Oregon State is a big game for Bama...

We'll know more about 'Bama after this week...

Ahmad Starks - he had 30 last week

 

     After watching Alabama in three games I have to say underwhelmed would be kind. The team has some potential but no post play. For a school that has been blessed with big men it is hard to understand. So it is essential for us to find an alternate way to go. We only have ten players on scholarship right now. There is an old adage that says it is better to miss on good players than end up signing bad players. I thing we can see some of that in the Tide's roster right now. I understand Grant's desire to open up a pipeline to Europe.

 

The Tide's season hinges on three things in my opinion. They are:

 

1. How well can Bama shoot the ball from the perimeter this year?  Last year's shooting will not get the job done. Lacey, Cooper, and Randolph all look better in my view.

     2. How quickly does Devonta Pollard take to become a big time player. Every player

         advances at his own rate. Trevor Releford came into the league ready to go. Pollard

         looked better against West Alabama. But he has long way to go. He has the ability

         to be a great player. He'll progress quickly. How quickly will mean a lot to Bama.

 

     3. Will Alabama have any inside game?  I think it is fair to say that Moussa Gueye has

         been very disappointing. Carl Gunderson was never going to be a big time player. He

         could have been benefited from a red shirt freshman year. He needed more time to

         develop. He is what he is, and what he isn't is a big time  college player. He'll get

         better. He isn't the answer. Nick Jacobs has had some real success as a college

         player. He can actually play with his back the basketball. He's a power forward and

         not a post player. I have a lot of faith in Carl.

 

•      Right now, it is clear that Alabama is going to play small and hope that one of the inside    layers can take step up. If that doesn't happen the Tide will not make not make it to the NCAA and finish in the upper division of the SEC. This is how a person close to the program put it to me - "I don't feel very good about this year." We exchanged some observations about the team and speculated about what Alabama do to be a better team

 

• Small ball is one way to go. Start Releford, Lacey, Cooper, Randolph, and Pollard. That  means that Alabama has Levi Randolph and Andrew Pollard as primary rebounders. That doesn't seem plausible. The upside is that the team can run and press. It also means that Alabama will need additional guard help. Steele is a real bonus to this team. He's a special kind of player. After that, Retin Obasahon will have to play some meaningful minutes.  
• Big ball is the second option. Alabama could put Gueye on the floor along with Jacobs. This would allow Nick to play more minutes and give us some offense inside. The downside is pretty clear - Bama can't press. Grant won't give up the press because he it is his best weapon. 
• Keep playing the way we play right now.  That is not going to work against better teams. I know the coaching staff is considering all options. If it were me coaching I'd be working with Devonta Pollard overtime. As things are we won't be a bad team, but I don't see a lot of success in the post season.

      None of those options make me think that we are going to be world beaters. But the best option that we have is Anthony Grant. He is one quality big man away from having a team that can go a long ways to winning the SEC.  We missed out on four quality recruits. Each told me that had narrowed their choices down to Alabama and who they signed with to play. I have a lot of faith in Grant. It isn't rebuilding a program. I said from the first day we got Coach Grant it will take 5 years minimum to elevate our program to a consistent top 20 team. Right now we have a lot of talent on the floor. None is big however. Against Oregon State we'll find out if speed can beat size and one 5-9 point guard who shoots lights out.

 

Hopefully, I'll be traveling to NYC if I can get my schedule squared away. 

 

 

 

Could the Oregon State game have a White House connection?

 

President, First Lady, and Coach
Robinson

      It is a big deal in the basketball world just playing at Madison Square Garden is a big deal. If you are real fan and haven't been to the Garden you have a big gap in your hoops resume. You can fix that oversight next week. Alabama plays Oregon State later this week. The Tide then has another game. It is likely to be Purdue.

 

      I have an acquaintance who coaches at Oregon State. His name is Robinson. He is a great coach who is coaching in the garden spot in the Pacific Northwest in Corvallis, Oregon. He grew up in a lower middle class neighborhood in Chicago. His parents demanded excellence from all of their children.  Craig Robinson became the head coach at Oregon State University. Another child, Michelle, became a very successful lawyer. She is now the First Lady of the United States, and a champion for proper eating and health. Her husband, Barak, is the President of the United States. As this is written today, the First Family is tentatively scheduled to attend the Alabama vs. Oregon State game.  I don't care about your politics but playing with the President of the United States is a big deal. It is almost as big as playing in Garden. Schedules change, events occur that cause plans to change, but wouldn't it be a great thing to say you played a game at the Garden and the President was watching? 

 

      It is a 15 hour drive from Birmingham to NYC. This is a chance to be a part of Alabama basketball history.  I will continue to call my associates in D.C. to update the President's schedule.

    

 

    

Today we thank our Veterens

    I'm sure we all have a similiar story. We have fathers and grandfathers who fought for America. Most came home. Not all. Some gave the ultimate sacrifice to keep us free. How fitting and proper it is that we give one day in the rememberance of all of our veterens.

     In my family the story is the same. My father fought in the South Pacific in World War II. My grandfather fought in France in the War to end all Wars. I still have his helmet. You can see the indentations were three Hun machine gun slugs grazed the top of his lid, as he called it. His father fought in the Spanish American War. My two great-great grandfathers fought in the Civil War. One served the South. The other for the Union.

     Today, we say thank you for your service and for your sacrifice. Thank you. Those words are not enough, not nearly enough.

'Bama hustles past West Alabama 80-49

'Bama plays hard entire game...

The pride of effort shows more potential

     A lot of magazines predicted that West Alabama might win the Gulf South Conference. If that is true then Alabama played well Sunday afternoon. One thing Alabama didn't do was to let up on any part of the floor.  From the opening tip to the game's end the Tide played hard. Any time you hold your opponent under 50 points a team has done a lot of good things. In this case it was to cause 25 turnovers and hold West Alabama to 32% shooting. So if you want to understand how this team intends to win this season it is going to be on defense. The smaller the lineup the better the defense look. I guess we can call it Grant ball or something like that. We are going to play rough. We might be small but we will not timid. We are going try to run a lot of teams into exhaustion.

          I'm not saying we won't keep trying to improve play in the paint. I just don't see any upside for 'Bama in doing so with the level of talent we play. Jacobs is a power forward trying to fit inside. He gives good effort. He cannot make up for lack of height however. He isn't a leaper by any means. He has a nice little baby hook that is hard to stop. But we can't build a game around him in my opinion. Against a Gulf South opponent Alabama's three big men scored a total of six points. That isn't going to get it done with schools like Oregon State and Purdue. I'm not saying we can't beat these teams but it is going to take great shooting, fewer turnovers, and some tremendous defense.

      After being perfect from the line in game one the Tide tossed up 11 bricks against West Alabama. That loses games. It will almost certainly lose a close game. All in all we played pretty good basketball. We have the speed and quickness to press anyone. We don't want to get bogged down in a half court game. If you saw something different sound up and let us know. After we get from NYC next week we will know more. One last thing - Pollard had 9 points, 4 boards, 2 ast, and 2 steals. He got into the flow of the game. It might be an overstatement but we might be as good as Pollard ends up being this season. Or maybe as good as Lacey plays. He looked like a star this afternoon.

WEST ALABAMA TODAY AT 4PM

EVERY GAME IS IMPORTANT...

    

   For the University of Alabama each game that is on the schedule is important. For a team that is in need of all the wins they can muster up for the post-season resume there are no games to look past.  Today is going to be interesting. The Tide is coming off a last second 70-67 against a very good South Dakota State University team. Lacey nailed a three at the buzzer to give 'Bama a solid win that will look better as the season progresses. After recording the last game, and then watching it a couple of times, I don't think Alabama played as poorly as first thought. That is not to say we looked like world beaters. But we did a few things pretty good.

• The Tide won that game with a flurry of steals and pressure in the last four minutes of the first half. Starting with a Rodney Cooper steal which resulted in a basket the Tide rattled the Jack Rabbits. It took them to the last five minutes of the game to find ways to beat the Tide full court press.
• In an attempt to make up for no post play it looked like Bama isolated the high post and committed themselves penetration. It worked well. Releford and Lacey found a lot of easy looks, and some not so easy that resulted in baskets.
• 14-14 from the line will get it done in every time. The more this team can shoot free throws the better. It might offset the lack of dominate inside play.
• Rodney Cooper missed some shots but he made some key baskets as well. Look for Cooper to pick up the pace
• Releford brought some energy when he entered the game. I have no idea why he didn't start, no one will comment but let's hope whatever is going on with him is over.
• I don't understanding  starting Gueye instead of Jacobs. Neither played well. Engstrom played hard and about as good he can play.

This is a game that the Tide should coast to win. The didn't look good against Stillman and at times looked confused against SDSU. At other times they looked in control. The Jack Rabbits had great guard and a good inside player. Al McGuire was fond of saying "you can win with that". This game is a chance to let the inside players get better. New York won't be nearly as easy as today.

           


  

Defense saves the Tide

Tide beats excellent SDSU team, but...



Releford led Tide with 18 scrappy points

      Trevor Lacey's 22 foot three pointer at the buzzer lifted the Tide to its first season win. The final score was 70-67. A few things to take home from last night's game. SDSU is a very, very good team. They are so fundamentally sound and shoot the ball with such confidence it is easy to see why they won 28 games last season and went to the NCAA. Nate Wolters is ball player. He ended up with 30 against one of the best defensive coached teams in college basketball. Alabama fell apart for 16 minutes in the first half, played tough basketball the last four minutes opening half, and showed a lot of heart in eking out the win. The Tide is not a good basketball team at this point. As a life long fan it hurts to say that. The post play is so atrocious the Crimson is not going to be competitive in the SEC against teams better than SDSU. Gueye, Engstrom, and Jacobs looked more like the three stooges than the three musketeers. We have a long, long way to go to be a good team. If the post play doesn't improve dramatically it is going to be a long SEC season.  For all the Tide fans who criticized the play of Green consider the game exhibit #1 of his value. Bama has no one who has a remote chance to take his place.

Tide half court defense

       It's hard to say that Alabama's defense isn't good. Full court, in your face, quick hands, and speed will make the Tide's full court really good. Half court we didn't play well. Going into this game Nate Wolters has hitting 3 point shots at a 24%. Last night he could drop in a 3 from Northport. I have to admit to being stunned that Levi Randolph couldn't slow him down. Wolters is very good, and may be a great player in the end. Last night he was All-World and almost won the game for the JackRabbits by himself. He was better than advertised. The Summit League team had far to many wide open looks the entire game. I'm really impressed that we didn't quit and had the character to come back and win. Make no mistake this was a very good SDSU team. Excellent fundamentals, dead eye shooting, and they run their plays as good as anyone I've ever seen. They remind me of some of the great Princeton teams several years ago with their offensive sets.  Alabama played "where's my man" and looked horrible in the search.

       But there is no doubt that Bama has a great full court defense. The Tide might be better if Gueye can ever get the ball in the post. Jacobs improvement was not evident because he committed a bunch of those silly fouls, but got one bad call on a elbow throw. It didn't happen. One day the NCAA is going to make a rule that says flopping is a technical foul. Dykstra is a good player but may have career in Hollywood. All in all we were horrible in most regards. Two great stretches of play won the game for the Tide. The middle to late in the second half was good basketball. The last four minutes of the first half was memorable. It just doesn't get any better than that. The Tide better start making some shots or we will get embarrassed by somebody very soon. Of course, it was just one game. Maybe I'm wrong, but I have a sinking feeling I'm not. We'll know a lot more after NYC. If Alabama can play as hard as the picture of Rodney Cooper we'll be competitive.

     There are going to be some questions about Pollard. He is a great player waiting to happen but his defense is horrible, and Grant pulled him. He'll get better. He'll help us a ton  before the season is over. Mississippi is  a long way away from SEC basketball. He'll adapt.

Not a single vote?

'Bama fails to receive one vote for top 25...



Baby bull needs to run
wild inside this year.

     It is hard to believe that 'Bama didn't garner a single vote in the AP Poll. I'm not saying we are a top 10 team. But not one vote? Surely to goodness Alabama deserves at least a vote with four starters returning from an NCAA team.We are better than that.

      Here's the real question for Tide fans to keep in mind this season. Will there come a point when Alabama becomes a better team without Green on the floor? If we can answer that at some point we will be a pretty good team. If not, it might be a hard year. A lot of those questions are going to rest on the skills and strenght of Nick Jacobs. How much of the loss of Green is NJ going to be able to replace. My personal thought is a pretty good bit. Let's be honest here. Jacobs is a sophomore who had a a very good freshman season. Part because some suspensions let him get more time on the floor, and in part because of his skill set. He has the size, the bulk, and that baby hook to contribute big time. He can fly in the sky like Green or Mitchell but thats okay because he'll understand his limitations.

What about Mousse Gueye?

Is he ready to help this year?

    What about the big man in the middle?  Is the 7 foot Senegalese post player about to break out and have great season. Let's hope so. He is moving well. He is much improved. He can block shots, and he can rebound missed shots. He's not a great player but he is going to be a good player by the time the SEC season rolls around. Here's the deal about Mousse - he is big and very agile. He is going to cause a great deal of problems for someone. That is if he can stay out of foul trouble. He still tends to be overaggressive and pick up some obvious fouls. But he also gets those little silly fouls as well. If the Tide can get 10 -12 good minutes out of the big one then we will win some games we weren't expected to win. When you watch Mousse practice you have to be impressed with his work ethic. Granted, he is not like watch Hakeem or anyone but he has own game which will bring some good things to the floor. First, his sheer size is intimidated. His wing span is longer than a Boeing Dream-Liner. And he can jump. More important, he seems to know when to jump. He'll be given an opportunity to get some big minutes. It's all up to him. My gut feeling is that he'll help more than a lot of people believe. I have a lot of faith in this player.

Is the big Swede ready to throw his weight around?

     Let's hope so. When you are 7-1 and weigh around 285 lbs. you don't exactly hide out when you are on the floor. And that is exactly how Alabama would like it to be. Last season Carl Engstrom started to show some real ability. He isn't fast, but not really slow either. He can't jump out of the Coliseum but he takes up a lot of space. I mean a lot of space. That is exactly what Coach Grant wants. He showed flashes last season. He blocked 3 shots in a couple of games. He pulled down close to double digit rebounds in another couple. He has shown he can mix it up around the basket. That is the one area where the Tide needs an inside player who can stake out the paint as his own. One good thing about Engstrom is that he doesn't have to do a lot except go to glass and pull down rebounds. If he scores that is a bonus. In practice he's been a lot more involved in the offense and it is clear he is getting better. At the end of the day he is going to help the Crimson Tide on the inside but he isn't going to carry the inside game on his shoulders. He can give the Tide some big minutes however. What you hoped last season was that when Carl played he wouldn't hurt the Tide.This season I think it is a reasonable statement to predict we can expect some help on both ends of the floor.

     One drawback is that his lack of speed hurts the Tide in its full court press defense. Carl is very smart. Here's my take. The light has come on regarding the game of basketball. He has much better court awareness. Before, I'm not sure that he really understood the bigger picture. Now he does. No way to minimize how much that can help. Same with Mousse. He seems to have a better idea of where he fits in on the team. This kid from Sweden is not a throwaway. I believe he will help us. The season won't rise or fall on his play but he can make the team better.