BOL Round Table

My advice to you would be pick Creighton in round 1. I'm proud of our boys, but this isn't the year.

Jeff, I think it is so sad that you come over here and take the time to post on our site, during a great time of year for all of sports. You obviously know and follow college hoops, and Bama is in the field of 68 with the best teams in the sport. You seek to stir up general interest in our Crimson Tide and draw attention to the obvious potential matchup problem that UNC would find themselves in, if Bama moved on to face them in the second round. Even if its just to throw some pros and cons out there for the potential UNC matchup; still, the interest in the sport and our program (which is on the rise again) is there from an outside source, that cares about college basketball. It stinks that all we can offer up is some sarcasm about past post players and other sarcasm and negative attitude about our team.

Jeff, the last time Bama made an elite 8 (2004), it started out in an 8/9 matchup, that everyone thought we would lose. We drew THE mid-major media darling of the tournament, Southern Illinois, and every expert had Bama going down in the first round. That same Bama team lost to a decent Florida team on Friday of the SEC tournament, in a well played game that came down to a final shot, coincidentally. In the second round, Bama got 1 seed Stanford, a similar matchup problem for the one seed. Childress being a perfect matchup for Kennedy Winston, and Bama having a lot of guys who could shoot the three and disallow the effectiveness of a zone defense. This 2012 team is in many ways the exact opposite of that 2004 team, but the matchup problems with the first and second round draws are there just the same. Creighton drew the bad matchup, not Alabama. In the first round, Alabama got a team that can't defend a MVC team. Alabama has had trouble getting into an offense in SEC play this year, but I think it is really overlooked nationally at how great defensively a lot of this league is. I think Bama will get into the paint against Creighton and the Jays will get into foul trouble trying to guard Jacobs, Green, and Randolf. Yes, Creighton has a great offense, but Bama really gets after it on defense and its not going to come easy for Creighton getting the ball inside. They are going to rely on the three and if they can't get shots to fall they are in trouble against this defense. If they get more than 20 from Doug Mac or get a great shooting effort from deep outside, they will be in the game and probably have a good chance to win, but if they don't, they could get blown out. BTW, I see Bama winning in a close game in this one. I see Doug Mac keeping them in the game with a big day offensively (18-22 points).

if Bama prevails, then you get to the UNC matchup, and OP is correct. It is as favorable a 1 seed matchup as you will find. Bama is very athletic and can guard their bigs, that is the team strength. Also, Carolina is the second draw in a row that doesn't play great defense. Again an opportunity for a bad offensive team to work clock and get scoring opportunities. Is beating Carolina a reach? Yes it is. But the point is valid that Bama has a chance at doing something big in this tournament, because the matchups they received by the selection committee are favorable to their style of play.

I originally started this post because I think it is sad that we can't get more excited about the potential of this year's team and the opportunity this is for a group of young guys to get valuable experience.

One more thing to note. Think Grant may be a tournament type coach? Defense does translate to wins in March. What I mean is: last year, the deep NIT run was great and our team seemed to elevate the level of play in that tournament. After the Florida game last Friday, Grant shook Billy Ds hand and had a huge smile on his face that I haven't seen in a while. I know they are friends, but that smile wasn't present on February 14. Even after a loss, you could tell Grant knows that the real season starts now. It almost seems like he knows he has prepared this team to compete the way he wants to in the NCAA tournament. I am so excited to see him on the big stage coaching our Tide. I am ready to be inspired. I almost feel something special is coming. Maybe not this year, but definitely with this group of young talent.

Thank you for the interest in our program, Jeff.

I hate to pick chalk. No fun in that, and there are always upsets that come out of the blue.

Then again, my wife always laughs at how my brackets crash and burn every year, so there you go.

the only way alabama would be able to beat UNC is to have tony mitchell come back, Or the game strategy would be crash the boards, Be agressive, Stop the inside game of North carolina and force them to shoot 3's.

We have to win our first game to get to play them.

Man ,
Bama is a young and much improved Team. UNC has 4 -5 First round NBA draft picks. if Bama beats Creighton, which I dont think will happen either, They get SMOKED by UNC !

This is just dumb. Creighton is going to blow us out and UNC would just be a massacre. Our best hope is to compete well against Creighton and take something positive into the offseason. You don't want to take a 40 point loss to UNC into the offseason.

Creighton is going to blow us out? Wow....

Creighton will probably have the worst defense we have faced all season, and our defense will be the best they have faced all season...Blowout, not hardly man.

First, get by Creighton. Second, I'm not sure how people say we match up well with UNC. Zellar and Henson are two bigs that are athletic, run the floor, and play great D. It's tough to score inside on UNC, especially w/ a healthy Henson. Getting rebounds is tough and UNC is going to get their fare share of offensive rebounds which makes them almost impossible to beat. So we are going to have two "bigs" guarding Zellar and Henson, now who is going to guard the 6'8 Barnes? He's a matchup problem for every team in the NCAA. Marshall is perhaps the best point guard in the tournament and has recently started scoring. I believe he finished the season with 4 or five games of 10+ pts and 10+ assists. They may not be the greatest team at hitting the 3, but Barnes, Marshall, Hairston, and Bulluck can get hot and knock em' down with ease. The only way to beat UNC is to really slow down the game, but you have to make shots for that to happen and UNC will make you into a perimeter shooting team, something we all know is not a strength of this team. The teams that beat UNC shot the 3 well. I would love for us to first, get to UNC, then take them out. I know, anything can happen, but I seriously doubt we even keep it close VS UNC.