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The Future of Alabama Basketball and Anthony Grant

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CrimsonEyeshade

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WylieTexasTider said:
Agree.. If Battle thinks 5 years is not long enough then he is a bigger fool than I thought. The job of replacing Mal is a hard one but, the fact he has not been 100% supportive of Saban and all he does, and the fact he calls out fans for Grants ineptness shows me it is time for Battle to go. No doubt he is a marketing genius but, coaching/evaluating coaches he hasn't shown me much....Of course, maybe mediocrity is ok to him as long as the fans show up...
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A little harsh on a guy who hasn't been on the job a year yet. And if the biggest disagreement between a coach and AD is over the appropriate time for fans to leave a football game, we should be OK.

Grant appears much beloved by his bosses. They obviously believe his character and reputation are good for the program. That, plus the crop of new players waiting in the wings, are why he'll get one more year, but only one.
 
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Rama Jama

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Bill Battle is mainly a business man and evaluating a basketball coach is new to him. I did see him at the last home game and he was very serious the whole time. Give him a little time to get comfortable before throwing him to the wolves. BTW, Much of the Saban issue was from his Saban's own camp, not the University or Bill Battle's.

Here is a scenario that concerns me. We keep CAG next year,we look somewhat better, and make the NIT field. Is this enough to keep him or is it NCAA or bust? To me we need to make the NCAA tournament or he needs to go.

Looking forward this year, we have very few winnable games left. We've lost 5 out of the last 6 and I do not see a gimme on the remaining games. We've performed very poorly in a mediocre basketball league. What do the PTB do if we only win 2 or 3 more games this year? If the team packs it in, we have to make a move IMHO. The Florida game tomorrow is the big game on ESPN's coverage as well. This game could get downright embarrasing.
 
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Matt0424

Matt0424

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CrimsonEyeshade said:
A little harsh on a guy who hasn't been on the job a year yet. And if the biggest disagreement between a coach and AD is over the appropriate time for fans to leave a football game, we should be OK.

Grant appears much beloved by his bosses. They obviously believe his character and reputation are good for the program. That, plus the crop of new players waiting in the wings, are why he'll get one more year, but only one.
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While we can disagree about different things, I want to address the last part.

As someone who staunchly defended Grant last year, and early parts of this year, that is my biggest fear now. If CAG comes back next year (which I think he will), and we do well enough (make the tournament) that it buys him another year after that or gets him an extension...what then? What if the year after, when we lose Randolph/Cooper/Jacobs/Engstrom/Key (who are all JR's this year), we go back int he tank? Not saying that will happen, but if we are just delaying the inevitable to give CAG "one more chance" in year 6...I don't see the point.

now, if BB studies the landscape and see's that there are no real options out there...then, I would solidly agree that there is no reason to make a change. Change for the sake of change is non-effective...but at this point it looks to me like the team is headed in the wrong direction. As people say, look at some of the teams we've played in our big games the last several years. Creighton and Wichita St are top 10 teams, while we are 12th out of 14 teams in the SEC. That is an embarrassment. The university deserves better, the players deserve better, the fans deserve better. The team, seems to me, has no fun out there. They don't enjoy playing for CAG (imo). As much as I thought that TL leaving for NCST was a bad idea, because I think he/his families view of him is WAY off on his talent level, I don't blame him now. Look at guys like Cooper...he misses a shot, you can tell it breaks him because he knows he'll get yanked. Heck, when he plays well he still gets yanked for no real reason (substitution patters of CAG are strange at best). The team is falling apart...something has to happen.
 
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CrimsonEyeshade

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Matt, I'm in the group that will spend no more time defending coach Grant. Despite the gift of experience, it is a bad team. That it is bad in a bad league only makes it worse.

All I'm saying is that, short of some major scandal, he won't be fired this year.
 
Matt0424

Matt0424

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CrimsonEyeshade said:
Matt, I'm in the group that will spend no more time defending coach Grant. Despite the gift of experience, it is a bad team. That it is bad in a bad league only makes it worse.

All I'm saying is that, short of some major scandal, he won't be fired this year.
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Oh, I agree. he won't be fired. I think he probably *should* be fired...and I think it is a failure on our AD that he says we (as fans) have unreasonable expectations. i have already stated my feelings about BB, and I will hold to them...but I do agree that CAG will be back next year, for better or worse.
 
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CrimsonProf

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I think it's important for our fans to remember (and I'm stereotyping here, so forgive me) that some kid at Woodlawn high school probably care very little about our history beyond the last five years. Only a diehard Alabama fan from a diehard Alabama family is going to care about Wimp or CM Newton or even the Elite 8 run ten years ago.
 
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BigA

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So...if 4 SEC teams on average make the NCAA tournament every year, we should not have a "realistic expectation" that we are one of those 4?
 
ReturnToGlory

ReturnToGlory

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I just don't want us to fool around and let our program go so far south that it will take a while to get it back. We let our women's program take that slide. A Final Four participant in 1994 to barely winning 4 in a year.
 
TIDE-HSV

TIDE-HSV

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I would not be surprised at all to hear, at the end of the season, that Battle had called in Grant and given him the "Shula choice" - modify staff, in this case acquire a decent offensive coach, or else. Since I think Grant's just as stubborn as Shula and I don't believe he'll release his choke hold on the offense, I think the result would be about the same. In Shula's case, I believe that, given their long relationship, didn't believe Mal would fire him. Well, surprise. I don't think Battle is personally invested in Grant...
 
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bamacpa

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The thing I guess I fear now is who will transfer this off season ? We've had them every year lately.
 
Matt0424

Matt0424

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bamacpa said:
The thing I guess I fear now is who will transfer this off season ? We've had them every year lately.
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Only Taylor or Hale would be guys that possibly would transfer.

Releford is a Sr

Cooper, Randolph, Engstrom, Jacobs, and Key will all be SR next year, so to transfer (unless they have graduated) they would have to sit out a year...so unless one of them looks like a draft pick (which I doubt), they would all return

Tarrant and Kessens are just coming in, so I doubt they would want to waste ANOTHER year sitting out to have one yr of eligibility left (as both will be RS Jr at the beginning of next season)...

Taylor and Hale possibly could (as said), and we may lose recruits...but seeing how bad things look now, that might be a possibility anyway
 
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bamacpa

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Hale and Taylor would be big losses. It will take a few years to rebuild this program.
 
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Rama Jama

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TIDE-HSV said:
I would not be surprised at all to hear, at the end of the season, that Battle had called in Grant and given him the "Shula choice" - modify staff, in this case acquire a decent offensive coach, or else. Since I think Grant's just as stubborn as Shula and I don't believe he'll release his choke hold on the offense, I think the result would be about the same. In Shula's case, I believe that, given their long relationship, Mal would fire him. Well, surprise. I don't think Battle is personally invested in Grant...
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I've had the same thought about Battle making him retaining his job contingent upon changing his offensive philosophy and making coaching changes. I could easily see Grant not accepting an ultimatum and walking away. Again, I think Grant is a good man,better than most as far as coaches go, but at this point I just don't see the marraige of coach and school as a happy one. It have never felt like he bought in completely to Alabama basketball and he has never really shown himself to be particularly attached to the school or fans either. He has blown off the media after games on more than one occasion and has missed "Hey coach" more times than I can count.
 
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CrimsonProf

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Rama Jama said:
I've had the same thought about Battle making him retaining his job contingent upon changing his offensive philosophy and making coaching changes. I could easily see Grant not accepting an ultimatum and walking away. Again, I think Grant is a good man,better than most as far as coaches go, but at this point I just don't see the marraige of coach and school as a happy one. It have never felt like he bought in completely to Alabama basketball and he has never really shown himself to be particularly attached to the school or fans either. He has blown off the media after games on more than one occasion and has missed "Hey coach" more times than I can count.
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I did not realize that - it's inexcusable.
 
Ldlane

Ldlane

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