BOL Round Table

NCAA tourney loss in the first round is better than winning the NIT, that's progress. And 12-4 in the SEC last was so impressive it landed us a NIT bid, the West was absolutely garbage last year. Finishing 9-7 in a much tougher league without your top two players for multiple games is just as impressive.

Blame it on the rain

It doesn't take much to meet the expectations of a great coach here. He may end up being one but he is not there yet. What they achieved was medicre but understandable considering the youth at positions we need consistent shooters at.

We didn't make the tourney last year because the West was absolutely patheic, our OOC schedule was terrible and we lost to some bad teams early in the season. St. Peters ended up in the top 100 RPI and won their league and went to the NCAAs last year, that lone loss didn't keep us out.

And you say the West isn't that much better this year? Take a look at the RPI of the West from this year compared to last, its night and day:

Alabama (2011 RPI 80, 2012 RPI 35)
Ole Miss (2011 RPI 83, 2012 RPI 61)
Miss St (2011 RPI 119, 2012 RPI 75)
Arkansas (2011 RPI 127, 2012 RPI 113)
LSU (2011 RPI 227, 2012 RPI 84)
Auburn (2011 RPI 254, 2012 RPI 145)

Every team in the West was better than they were a year ago, we had a 12-4 record last year with four of those wins against LSU and Auburn who were two of the worst power conference teams in basketball. Thats not gonna impress anyone. And yes, it is a process in building a basketball program at Alabama. Grant doesn't have the luxury of selling an amazing tradition, top notch facilities, or incredible fan support so its going to take time to build the program the right way. And he's got the program going in the right direction based on what he walked into when he accepted the job.

Well I'm glad you decided to give CAG credit for something at least, as you did at the end of your post. But be real man, you're really telling me that it's CAG's fault that we had some players do some really stupid things? You can't control what everyone does. My parents did a helluva job raising me for 18 years. If I decide to go out and rob a bank, that's on me, not my parents.

Now, I'm not excusing what happened. The type of attitude and actions that existed on this team were a part of a culture that existed before CAG got here, and still somewhat exists now. And sometimes, you can't do anything about these types of things until they're brought to light. And when they were brought to light this season, they were dealt with. So if there's "no excuse for it", it's no excuse for the players who did what they did. Kinda hard to blame the coach for the players doing something that they've probably been doing for a while, but only got caught for this season.

Other than that, I don't disagree with your points...but I think you're wrong if you think that those players' actions are the fault of our coach.

Wow...what insight!

Yeah, like one-and-doners headed to the NBA lottery are going to choose Alabama over Kentucky or any of several other major programs at this point. Stop trying to act like you have a clue. Yeah, he's three years in, and each year has shown improvement.

I'll tell you what's fcked up...your opinion and your posts.

It's not his fault they did something. But in one case, the player suspended had been in and out of trouble every year so yes, that one should have been dealt with or off the team before the year started.

Let's just say for fun that we have 3 starters suspended next year and they miss 5 games. We go 8-8 in the SEC and 18-11, or something like that and either miss the tournament or squeeze in at an 11 or 12 seed and lose in the first round.

Do we give Grant another pass for doing the right thing?

I know that's a lot of ifs, but my point is that we know one of the suspended players had been suspended at some point every year for the last 3 years. If you can't get through to them after one suspension, the 2nd one should have been goodbye.

I would have given him a pass for this year if he would have done that and I would bet that TM would have known Grant meant business and he would have gotten things together as well.

JMO. It's perfectly fine if people don't agree.

If we knew they were headcases and we had already had to deal with them mulitple times, why were they still playing to begin with?

Zero leadership. Exactly. Poor passing. Exactly. Doesn't a coach deserve some blame for these things?

If we had gotten rid of the headcases, maybe an actual leader would have stepped up. No reason Releford couldn't have been that guy. Even Billy Donovan saw it in one game that Reledford should be stepping up as the leader.

I loved this team, have season tickets and have so since 1996, but it doesn't mean I'm not goint to call a spade a spade. I'll support Grant and this team next year as well, but if there's not improvement, I will complain again. We don't have to win, but we should play to our talent level. In 2009 and 2010, we did as good as we could. I was impressed.

The headcases were still playing because they are our most talented players and they looked like they turned the corner last year. When they screwed up again they sat. And Grant depended on these guys to lead a very young team and they failed. Its hard to ask a true sophomore to lead the team, especially one that got suspended as well. We are a poor passing team because we have young guards, they will improve as they get older.

I do think Grant deserves some blame for some his in-game coaching decisions, especially yesterday. But I'm pretty happy with the overall direction of the program.