BOL Round Table

That's not what they were doing while Indiana was going to a rough period. The fans and students STILL attended the games en mass. The program will rise above mediocrity but it's going to be difficult attaining ELITE status because of this silliness:

"Win and they will come"

The university and fans MUST make a BOLD statement: "We take competing, winning and sound fundamental basketball seriously! WE ARE BUILDING A NEW MULTI-PURPOSE 12,000 SEAT ARENA (capable of expanding to 15,000) with corporate suites and student seating located strategically around the arena floor."

Coach Grant MUST hire NEW coaches that can both RECRUIT and DEVELOP basketball talent OR Coach Grant NEEDS to hire a consultant to audit his team's philosophy (OFFENSIVE & DEFENSIVE), players and coaches. A strategic plan needs to be developed from the auditor's report and implemented.

The PLAYERS need to spend a significant amount of time during the Summer months (at least the Interim and Summer 1 sessions) attending camps focused on developing fundamental skills to play the game. Summer session 2 can used for team oriented conditioning, pickup games and individual sessions honing their skills using what they are taught during the Summer camps.

The COACHES NEED TO BE RECRUITING and VISITING the BEST Coaching staffs around the country. The need to find new or better ways of communicating, teaching, motivating and developing basketball players, offensive/defensive philosophies and in-game adjustments.

Coach GRANT needs to huddle with trusted colleagues and mentors to re-evaluate what the hell he is doing OR NOT doing. He NEEDS to make adjustments in his style, philosophy and brand. Coach Grant needs to implement some of the player evaluation and personal development programs that Coach Saban utilizes, especially inviting the outside consultant from Oregon or wherever (the motivation guy).

If these things happen in concert, the Alabama men's basketball program would become more than just an upper echelon SEC program winning 20-25 games per season. I believe it will establish the foundation for being an ELITE program that consistently WINS 24-28 games per season AND competes in the SEC/NCAA post-season for CHAMPIONSHIPS every year!!!

People need to stop the "win and they will come" mantra - or at least change it to "go undefeated and they will come", or probably more accurately "look good winning, preferably scoring in the 70s, and they will come." This team started out 6-0, with the first loss at the buzzer at Cincinnati, all in front of mostly empty stands. Then they limped through December, maybe that's putting it too nicely, but in any case since the start of January they've only dropped three games, with another 5 or 6 game SEC winning streak in there, yet the only game with any kind of attendance was UK. We are/were 2nd in the SEC, albeit a very weak SEC,but still on top and people are still saying we have to win before they'll support the team?

I'm no longer in the CAG fan-club, that display Wednesday was atrocious. If CAG wasn't winning that would have been enough to get him fired. Fact is, if we'd pulled that one out, people still would be outraged and likely want changes made because it was ugly, so people need to drop the whole "win and we will support you" crap. You want to look good winning, which I wouldn't mind seeing more of the games like against MSU either, but simply winning can't be the main gripe.

And not to beat a dead horse, but the whole attendance thing has been discussed on here before. There are too many tide pride folks from 3+ hours away who buy season tickets for points and only make it to a game or two, and can't or don't take the time/effort to get rid of the early season tickets, that leads to a lot of the empty seats. If they (Ticket office) had allowed me to buy season tickets below row 30 I'd have done so, but sitting that far up in Coleman sucks, and instead I've just made it to games when I could get some decent tickets from friends.

That all sounds great and wonderful, but to your very first point. We aren't Indiana. We don't have to be either. Everything you said can take place... but here at Alabama, we have an order to the horse and cart. Even if it's backwards, it's what we have. Coach Grant isn't doing his part at the moment.

He also isn't getting fired while I'm typing this, so if he wants to take your advice and make changes right now... maybe he can still turn it around and start the process.

He starts winning lots of games... quits being the reason for so much anguish... and suddenly the rest of your dominos can start falling.

The problem we have right now isn't a fan base not being serous about basketball. Instead, its a segment of fans that complain about something that won't change, excusing away poor results in the process. A good coach can win here. Period. It isn't the fans, the stadium, student section arrangement.... or even the craptards that purchase season tickets to get extra points towards tide pride... its the product on the court put there by Anthony Grant.

I do

Of course I want a good basketball program -I would love to go to the Elite 8 in the next 5 years. Realistically, I don't think it's too much to ask to develop a program that is known as "best in the west" and be the next team mentioned after Kentucky and Florida in the SEC.