re: PORTIS YES>>>>

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As for the "crappy team" to me... all of them that aren't Kentucky or Florida.

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Bama is a better team than Florida this year. Bama still has a shot at the NCAAs, Florida is looking more like a NIT hopeful after their non-con showing.

They took Wichita St. to the wire on their home court earlier this season just like they did us last night.

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As for recruiting, it is amazing what Alabama was able to do last night at BWA with a very young, and with 5 fouled out of the game. That depth I was jealous of. And that effort away from home should win them a bunch of games imho. No stats to back it up, just opinion, which I think I am still allowed to the chagrin of some.

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Bama lost the majority of those guys in the OT period, they didn't play extended minutes without them.

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As for next year... Whitt will be an awesome presence I think, in time.. We need another big, and hopefully beard will continue amazing improvement. Kingsly needs to continue to improve as well. I see a major step back next season, do you?

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No.

Babb, Beard, Whitt, Qualls, Durahm, Hannahs, Bell, and Watkins is why.

That is a very, very good roster of guards, should easily be the best roster of guards we have had in a long, long, time. MAs philosophy is guard oriented, this isn't a bad thing as teams who have success in the tourney have very good guard play.

Down low you will have Kingsely who has shown an improvement on the offensive end, but he is still out of position or "gets lost" on the defensive end at times like you would expect with a guy who is still learning to play.

Williams will be back, with more experience and he's been pretty solid for the team this year.

Miles should be over his knee injury, but he and Thompson will need to contribute next season.

The staff has been looking at some JUCO Forwards and well as HS forwards. They have to replace Harris regardless, so I would expect them to go the JUCO route for this, if Portis comes back for another year (depends on where he's projected in the draft, he seems to climb to the lottery in some then fall back to the late first in others, he could use another year of development to guarantee a lottery pick) they might go the HS route instead for a Forward, possible two JUCOs if he leaves.

The forward spots are of value, but not base of MA teams, its all about the guards. It isn't a physical style predicated on size and muscle via the post players or like Bert's football teams built around the big guys, its more like all the flashy teams centered around the skill players using schemes to put them in mismatches for success in football if you like analogies.

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and I cant remember the rest because I am old and tired.

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I've noticed that most people's complaints are based on eye tests and not based by any tangible evidence on these boards. "our offense sucks" for example, tangible data shows Arkansas to have one of the highest scoring offenses while being top 10 in effeciency according to Kenpom.