The Ball Is Now In Coach Grant's Court

[TrueGritnPluck]

To mix metaphors, or sports

Coach Grant has acknowledged attitude problems, and anyone who has watched this Program knows this is not just a case of a guy getting mad at losing some playing time. This has been a recurrent issue for over a year now, in some form or fashion.

Coach threw down his final card last week, imo, when he challenged the team on this, in the media, before the Vandy game. It has not worked, Alabama has in fact gone in reverse.

Last night, in a very abrupt and terse post-game show, CAG again mentioned selfishness and committment to self over team and winning. He obviously knows, better than anyone, there are problems, and what they are.

Coach also knows that his attempts to deal with these issues have failed so far.

If you realize the problem, and understand how you have handled it so far has yielded no results, then it follows you must try dealing with the issues in another manner, most likely a more harsh manner.

As Coach Spock intoned - "The needs of the Alabama Basketball Program outweigh the needs and wants of the few"

 

[lorange]

We don't know exactly the nature of the problem or how deep it goes. Is it overall rebellion to CAG's authority or instruction? All that is apparent is the inability to get good shots and missing them when we do. We can't even hit layups. No one seems to be hogging the ball. As a matter of fact, no one wants the ball enough to hold onto it. (i.e. turnovers) We tend to play to the level of competition and play just good enough to lose. We play with no confidence. There seems to be an undercurrent of dissention. If just 1 or2 players are involved, they could be suspended, as this season appears to be going down the tube anyway. If the coach is going public with criticism, it must be bad.

 

[Mongo4Bama]

i wish he would let the team shoot more instead of working the clock down to ten seconds every time it builds confidence to shoot.

 

[BAMASHAQ]

Folks we don't shoot well but offense is not the problem. If we never shoot we shouldn't get beat by teams like that. 50/50 balls where both teams had a shot at the ball we lost. We gave up 18 offensive boards and honestly we played defense like crap last night. When USC had to have a basket they got it. Green turns the ball over every trip down. I bet if Green and Mitchell sat for about 3 games you might see the rest of this team respond. Having said that this team is deep it has size and good lord at the athletic talent on this club to get out played by anybody. Usc missed 23 3pt fgs. If this team will give an honest effort every night they still win 3 out of 4 games even if we don't hit another 3 this season. This team dosen't want to get their hands dirty.

 

[Alasippi]

I agree with most sentiments here but there's also one other possibility.

It concerns emotion not attitude.

We just played 3 out of 4 on the road.

The Miss. State loss was a total heart breaker.

Then we come home and face what, at the time, was maybe the hottest team in America in Vandy. They kicked our butts.

We went to Kentucky and gave it everything we had just to come up short.

Then we played a South Carolina team on the road that hadn't won a conference game.

No way our kids could be up for the game. No way. And it showed.

To me the true test comes in our next game and here on after. We'll see what we're made of. But I don't think it's time to panic because it's been a pretty difficult stretch of games schedule wise.

sip

 

[RollTide1224]

I agree with most sentiments here but there's also one other possibility.

It concerns emotion not attitude.

We just played 3 out of 4 on the road.

The Miss. State loss was a total heart breaker.

Then we come home and face what, at the time, was maybe the hottest team in America in Vandy. They kicked our butts.

We went to Kentucky and gave it everything we had just to come up short.

Then we played a South Carolina team on the road that hadn't won a conference game.

No way our kids could be up for the game. No way. And it showed.

To me the true test comes in our next game and here on after. We'll see what we're made of. But I don't think it's time to panic because it's been a pretty difficult stretch of games schedule wise.

sip

I can't agree with this. Sure they could have come out uninspired but at some point a decent team would have said ok lets win this thing. There were a few moments when it looked like that was possible but we couldn't sustain effort for more than 2 possessions. The offensive rebounds given up were inexcusable, it's not even that hard to box out especially against a team that isn't overly big and physical. That game was a must win IMO and they should have realized it. A D effort could have won that game and they gave an F. Green is getting a lot of criticism but to me Mitchell is by far the worst, we beat Kentucky with him doing anything. If Mitchell starts next game I am going to begin to question Grant.

My best response to your post would be the Bear Bryant quote that plays before games, "The same thing wins thats always won, we just have a bunch of different excuses when we lose".

 

[TrueGritnPluck]

I agree with most sentiments here but there's also one other possibility.

It concerns emotion not attitude.

We just played 3 out of 4 on the road.

The Miss. State loss was a total heart breaker.

Then we come home and face what, at the time, was maybe the hottest team in America in Vandy. They kicked our butts.

We went to Kentucky and gave it everything we had just to come up short.

Then we played a South Carolina team on the road that hadn't won a conference game.

No way our kids could be up for the game. No way. And it showed.

To me the true test comes in our next game and here on after. We'll see what we're made of. But I don't think it's time to panic because it's been a pretty difficult stretch of games schedule wise.

sip

I completely Disagree.

I thought the Vandy loss made the UK the "True Test" you refer to. Bama responded, but came up just short.

But it should have given us some momentum to go into Columbia and get back on track. After 3 straight losses, our players should have been counting the minutes to tip against a team we could have rolled over.

I don't see how we COULDN'T have been up and ready to go.

 

[CrimsonEyeshade]

I agree with most sentiments here but there's also one other possibility.

It concerns emotion not attitude.

We just played 3 out of 4 on the road.


The Miss. State loss was a total heart breaker.

Then we come home and face what, at the time, was maybe the hottest team in America in Vandy. They kicked our butts.

We went to Kentucky and gave it everything we had just to come up short.

Then we played a South Carolina team on the road that hadn't won a conference game.

No way our kids could be up for the game. No way. And it showed.

To me the true test comes in our next game and here on after. We'll see what we're made of. But I don't think it's time to panic because it's been a pretty difficult stretch of games schedule wise.

sip

Sip,

Our most talented player throws a nationally televised tantrum, and less than two minutes into the next game, he does it again. This is not being about being up. This is about a couple of key players who don't know how to act, don't know how to consistently work, don't know what it means to be part of a team.

Now, it's becomes a question of whether the coach will do something about it, beyond complaining. RTR.

 

[bamadp]

Inconsistency is what you get when your team is predominately first year players. Even though there is a lot of raw talent, you're gonna get good games such as MSU followed by stinkers like Vandy followed by good play like at UK followed by another stinker like USC. Our defensive rotation was poor, our blocking out was poor...we gave up way too many offensive rebounds, we were careless with the ball...we had too many TO's and lazy passes, and overall played poorly. Usually poor play on the road in the SEC against most any team means a loss. The only thing that made the game close was that USC is bad. You can't go from your A game to your F game. On the road especially, our F game isn't gonna get it done.

We can either suck it up and play better, or fold the tent. Judging from last year, I think we'll do the former. Our first, and most important step will be Saturday against Arky. We must protect our home court. Whatever problems this team has, I'm confident CAG will handle it. Saturday is an important game for this team. RTR

 

[TIDE-HSV]

I agree with most sentiments here but there's also one other possibility.

It concerns emotion not attitude.

We just played 3 out of 4 on the road.

The Miss. State loss was a total heart breaker.

Then we come home and face what, at the time, was maybe the hottest team in America in Vandy. They kicked our butts.

We went to Kentucky and gave it everything we had just to come up short.

Then we played a South Carolina team on the road that hadn't won a conference game.

No way our kids could be up for the game. No way. And it showed.

To me the true test comes in our next game and here on after. We'll see what we're made of. But I don't think it's time to panic because it's been a pretty difficult stretch of games schedule wise.

sip

It would appear you are in complete disagreement with Coach Grant. For the time being, I'll concede the probable advantage of being correct to him, since he sees these players every day...

 

[Alasippi]

It would appear you are in complete disagreement with Coach Grant. For the time being, I'll concede the probable advantage of being correct to him, since he sees these players every day...

Love Coach Grant and saw his presser. Oh he was ticked and made some good points.
I think he'll handle this situation just fine. I just wonder if the "Entitled ones" are going to sit or continue playing.

 

[Tidetwin]

Love Coach Grant and saw his presser. Oh he was ticked and made some good points.
I think he'll handle this situation just fine. I just wonder if the "Entitled ones" are going to sit or continue playing.

I think he is running out of options, Sip. They aren't truly playing now so one wonders what he has to lose . . .

 

[trample-em]

Some other posts have talked about challenges that Saban had in his first year with players not buying into his system, and I think he even talked about that publicly. I know we are talking two different sports here, and perhaps bad apples on a football team can be overcome by larger numbers of other players and the larger number of coaches. In hoops, the bad apples operate in a small barrel, and can contaminate it pretty quickly.

 

[TrueGritnPluck]

It will be a very interesting lineup to start and also playing rotation today, to say the least.

I doubt we will know about any changes till just before tip at best - CAG has shown he will keep info like injuries and suspensions to himself till the very last minute