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Have we gotten what we paid for?
Posted on 3/27/13 at 12:01 am
Posted on 3/27/13 at 12:01 am
I posted this elsewhere, but it should go here as well for discussion.
In 4 years at the Capstone, Anthony Grant has made nearly 8 million dollars. In that time frame, he has guided us to an NCAA 1st round appearance, a NIT finals loss, and a NIT quarterfinal loss. In the SEC, he has finished 1st and 4th in the West, and 5th and tied for 2nd when the SEC dropped divisions. After 4 years, Grant is still lacking a signature win. He beat UK two years ago which at the time seemed to be a great win, but UK went on to be awful away from Rupp. This year, we had another good win against UK but they were not a tournament team. Grant has yet to beat his mentor and Billy Donovan. Another hurdle for Grant has been winning in the nonconference slate. In year 2, a terrible November ruined our chances of making the big dance. This year, a terrible December ruined our chances of a NCAA berth. Does Grant lose focus early on in the season, are our players careless before SEC play, a mixture of both? Another troubling issue is our offense. We have very good guards on our team, yet we have no movement on offense. As Dykes noted multiple times tonight, we constantly make lazy passes...and that's when we actually pass the ball. Normally we dribble around the top of the key for 28 seconds and then hope for the best. There's simply no excuse for our offense to be this putrid this far into Grant's tenure here. That brings me to thinking a staff change is needed. Whether that be Brannen, Pujol, or Hipsher, I don't know. But Grant needs a new infusion of ideas and energy into his offensive strategy and demeanor in general. On to recruiting: our recruiting has been frustrating to say the least. We seem to be the bridesmaid but never the bride. We recruit top talent and we make their top 5, but we rarely close the deal. In my opinion, Grant's recruiting strategy needs to be adjusted. We need to stop recruiting these kids all around the country. Our staff needs to focus on Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. If we can get prospects from this region, we can be a top 25 program every year. We aren't a big enough brand to go into Virginia or New York or California and take one of their top players with consistency. That's not a smart way to build a program. You'll strike out more often than not and not fill your allotment of scholarships. That happened this year and it cost us dearly. Coming into the year with 3 post players was a poor decision. I don't want this to turn into a roster management thread because you don't have to use all 13 scholarships, but you do have to have depth for every position. We didn't have depth in the post, so when Carl's injury occurred, we were screwed. On a positive note, our defense has been fantastic every year. We rarely give up easy baskets, and the opponent has to normally work for every point they get. Grant gets the team to play hard most every night and that's always nice to see. After all this rambling I pose the question again, have we gotten what we paid for?
In 4 years at the Capstone, Anthony Grant has made nearly 8 million dollars. In that time frame, he has guided us to an NCAA 1st round appearance, a NIT finals loss, and a NIT quarterfinal loss. In the SEC, he has finished 1st and 4th in the West, and 5th and tied for 2nd when the SEC dropped divisions. After 4 years, Grant is still lacking a signature win. He beat UK two years ago which at the time seemed to be a great win, but UK went on to be awful away from Rupp. This year, we had another good win against UK but they were not a tournament team. Grant has yet to beat his mentor and Billy Donovan. Another hurdle for Grant has been winning in the nonconference slate. In year 2, a terrible November ruined our chances of making the big dance. This year, a terrible December ruined our chances of a NCAA berth. Does Grant lose focus early on in the season, are our players careless before SEC play, a mixture of both? Another troubling issue is our offense. We have very good guards on our team, yet we have no movement on offense. As Dykes noted multiple times tonight, we constantly make lazy passes...and that's when we actually pass the ball. Normally we dribble around the top of the key for 28 seconds and then hope for the best. There's simply no excuse for our offense to be this putrid this far into Grant's tenure here. That brings me to thinking a staff change is needed. Whether that be Brannen, Pujol, or Hipsher, I don't know. But Grant needs a new infusion of ideas and energy into his offensive strategy and demeanor in general. On to recruiting: our recruiting has been frustrating to say the least. We seem to be the bridesmaid but never the bride. We recruit top talent and we make their top 5, but we rarely close the deal. In my opinion, Grant's recruiting strategy needs to be adjusted. We need to stop recruiting these kids all around the country. Our staff needs to focus on Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. If we can get prospects from this region, we can be a top 25 program every year. We aren't a big enough brand to go into Virginia or New York or California and take one of their top players with consistency. That's not a smart way to build a program. You'll strike out more often than not and not fill your allotment of scholarships. That happened this year and it cost us dearly. Coming into the year with 3 post players was a poor decision. I don't want this to turn into a roster management thread because you don't have to use all 13 scholarships, but you do have to have depth for every position. We didn't have depth in the post, so when Carl's injury occurred, we were screwed. On a positive note, our defense has been fantastic every year. We rarely give up easy baskets, and the opponent has to normally work for every point they get. Grant gets the team to play hard most every night and that's always nice to see. After all this rambling I pose the question again, have we gotten what we paid for?
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Posted on 3/27/13 at 12:33 am to Bryant91092
quote:
Does Grant lose focus early on in the season, are our players careless before SEC play, a mixture of both?
Neither. During his time in Tuscaloosa our OOC schedule has been tougher than our SEC schedule. I am only kind of joking about that, sadly.
quote:
As Dykes noted multiple times tonight, we constantly make lazy passes...and that's when we actually pass the ball. Normally we dribble around the top of the key for 28 seconds and then hope for the best.
I actually think we pass too much. I pointed this out in the game thread and someone else elaborated upon it, but we basically pass the ball 8 or 9 times per halfcourt possession without any sense of purpose. A good offensive possession typically involves 3 or 4 crisp, purposeful passes that result in a quality shot.
quote:
That brings me to thinking a staff change is needed. Whether that be Brannen, Pujol, or Hipsher, I don't know. But Grant needs a new infusion of ideas and energy into his offensive strategy and demeanor in general.
It needs to be Pujol. I assume he is the one who teaches rebounding fundamentals, as he is in charge of the bigs. No one on our roster knows how to box out.
quote:
We need to stop recruiting these kids all around the country. Our staff needs to focus on Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida.
Couldn't agree more.
quote:
have we gotten what we paid for?
No. Grant is worth half of what he is paid based on our complete lack of postseason success and upset wins in the last 4 years.
This post was edited on 3/27/13 at 12:33 am
Posted on 3/27/13 at 12:33 am to Bryant91092
some paragraph breaks would be nice
Posted on 3/27/13 at 12:36 am to Lordofwrath88
quote:
some paragraph breaks would be nice
It's one continued thought. Really no shift in gear so no need for more than one paragraph. Contribute or get the frick out of my thread.
Posted on 3/27/13 at 12:38 am to Robot Santa
quote:
I actually think we pass too much. I pointed this out in the game thread and someone else elaborated upon it, but we basically pass the ball 8 or 9 times per halfcourt possession without any sense of purpose. A good offensive possession typically involves 3 or 4 crisp, purposeful passes that result in a quality shot.
I guess I should have said pass with a purpose and cut with a purpose. Most everything that's done offensively is in a lazy manner. We typically face zone, so if we whipped the pass around the perimeter, we'd find open shots. Instead of doing that though, we toss the ball back and forth between two guys or just sit there dribbling. That didn't work 4 years ago and it's not working now.
Posted on 3/27/13 at 12:53 am to Bryant91092
Yeah...most of our passes amount to "well, I've held onto the ball for a while, so I should probably give it to someone else now." For example, Retin will pass the ball to Cooper, who will immediately pass it back to Retin when both are behind the 3pt line and no more than ~8 feet apart. How the frick does anyone expect that to accomplish anything? What's the purpose? That doesn't force the D to do anything. They aren't having to rotate, they aren't having to shift, they aren't having to come off a screen. It's just stupid.
Posted on 3/27/13 at 4:27 am to Bryant91092
"The Great Wall of Text"
tl;dr
tl;dr
Posted on 3/27/13 at 6:25 am to Bryant91092
No we haven't. I know that most of our guys look over-rated compared to their ranking out of HS and that is poor coaching imo. Grant is an elite defensive coach but imo that's where it stops. Next year should be big for our program but I'm afraid that we'll be back to the NIT again. We aren't the only program that should be better.
Posted on 3/27/13 at 6:47 am to Bryant91092
Most of your points are on the mark. I especially agree with your "shop at home" philosophy regarding recruiting. Every year it seems like some elite 8 or final four team has a starter from the state that we should have shown more love. Plus Any recruit that has to fly by so many better established and higher ranked programs to get here needs to have his head examined or we have to wonder why?
Still disagree with you on the bigs. Our big men remind me of the football team that has co-QBs. That usually means you don't have any worth a damn. I'll just leave it as our bigs just aren't very good IMHO.
Still disagree with you on the bigs. Our big men remind me of the football team that has co-QBs. That usually means you don't have any worth a damn. I'll just leave it as our bigs just aren't very good IMHO.
Posted on 3/27/13 at 7:56 am to Bryant91092
I personally think he's done a tremendous job stabilizing and rebuilding the program from the depths Gottfried had left it in. When Gottfried left we were missing the NIT and didn't have anybody on the team who could even dribble. Next year will be the telling year for Grant. He's brought the program back and should have everybody plus the Swede returning. If he can't put together a solid season and win a game or two in the NCAAt at least, then we'll likely need to start looking in a new direction.
Posted on 3/27/13 at 8:28 am to bigpapamac
quote:
If he can't put together a solid season and win a game or two in the NCAAt at least, then we'll likely need to start looking in a new direction.
I agree. I'm hopeful that we can have a great season next year and then my faith will be restored in Grant.
Posted on 3/27/13 at 8:33 am to Bryant91092
No, we haven't gotten our money's worth. I really liked the CAG hire but thought we'd be much further along in year 4. A perennial bubble team just isn't good enough. We have a roster full of highly rated players that look like 2 stars on offense. The offense has been bad every single year and shows no sign of improvement. How do you not do some self-evaluation of the program and make changes when you have the same problem year after year?
Posted on 3/27/13 at 8:39 am to Bryant91092
quote:
After 4 years, Grant is still lacking a signature win. He beat UK two years ago which at the time seemed to be a great win, but UK went on to be awful away from Rupp. This year, we had another good win against UK but they were not a tournament team. Grant has yet to beat his mentor and Billy Donovan. Another hurdle for Grant has been winning in the nonconference slate. In year 2, a terrible November ruined our chances of making the big dance. This year, a terrible December ruined our chances of a NCAA berth. Does Grant lose focus early on in the season, are our players careless before SEC play, a mixture of both?
That's not entirely accurate. Bama has won consecutive early season tournaments, maybe not against elite competition, but against quality opponents and tournament teams.
Ive posted this before in other threads, but Grant's biggest failing thus far has been in eliminating the "front runner's" mentality from this team. You point to the early season slumps and they come after disappointing losses. Two years ago it was after losing on a last second shot to Georgetown, this year it was the same vs. Cincy. His teams have played at a high level when they are having success, but the minute the least bit of adversity hits they fall apart. It happens in-game as well, with the number of blown second half leads. You can see it happening every time.
The area where Grant probably doesn't get enough credit is that his team's do not give up on him. After the embarrassing loss to Auburn most teams would have folded, but over the course of these last 4 years there have been some unexplainable losses, but Grant gets his players to bounce back and keep fighting. It is time, though, to move toward not needing to bounce back.
Posted on 3/27/13 at 9:45 am to Bryant91092
quote:
I guess I should have said pass with a purpose and cut with a purpose. Most everything that's done offensively is in a lazy manner. We typically face zone, so if we whipped the pass around the perimeter, we'd find open shots. Instead of doing that though, we toss the ball back and forth between two guys or just sit there dribbling. That didn't work 4 years ago and it's not working now.
I completely agree with you. I watched Releford last night and he seemed frustrated when Bama was bringing the ball up the court because Pollard or whoever would keep passing the ball back to him, laterally, rather than moving the ball up the court.
I don't remember which game, maybe the USCe game, but, Bama whipped passes around and had good ball movement...and won. That was and is a rarity under Grant.
Posted on 3/27/13 at 10:36 am to Bryant91092
I am one of the people that think CAG is about the highest level B-ball coach Alabama is able to attract.
Posted on 3/27/13 at 11:55 am to sarc
quote:
A perennial bubble team just isn't good enough.
He's made us that though, we weren't even close to the bubble or being a "perennial bubble team" when he got the job. We hadn't even been on the NIT bubble. Now he's brought the program back, but next year he needs to make strides because there's a lot of disappointment that we went in the wrong direction slightly this year.
Posted on 3/27/13 at 12:16 pm to bigpapamac
quote:
He's made us that though, we weren't even close to the bubble or being a "perennial bubble team" when he got the job. We hadn't even been on the NIT bubble. Now he's brought the program back, but next year he needs to make strides because there's a lot of disappointment that we went in the wrong direction slightly this year.
I agree.
Posted on 3/27/13 at 12:23 pm to Silverback
Its like you really dont know if its the players or the coaches who should be the blame. We have open players on every play we run but they wont make the pass. I mean we dont really have the option to sub them because we dont have the numbers.
Posted on 3/27/13 at 12:27 pm to Tide or Die87
Everyone except Jacobs and sometimes Releford looks and plays timid on offense. That's what's been so encouraging about Levi and Retin in post-season play; both were playing aggresively. But that's been the exception.
Posted on 3/27/13 at 12:35 pm to sarc
The biggest problem with this team is Trevor Lacey besides the fact that offense we just run around for no reason. Dont know about you guys but I was taught to cut and be ready for the ball. Most of the time our guys arent even looking for the ball. OK back to Lacey. He was supposed to be our shooter/scorer which he hasnt been either. No way he should be playing. I just wish I knew what the hell are our coaches saying when they watch the game film. No way we all know more than they do but it seems as though they do some of the most ignorant things and let our guys get away with some bullshite.
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