Crimson Red Sports

Well folks, I am starting to lose faith in the coaching of Anthony Grant. We are in year 4 of his tenure and the Tide is regressing in some aspects. The same problems persist, very poor rebounding, too much fouling, an offense that disappears for long stretches during a game, a herky-jerky offense which dribbles and passes too much resulting in many turnovers, inconsistent 3 point shooting, and an offense that looks totally out-of sync. This all sits squarely on the shoulders of the head coach.  Our rebounding is so pathetic that it is laughable. Our players don't even leave their feet and go after the ball, they stand around and wait for the ball to come to them. Also, after every game, Grant says the same thing, we need to rebound better, we need  to take better shots, we need to foul less, & so on. Well, he's the coach, so why are these problems prevalent in EVERY game? Things need to change, because if we look like this next year, I will be the first yelling for changes. Recruiting this year will be super critical. What do you guys think?


 :popcorn2:

It took you till now to figure this out. We have been talking about it all season.

Where have you been?

I expected more from this team as did many on this board. However, they were picked to finish 5th in the SEC.

IMO every thing wrong with our team is a result of terrible post play. No inside game at all. I think CAG is coaching his azz off. If he has a fault it is he has not recruited an SEC caliber post player since he has been at Bama. Hopefully that will change with the two big guys we have singed for next year.

How many disappointing basketball seasons have we lived through. On and on it goes.

I have not been able to read or post here in a couple of months, due to work &/or injury. I figured you and a couple of others would be dismayed by the coaching and team plan since you are big BB fans like me. Every win has been extremely ugly and the losses even uglier. What is the general feeling about Grant as coach and will he be around after next year? Is he strictly a defensive coach who is not capable of having a decent offensive team, is he in over his head, what is the view from our fellow posters? I am playing catch-up on this matter. I can tell you I am getting tired of the excuses from Grant and he better produce next year.


 :wall:

MD, I am glad to see you back. I hope you are well.

This year has been frustrating. It started out good winning the New York Tournament. Carl Engstrom went out for the year in the 2 point Cincinnati loss. Andrew Steele missed several games due to injury. We lost 5 of 7 games in that stretch. Bad losses to Mercer and Tulane. SEC season started and we were winning but have not looked good doing so. We win ugly similar to Gene Stallings football. As long as we are winning I can take it. We got drilled in the SEC opener on the road at Missoui. We lost a heartbreaker at Tenn and a terrible loss at Auburn. We were 10-3 and looking good in the SEC standing. We lost another heartbreaker in 3 OT to LSU yesterday.

We still should finish in the top 4 and get byes the first two days at the SEC Tournament. We were on the edge of getting in the NCAA Tournament before the LSU loss. We now have an uphill battle. IMO we need to win 3 out of the next 4 with the loss coming at UF. It can not be a bad loss. We then need to win one, maybe two games in the SEC Tourny to have a chance. In that scenario we finish the regular season 21-10. We could still get left out. A lot will depend on how other bubble teams do.

I do not think CAG is on the hot seat. He could have let this team fall apart. We will have a 20 win season and finish in the SEC top 4. We need a big man bad. We have some very good players but we can not ask Levi Randolph and Ronney Cooper to be rebounders for us and expect to win the battle of the boards. CAG has done a good job of managing the players he has. CAG has not done a good job of recruiting power forwards and big men. We have two 4 star ESPN Top 100 big guys coming in next year. Hopefully they can play and Pollard improves in the offseason. We only loss Steele this year. We should be very good next year.

I am looking forward to the rest of this season and keeping hope alive we will make the NCAA Tournament. If we get in we will be a tough out.

Real Crimson Tide fans don't give up.

I think Grant is on the warm seat, which will heat up if things don't improve significantly next year. Winning 20 games and doing good in the SEC this year is really a sham. The SEC is very weak this year & losing to Mercer, Auburn, & Tulane is just unacceptable. No doubt losing Engstrom was a key loss, but that does not explain the constant turnovers and high number of fouls we commit each game. The offense is not fluid, just the opposite and these are problems which lay at the feet of the head coach, Anthony Grant. Rebounding is not about size, it's about position. When players are standing around waiting for the ball to Charles Barkely was 6'4" and was a ferocious rebounder in the NBA. The recruitment of the 2 big men is a hugely positive note for the team, but we still have to have a better offense and more consistent outside shooting if we want to be a factor in the SEC & in the NCAA Tourney. Hopefully, another year of experience for Randolph, Cooper, Jacobs, Gueye, & even Lacey will pay huge dividends next year. Like I said, next year Grant has to produce a solid team or he will be in trouble with the fans. True Crimson Tide fans don't wear crimson-colored glasses and let the ship sink while they yell Roll Tide. Refer back to Shula, Gottfried, Hobbs, etc.


 ;)

I still feel for some reason we will make the big dance. I am not feeling heat for CAG yet. I do however, think like everybody that next year has to be a great year.
MD it is good to see you back and hope all is well with you and the family.
Flat feet can not be tolerated in basketball, so CAG has got to get these guys jumping for rebounds and loose balls. From what I can see, we look as if we are tired after the first half. JMHO. RTR!

I'm with Pmull in sticking with CAG at least through 2013-14. GOOD bigmen are at a premium and you have to be on the trail of the best available,-- by the time they are sophs. CAG was behind in recruiting a legitmate big man so he went another direction (innovative, creative). Engstrom and Gueye were both projects in that neither had the years of competitive hoops that other scholarship athletes have. When a shot goes in the air, watch where Randolph starts moving. His basketball brain has made a calculation as to where that ball will end up if it doesn't go through the cylinder, much like a pool shooter with a combination shot. You can't teach that. Neither of them will likely have it in their years at Bama. Now multiply that problem times all the other aspects or skills of a college basketball player. CAG keeps trying (working with Gueye) because he has nothing else to try--until next fall. Next season better be representative of a Top 20 NCAA team or he will be fired.
  The Tide, except for some major letdowns, has a pretty good product on the floor right now. Top 4 in the SEC, but we need top 20 in the nation. But they are a competitive bunch and CAG is squeezing every ounce of talent he can from them. They are NOT going to the Elite 8 but are playing better at this point of our season, than I would have imagined back in late December. Fun to watch and getting better as time goes by. 
 
  BTW, for anyone that thinks Engstrom was the answer to this years problem...  :-X   

Losing Randolph to foul trouble against LSU killed us. He is the one player who has consistently hustled and played hard non-stop all year. I do believe Engstrom was having an impact and he was showing improvement in the post position. He was energetic and providing a big body around the basket. The major problems, though, are still the turnovers, poor outside shooting, too many fouls, and the bad offensive play. You're right about the 2 big men, they were projects from the beginning and in Grant's first year he had only 1 scholarship to offer, but in year 5, it will be time to produce. I echo the sentiments of pmull, I am hugely disappointed because I was expecting some major improvement by the team and a berth in the NCAA.


 :dog:

Good evening fellow Tiders.  Living here in central FL, I don't get to see many BB games, but I read all I can find.  My impressios is just what you guys have been writing in this thread.  Something is missing and I feel that some of it has to be put on the HC.  They have reminded me of CNS's early teams who didn't know how to finish games.  I'd say 3 - 4 losses are due to that.  Add four wins to what we've got now and this is a very different discussion.

Bama BB has been a hard place to recruit 5-star caliber players.  We are still lacking is skill and depth.  Gotta hope 3 - 4 recruits this year will help with that.  But I agree that next year is key for CAG to show some significant improvement.  RTR.

Good to have you back MD.

I have watched almost every game since we began SEC play.  I didn't turn on the LSU game until it was about half way through the 2nd half, but other than that I think I have seen all of the SEC games.

My opinion is that we are improving.  We killed ourselves in December.  I have no idea what caused them to play so poorly that month.  I didn't get to see any of those games.  I'm not buying the Andrew Steele being out story they try to sell on every game broadcast.  The Auburn game was very similar to the December games.  It seems like the team was distracted during those games and suffered from a lack of focus.

I think we would have a really good team this year if Green were still on the team.  Jacobs grew up some during that LSU game, so maybe he can help us out in the post.  I said a couple of weeks ago that the outcome of this season would pretty much come down to how much Jacobs could improve the rest of the year.  I think that has proven to be pretty accurate.

I expect us to seriously compete for the conference championship next year, none of this sniffing around stuff hoping a few things fall into place so we can get a lucky break and slide our way into the top spot somehow.

I think CAG is doing OK at this point.  Not great, not terrible, but OK.  He has some special, very talented players in the backcourt.  He just needs to finish out building the team with some big guys, and then keep them coming at all positions so we don't regress when guys leave.

The next 2 years will be important for CAG to compete for the SEC title and win some games in the NCAA tourney.  3 years from now we need to be winning in the second week of the NCAA tourney and trying to claw our way into the final four.  As long as we are getting a little better each year I'm willing to be patient and wait.  It is hard to say if we have gotten any better the last couple of years.  We are a bubble team every year, sometimes just in and sometimes just out.

SC says:

You had my vote until you started throwing 2 and 3 years around like we are 19 year olds. The incoming big guys will be a little raw next season but if we are not at least in the Top 20 conversation next season, his time is up with me. I gave a reason earlier in this thread as to why CAG has not signed a REAL big man (2 are incoming for 2013-14) but other than that I grade him a "B" in recruiting. As for his preparation for individual games I would grade him a "C+". His preparation for each season I'll also grade him a "C+" but that all comes from making defense our mainstay once it became obvious we had little offense. As for his coaching from the bench, I'll give him a "C", no major complaints, but no major compliments either. As for player development and character management, I'll give him a "B",-- mostly on the way he handled the Mitchell/Green thing last year.  As for GOOFBALL recruiting and development, he gets a benevolent "D", mostly because I don't want the reputation of being a hard-azz grader.

Green was a senior and graduated last year.  You mean Tony Mitchell and/or Charles Hankerson? 

The young guys, Sophomores Lacey, Randolph, Cooper, Jacobs, along with Jr. Gueye and RS Freshman Obasohan, were Grant's first full recruiting class, and ranked 5th nationally.  The previous year, he added Releford and Engstrom to Bama's class. 

Next year's team should be improved from this year.  The players will have had another year playing together, they will all be CAG's players, and hopefully Engstrom will be healthy again and give us a consistent inside scoring presence.  Big guys typically take longer than guards to develop into quality college players, so I'm not counting on those two additions to have a huge impact next year, although Pollard should be more comfortable (he looks better now than the beginning of the season).

I don't think CAG is on the hot seat.  Bama is a football school.  There is more patience with other sports, and CAG has had some success, including NIT finals and NCAA tournament berths.  Next year is the big year for CAG, with Releford being a senior and CAG's big recruiting class being juniors.  If Bama looks the same next year as it did this year, then that seat might start getting warm.

 

I meant if Green hadn't graduated and had another year.

Hankerson was a waste of Colemasn Coliseum oxygen. HTH

My $.02

I'm with pmull that post play kills us. Just think about what our 18+ ft fg% would have been if our opponent's had to at least look in the paint every once in a while. I have been around here almost 20 yrs and have a hard time recalling a big man who could catch the ball. Gueye and Carl E. cannot catch the dang ball! Let alone do anything dangerous with it once they get a hold of it. They literally might have been more useful if they stayed back on d to prevent fb points. You've seen the games. How many times this year did you see Gueye or Carl standing in the middle all alone and think "jeeze it would be nice if they could catch and shoot the ball right there". I think we did great playing 4 on 5 all year on the offensive end. But ultimately it is CAG's job to get someone in the post.

One thing that no one has talked about is a factor that Grant had no control over. Toni Mitchell. If Mitchell was not such a jacka$% and was still on the team this might be the best team in the SEC. Granted we still have problems shooting and rebounding, but we don't have any depth and no real superstar. Releford is the closest thing we have to a superstar. In today's game you can't win without an elite player. Just like in football you can't win if your roster is full of 2 and 3 stars. Mitchell would have been our superstar if he wasn't such a selfish idiot. So I am willing to give Grant one more year to see if he can build up some depth and develop a superstar. If not, then I am willing to call his tenure a failure.

Mitchell was singed by Gottfried although Mitchell never played for him. Mitchell was an elite player with attitude problems. He was most likely entering the NBA draft after last year even if he was not kicked off the team. I also think a lot of Mitchell's success was due to playing along with J Greene. He was a small forward and what we need is a power forward. Had Mitchell stayed for his senior year he would help us but I do not think he would be the post player we need. He would be talking minutes from Cooper and Randolph IMO.

I've been looking for a way to never speak the names of Engstrom or Gueye again, all season long and a lot of last year. Glad to see a few others beginning to get on board. I'd have settled on a 5 guard/forward combo starting lineup back in November. Cooper or Randolph are plenty capable of NOT getting the opening tip-off without 9FG's help. Jacobs would be better had CAG devoted himself to him, instead of chasing 9 foot rainbows. :Huge Eye Roll:

Mitchell is currently playing for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the NBA D-league.

He won the D-League Slam Dunk Contest at their all-star game.

I didn't know the NBA had a minor league system.

Mad Ants don't sound so fearsome.  Maybe they should be the Mad Aunts.

"Mad Aunts"... HA!  Good one there...

(http://amayberrystateofmind.com/attachments/Image/AuntBee11.jpg)

:lol:

Need to give this one some hair:   >:(