Wichita steps up to the plate...
Well, this cold
shoulder by Gregg Marshall is truly disappointing, but not surprising. I
thought we had a good shot when it was announced he and his family were coming
to Alabama for a visit. Like almost all of you, this was the man I wanted when
Anthony was terminated. But in a couple
of earlier columns I said he is a man who places great value on loyalty. In fact, I said that the virtue of loyalty
was something difficult to factor in with Marshall. Let’s hope our University
learns some valuable lessons from this.
I expect Bill Battle already has.
What are those lessons? Here’s what I learned -
1.
Everything
is not always about money. You can
dog Marshall for whatever reason you choose.
It is clear he didn’t want to move from his home.
2.
The name
ALABAMA isn’t some magical dust you can sprinkle on someone and they’ll
come running. In basketball, it’s going to take a lot more than the name.
3.
You have
to have a plan when you intend to fire someone. I know for a FACT that two days before Grant was fired, it was not in the AD’s plan to do so. 11th
hour pressure caused him to overreact.
By overreact, I mean he didn’t think through all the ‘what ifs.’ I don’t necessarily blame Battle for doing
for all of that. I honestly don’t think he had a very realistic idea of how
hard it was going to be to hire a new coach. I think he thought the name
Alabama would find us someone, and if we offered a ton of money that would
finish the process.
4.
This
situation shows me that the national opinion of Alabama basketball is abysmal.
It wasn’t Grants fault alone. When everyone
knows that Alabama treats its basketball program l the red headed step child it becomes obvious A
lot of us, including some of our best posters tried to express those feelings. Those opinions got ridiculed.
5.
Most of
all I hope that Battle understands, and by now surely he does, is that
overall our basketball program needs more than a tune up.
6.
Credit to
Battle for going after a home run. That shows me that he sounds serious.
The offer made to Marshall was a good one, although a lot of us said it wasn’t
enough. Wichita State had the one thing the Tide couldn’t offer, and that was
his home and family. I think that Coach
Marshall was coming until WSU was able to raise his salary to a reported 3.3
million dollars. At that point it became a no brainer for Marshall. He said the
offer would have to be ridiculous. It was generous, but nothing more.
7.
I’m sure
Battle was in a position of having made his best offer which he thought was
sufficient to lure him to Tuscaloosa.
In the end, it jus t wasn’t enough.
We can speculate what might have happened if Battle had come back and
offered 5 million. I don’t think Marshall would have left, but it is
interesting speculation. Did Marshall use Alabama to get more money? Sure, and
there is not one thing wrong with doing so.
8.
Should
Alabama be embarrassed by all of this? I guess it depends on your personal
point of view. My answer is a solid yes.
The late minute change of heart about Grant, firing him the day we got
an NIT bid, brought negative attention to an already had situation. Grant
didn’t deserve that. Our fans didn’t deserve that, and most of all our players
didn’t deserve what happened.
9. Here’s the deal and we have to live with
it. Until we change the culture
surrounding the administration’s approach to basketball, hiring a new coach will be like placing a
band-aid on a hemorrhage. A new coach
brings excitement and hope. I can wax my old clunker of a car and make it look nice
and shiny. If it wasn’t going to start before, it won’t start after the buffing
either. It’s not pleasant to admit this but it’s true
10.
Marshall might have been somewhat of a shortcut
because he because he knows what it takes to run a basketball program. A
coach can only do what he can do so much within the culture of his surroundings.
That’s what Hobbs faced, that is what Mark faced in many ways, and that is what
Grant faced. It’s where we are and who
we are.
A lot of us have
been talking about the state of Alabama basketball for years. The result was like throwing kerosene on a
fire. Many Alabama fans exploded in anger.
Don’t talk about the University of Alabama in such a manner!!! My firm belief is that you cannot repair a
problem until you finally admit you have one.
That is what Albert Einstein said. He’s was a pretty high achiever. Once you acknowledge the problem to yourself
you can move forward. If you can move forward you might repair the situation.
Gosh, I hate
losing Marshall. It hurt in a lot of
ways. However; if it opens up the eyes
of our fans and administration to our situation it might be the catalyst needed
for decades past to find future success.
I thought that Battle in his “concession” remarks was a classic example
of good taste, and behavior. I have no doubt that he will now turn his search
to the best coach we can hire. When we hire that man and if we do the things
necessary to make basketball a serious player we will move forward. If not with this new hire, hopefully all the
ground work has been laid. You ask, exactly when will that be? I’ll answer the question
this way – Auburn hired Bruce Pearl and has a new arena. They hired Pearl and built that arena when
the coffers were low. Surely, the
University of Alabama, the Capstone of our State, wants to achieve at least
that. Then can
better access who we want to be and
where we want to go in basketball. It will take some real dedication and
time. Marshall is just a wakeup call to
help us understand that the name Alabama can’t stand alone. It couldn’t when we
had a succession of football coaches for the past couple of decades.
That is why I was
scared about getting rid of Grant until we were certain we had a man who was
coming. It was too risky this season. Not enough big names were being marketed.
The manner in which Grant was fired hurt
our national image. I’m sure we all know
that people are hiding in the weeds ready to strike out at ‘Bama? We just made
that easy for them to do. That was not good thinking in the short run. Pressure
can cause a person to make poor decisions.
If we were going to fire Grant he should have been allowed to at least
play out the season, and in the meantime we could have start to search. That’s
not the way it happened, and honestly, I have no idea who our next coach might
be. I don’t know of any coach who has
openly lobbied for the job, including Marshall. Do you? The sun will come up. Things will get better.
We will survive the loss of Marshall. We have too much to offer someone. Someone will say yes. We have a proud, if
under stated, basketball tradition. It’s overshadowed by football, but even
standing alone the record is a good one.
