Bama to be # 2 seed in NIT

'Bama to be number 2 seed in NIT ?
Likely to be opposite Kentucky in bracket...

       Just a few minutes ago I talked with two friends who work for the NIT. Unless some really strange things happen it appears the Crimson Tide will get a two seed, and will be opposite Kentucky in the same bracket. That means the Tide and Kentucky could meet to see who goes to New York. That game would be played in Rupp Arena.

              Other SEC teams who could get bids are LSU and Arkansas.   There are going to be a lot of surprised SEC fans when the brackets are released. Here are the presumed # 1 seeds:

• Kentucky
• Maryland*
• Iowa
• Tennessee

            My personal belief is that the NCAA/NIT (same ownership) will put another ACC team as a one seed if possible. That would be Virginia. The Maryland win over Duke (2nd time this season) may not be good enough to get in the NCAA, but the NIT might take them as a #1 seed. There will  also be some strong lobbying for Umass to get a one seed.

            *There is strong consideration being given to a Maryland/Alabama duo in one bracket.  One thing the NIT has done in the past is to select one seeds from four separate major colleges. We are going to talk tomorrow afternoon and I'll post an update.

How strange that Alabama could a # 2 seed and haven beaten Tennessee twice and Kentucky once.

‘Bama can’t hang on to second half lead…

Two inside players and we’ll be very good next season

 

       We didn’t beat Florida because we don’t have enough good players. There is no shame in that. If that’s the problem Grant can recruit a fix. We signed two national top75 players who play center and power forward. That will help. Carl Engstrom returns and that will also help. And is it possible that we might sign at least one big juco inside player, and an experienced player from Europe. I believe we will. One thing that we do have is a good head coach. If you still don’t believe that you don’t know basketball worth a flip. Luckily, getting a couplle of players can improve a team very quickly. Next season everyone on our roster, except the gutsy Andrew Steel will be back for another season. We are so close to being a great basketball team you can almost smell it. Ask Billy Donavan if he thinks Alabama can be a great team next season – he’ll tell you they will be and maybe more. I bet he thinks they are pretty good right now. The better team won, but only because a great player got read hot. We built a ten point lead by doing all the gritty little things that talent short teams have to do.  In the end the team with the best players usually win. We have defied that logic several times this season. Today the odds caught up with us.

 

        I’m seen our two signees play several games this season. Hale is 6-8 and he can jump and shoot. He needs some weight. Jimmie Taylor is not a great scorer. But he’ll knock you sideways on defense. He is as strong at finishing a play as I’ve seen in some time. He’s not pretty on offense, but he is an assassin on defense.  He is quick and agile. He can jump to the rafters. Hale is smooth as silk type inside player who has good range.  Both are comparable to each other but at different positions.  I think Hale will add some much needed offense.

    

The season is not over by any stretch. Anyone who thinks otherwise might not understand the value of post-season in any venue. I hope we get in the NCAA but for our development and exposure it might be better to have a chance to play a few games.   I have no problem with our team not getting an invitation as long as Tennessee or Kentucky aren't selected. We are better than those two teams.  Ole Miss is playing well right now and could help the league imagine. I’ll tell you a coach that doesn’t want an NCAA invitation. John Calipari knows his team is not ready for prime time and could use some competition where they might be competitive. They are 4-4 after the loss of Nerlens Noel.

 

It is never great to see your team lose in a tournament. Today is the day I get to open the envelopes of two sports writers who predicted the season. Names shall remain unrevealed out of agreement. I picked us to win 19 in the regular season. The other to picks stood at 17 and 21.  We were not highly rated going into the season and in my opinion we milked the year for about all we could. The only game I regret is the AU game.  Whether that cost us a bid would be conjecture. Whether we got a bid after a win today would be conjecture. In all honesty we really aren’t a highly competitive NCAA Tournament team except in our Crimson hearts. If we make it to the NCAA we can be highly surprised and happy. If we don’t we understand why. We could be the top seeded team in the NIT and that would give us a chance for more basketball.  But this season had some things to remember

 

·         Trevor Releford is a great point guard and that’s where you start building a team

·         Nick Jacobs found his way in the latter part of the season.

·         Moussa will never be great on offense but he will be much better next year.

·         Retin Obasahan  was  a major surprise

·         Pollard was a major disappointment but he did make some real improvement toward the end. He can rebound and block shots. He plays solid defense, and the physical talent is undeniable. He’ll work hard this off-season and gain some strength and weight. Then we may see the real Pollard

·         Grant will never satisfy everyone but he can coach. He has at least two more years, and I he’ll get an extension next year.

·         Carl Engstrom may actually be more than a role player. His rehab is going well.

 

We finished second in the SEC when we were picked 6th in the pre-season. And a lot of negative fans will tell you we underacheived. No way. Our early season surge raised expectations which were simply not realistic. Despite all that we were close to being a really good team. I think the players and coaches should be commended. I think a lot of our fans should look themselves in the mirror and reconsider some of the offensive things they have said about this team. I find it particulary unfair from fans whose basketball IQ would be a quarterbacks number.

I also wanted to say something about our offense. It was the only offense we could play. We had to play mud ball because he had no real inside game. I think our outside shooting improved despite the fact the other team knew what was coming.

      

                                                    

    

     

Tide states their case...
Tennessee can't keep up with Alabama speed and execution

      I have no idea if Alabama makes the NCAA Tournament or not.  It is easy to say if Tennessee goes dancing we should go as well. After all, we beat the 'Vols 2 out of 3 times this season. It might not happen. We beat Georgia twice a couple of years ago only to see the Dawgs receive a bid. We stayed home.  The number of teams left on the bubble is dwindling as the day grows old.   For right now all Alabama fans should simply rejoice in the best game the Tide has played this season.  

Excellent Coaching by Grant...

     For those who think Anthony Grant can't coach they should watch this game again. I was struck by the superior Tennessee talent level. How did Grant pull this one off?  He told his team to  walk the middle of the road. Alabama used the 5 position set screens all game long. All game long the Tide guards found their way to the basket. Grant knew if he could make this a guard game, he knew 'Bama had a chance to win. It worked. Bama's superior speed and execution on big day Friday was near perfect. Once the game was put in the hands of the Bama  guards you knew the  score was going to be low. McRae wasn't going to get the number of shots that Tennessee wanted. Tennessee needed to get the ball inside to Jarnell Stokes as plan B.  McRae couldn't shoot. Stokes responded with only 12 points. There is no stat line for what Moussa Gueye did with Stoke's game, and probably his head. Gueye and Nick Jacobs didn't own the paint. But they did make it a no man's land. If Tennessee was going inside they were going to find it tough. They were not going to just post up Stokes and beat Alabama. Jacobs had a career high 12 boards and officially became a player in my mind.

Tennessee struggles from the outside when the heat was on...  

  When Tennessee couldn't find anything inside they began to shoot threes. It was their only patterned offense. The other part of their game was getting offensive rebounds.  The 'Vol got a total of 15 offensive boards. Many were long bounces off missed three point shots. Despite the fact the Vols got 15 offensive rebounds they could not break the 50 barrier.

      The result was Tennessee scored only 48 points. McRae who had been averaging around 25 ppg in the last ten games scored only 9 points. He was 3-13. He was a non-factor. When McRae picked up foul number 4 around 7 minute mark the 'Vols were finished. You could see and you could sense it onr . facesYou could look into the eyes of the Tennessee players and sense the fear. Alabama didn't stop trying to score, they didn't even slow down the clock much in the last five minutes. Instead, the set their screens and flew into the lane. When Levi Randolph made a last moment adjustment to loft a shot over Stokes to score,  the last fire in the 'Vols was extinguished. The surging 'Vols, the darling of the bracket experts, were knocked to the mat and couldn't get up.

    Bama must beat Florida in my opinion to get in the field. It might help us Vandy beats Ole Miss. Missouri choked big time. No other word for their last 7 minutes. Credit Ole Miss for hanging in and coming back. If Ole Miss goes and we stay home then I have no problem with that. They beat us head to head. Let me say this - when a team loses and moves up into the field it is a joke. Something wrong there.

Other jokes:

• That people even mention UK in field. They are a bad team. Kudos to my good buddy Joe Dean. He picked it..
• UMass? 
• Boise State? Tennessee ahead of us? Is there no common sense in Selection Committee. And I say the Selection Committee because they lead information to Lunardi and wait to here the blow back in my opinion.

Regardless, I have never been prouder of a bunch of kids who have had so much adversity in the year. And yes, Levi called the bank. His mid-air adjustment to get some loft is something only a special few can do. 

     

When we were all Wimp(s)

WIMP WAS ONE HECKAVA COACH
ONE OF A KIND IN PLAID...

    I readily admit to liking Anthony Grant.  That doesn't mean that I don't miss Wimp. No coach has ever taken Alabama to the heights of glory as Sanderson. CM got the ball rolling but Wimp had the Coliseum rocking and rolling. Someone asked me the other day what it was that made me like Sanderson so much.  That one was easy. Wimp was one of us except he got paid to coach. One look on the Wimp's face could tell the story of how the game was going for Alabama. If his demeanor had reached the scowl mode it meant things weren't going well and he thought the officials were to blame.

     One more thing I'll admit to believing. I still believe that Grant can get Alabama to the level that they enjoyed under Sanderson. When I started to appear on all those radio shows stating my belief in Grant, it was my hope that Anthony could us back in the WimpZone. He only coached 12 years as Bama's head man. In nine of those years he took the Tide to the SEC Conference Championship game. Six times he brought home the trophy. If Sanderson had not been fired I have no doubt we would have been to a few final fours and maybe even have won at least once.

      How was he so sucessful?  First, he was a great coach. Second, he had great players. Not good players, but great players. Third, you wouldn't recognize our offense once the Tournament started. There were no major changes, but the moves he made to the offense were always new to the other team. I miss all those discussions with my hoops buddies about what would Wimp do. It might be a simple stack. It might be having a double low post on key possessions. Whatever he did worked.

       It's almost like we have toy players compared with those Wimp could put on the floor. I think Trevor Releford would be the only player on the Tide roster who might start for Wimp's better teams. Lacey could help out. Randlolph might be put in to ice down a shooter. Today's players seem like children as opposed to grownups of those days. That might be because today's are almost all sophomores and are so young. I couldn't help but thinking that Reginald King would have scored 50 points against Auburn, Georgia, LSU, and almost any team in the SEC. It isn't that today's players aren't good. They are good. CM and Wimp had great players. On a scale of 1 to 10 I'd say that todays players are about a 6 or 7. I don't mean to say anything bad about our players. They play hard. They play in a different era,and contrary to what most younger fans believe new isn't always better. In fact, new isn't even close.

       How much would Derrick McKey help today's team?  What about Roy Rogers? I could name two dozen more. Basketball has changed a lot since 91-92. I think that Wimp might win 30 games a year with his coaching talent and on the floor players. We'll be back there one day. Mark almost got us there and then seemed to lose focus. Grant has had some tough luck, and some of it is his own fault, but he'll get us there. Just have a little patience and faith. I remember CM's record his first three or four years. In today's climate he would have been fired. Back then there was this man named Paul Bryant who had a little patience and a lot of faith.

Can Bama make it?

It's looking tougher by the day...

                Just a couple of days ago I was feeling pretty good about the winner of the Tennessee/Alabama game in the SEC Tournament making it to the NCAA. Now it appears that it is safe to say the loser will not go, but the winner's fate is still unknown. I know very few things in life beyond a reasonable doubt. One, my wife is always correct. Two, I'll never be rich. 3. I love the Alabama basketball program and 4. The RPI and the Selection Committee are the most insane methods known to choose who goes to play in the Tournament.  A lot of fans rely  on their work. Talk about turnovers - that bunch has taken stupidity to a new level.

              Al Davis, that grand old man of the Oakland Raiders, had a saying which made all bad things good – “Win Baby Win”. Damned if that doesn't seem to be reasonable. You finish second in your league you shouldn't be a question mark about whether you go play in the NCAA. End of story as far as I am concerned. How the NCAA picks at-large teams is a travesty. I know it is not an easy job. The reason is that the Committee has boxed itself in is their reliance of a combination of subjective and objective criteria which even they cannot fully explain. Alabama lost some games to bad teams. Kentucky lost some games to good teams. Tennessee did both. Surely, the great hoops father in the mezzanine beat someone head to head counts for something? It apparently it does not.
 

        Here's what I now understand about Alabama's situation. They must beat Tennessee to move forward. Then if they beat Florida it might be safe to say the Tide is in, but... anything preceded by the word 'but' has to be bad. In this case it is indeed bad. But if Florida gets beat in their first game it's bad for Bama. Why? Well, it means the winner of that game will have an RPI that sounds like a decent batting average in the major leagues. In the meantime Florida is likely to drop from a projected 3 seed to a 4 or even 5 seed. Wait, I do have one more truth in life – I can do a better job in devising a system for the NCAA. Just let everyone play. Or at least expand the field to 128 teams. That would mean 1 extra game. If the eventual national champion can win 6 in a row, surely they can win 7. I'm not suggesting we eliminate some little school that dreams of being Cinderella. I just think this constant insanity of the RPI has run its course.

RELEFORD AND 1st TEAM ALL-SEC

Trevor Releford named 1st Team All-SEC...
First team top defensive team also

     Trevor Releford, Alabama's point guard, has been named 1st Team All-SEC by the leagues 14 head basketball coaches. In addition, he was also named lst Team All-Defensive Player as well. These two awards are fitting tribute to Alabama's best basketball player and floor general. Not bad for a kid from Kansas City who wanted to play somewhere else other than Kansas. His brother plays for Kansas and Trevor wanted to find his own path. I'd say he's done it.

    Releford and Nerlens Noel of KU were the only two players to make first team in both groups. No doubt, they are the best at their respective positions on defense. T-Relly, as his teammates call him is Bama's leading scorer, leads in steals, three point shooting % and is second in assists. I guess we should add he leads the team in 55 foot game winning shots.

I've seen two point guards who took a season and turned themselves into all time great Alabama players. Releford has certainly done so this season. The other was Gary Waites his senior season. When Waites was not named to the All-Tournament team in Nashville the crowd rose and began to chang Gary Waites, Gary Waites, Gary Waites. James Robinson, who did make the team walked over and handed Gary his trophy. How lucky we are to have a player like Releford. Trevor was also named as a Regional All-American today as well.


Help: I need two for Friday. bamamidcourt@gmail.com
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Alabama/Tennessee winner to dance?

Will the winner of the Alabama/Tennessee go to NCAA?

It's setting up to look that way...

 

Part of the Selection Committee

         Those who claim to have expertise in the NCAA bracket selections are saying that Kentucky and Tennessee have gained a spot in the Tournament.  Alabama is one of the first four standing in  line hoping for a ticket for a sold out dance. That's strange to me considering that Alabama beat both teams in the regular season.  The Tide lost to Tennessee on a disputed and laughable no-call that would have allowed a different outcome.  Like I said after that game, such things never even out do they ?  So much for beating Kentucky when Noel was in the lineup. Take nothing from Kentucky in their win over Florida. Truth is that Florida is just slightly better than your average team. Florida's road record isn't lighting up any Las Vegas neon signs.

 

          Luckily, for Alabama they have a chance to change that if Tennessee beats the winner of  game one of the tournament between Mississippi State and South Carolina. I'm not sure they will but surely they should. That means that the Vols will meet Bama on Friday afternoon. It seems fair that the winner of this game goes to the NCAA Tournament. That would be fair most fans standards.  Fair by the NCAA is another matter entirely. Fair would be saying that Alabama finished second in the SEC as did Kentucky.  Alabama beat Kentucky when they faced off earlier in the season. That is  not the NCAA idea of fair. Kentucky and Tennessee are ahead of Alabama by the slimmest of margins. Tennessee and Kentucky split in the regular season. Let's see - Kentucky and Tennessee beat each other, as did Alabama and Tennessee.  We beat Kentucky. They didn't beat us. Apparently, head to head means little if nothing. True, the Wildcats played a lot of good teams. They lost to all of them. To recap.

• Duke
• Notre Dame
• Baylor
• Arkansas
• Alabama
• Texas A&M
• Louisville
• Florida
• Tennessee

         If Kentucky played a good team they lost. The NCAA's "logic" is that even though Kentucky beat Florida and we didn't, beating Kentucky head to head is not important. I'm sorry, that is just crazy talk. I'm really happy that Kentucky scheduled teams that were good and lost to everyone of them. So the threshold question seems to me - is it more important who you lost to than who you beat in head to head competition. And you wonder why I think the NCAA field should include everyone in the NCAA? A couple of extra games, and all this non-sense about quality losses, RPI, BPI, and the like could just RIP. All this RPI non-sense means you can lose a game and gain points. You can win a game and lose points. I'm not the smartest guy in the State of Alabama but I'm not the village idiot. Alabama won two games against opponents that beat Kentucky. Kentucky won a single game against a team that beat us.

 

       I wonder if Alabama actually beats Tennessee will the Tide slip in the field?