It will not put them in the category of Kentucky-type teams. That is going to take a bunch to top 50 kids deciding they want to play for Avery Johnson. Honestly, I don't think the name Alabama is going to have much to do with recruiting success for a while. The Tide might get a few in-state kids who grew up loving all things Alabama.

         No school in the state will ever be great when our top players decide to go to Michigan State. Alabama is a long way from being a great hoops state. It wasn't always that way. Alabama basketball, under C.M. Newton and Wimp Sanderson, showed that Alabama could attract a lot of future NBA players. Even under Mark Gottfried, the program continued to draw top players. Gottfried couldn't bring that talent to a consistent level of excellence. The day that Hootie Ingram decided to fire Wimp Sanderson was a watershed moment in the history of Bama basketball. The Tide has never recovered. A lot of our posters are young and probably have no idea of how feared Tide hoops were "back in the day."


     Now the question is whether Avery Johnson can bring the program to a level of national pride. It depends on whether he can recruit. We know he can coach. Anthony Grant was a great coach, but couldn't recruit a starving dog from under the porch for a hamburger. I'm not overly concerned about losing a player like Ferguson. Teams will always lose players. I'm more concerned that players know that by coming to 'Bama it is a ticket to the NBA.  If Johnson can do that, it will take some serious work on the part of him, his staff,  and the Athletic Department. History tells us that you can't "buy" a program. You have to establish a program, and Alabama does have a base to do that. Will the Athletic Department make each and every decision necessary to allow success? I don't know. We need a new arena. We need to market our program outside of the State borders. We need to have a real media savvy approach to what we do. The State of Alabama basketball coverage is embarrassing to both the print and electronic media. If fans believe that Alabama is only about football Avery Johnson will fail. In a search for success, it is going to require a fundamental change in thinking.    Basketball success requires progressive thinking and sharing.  In Alabama, we don't engage in much outside the box thinking or any understanding we need to share the football team's level of excellence for basketball. To win in basketball it requires the same approach and dedication we have in football