re: 2017-18 Alabama Basketball Season Thread: 20-16 (10-11)

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If the tournament started tomorrow we’d be a seven seed with losses to the bottom three teams in the SEC.

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If the tournament started tomorrow we'd be a 9 seed in the NCAAT, our 2nd tournament appearance since 2006.

I can easily spin that as a positive.

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I don't think the sky is falling. But, I've grown more and more uneasy about the coaching on this team this year. We're a young, but that's not the only problem.

Some games I can't tell what we're even trying to do. Auburn had 7 small guys ready to play. We didn't get any of them into foul trouble and none of them got tired. I know AU likes to run, but nobody likes to run for 40 minutes with no rest. And why the actual fuuuuuck do we start Giddens every game? He's out there for the first two minutes and commits 3 turnovers and 2 fouls and is pulled, every time. Maybe Avery thinks he's putting David Robinson and Tim Duncan on the court, but he's not. It's Hall and Giddens. Not the same thing.

Frustrating team to follow.

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Amen Teague. Good stuff.

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I’m not melting because we lost. It’s because of HOW we lost and how we played.

Make the tourney and we good....

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Same here. The effort was crap.

better get ready for Sat.

Guys our offensive numbers actually werent that bad these last 2 games...we lost because of our D and GodAwful rebounding.Sometimes I wish Avery would be like Cal and say "If you dont rebound you are coming out"

Same here. I’m not melting because we lost. I’m melting because we got outhustled by a team with 7 players. I’m not melting because we’re going to make the tournament, I’m melting because thats all most of you seem to want.
So if we show up in the bracket then get our asses handed to us by Vermont, you’re ok with that? I would be too if that’s all we’re capable of but we’ve seen we’re better than that when we want to be.
I’m frustrated by the fact that we’re not getting our money’s worth from Avery. And after last year I didn’t think I would have to say that but I do. He has no respect or control over this team. It’s sad when your freshman PG calls out his teammates and nobody else including coach says shite. I don’t want to hear the young excuse anymore. It doesn’t wash anymore.
We put freshmen in every critical position on the field in Atlanta at a pivotal moment and they performed well and did their job and won a natty. Why? Because they were prepared, coached up to do it. There’s no other difference. They were coached and taught what their job was and how to do it and they did it in the most pressure packed environment you can imagine. The basketball team can’t even win a road game.
I look around the league and I’m frustrated to see teams with less talent playing better together as a team and gelling better than us. It’s not about the wins and losses, it’s about the effort we give every night on the court. It’s about the coaching and leadership we are NOT getting. Will Wade, Ben Howland, and Cuonzo Martin are all doing more with a lot less talent than Avery and it pains me to say that because I think Martin sucks. But he’s getting effort and he’s doing it without his lottery pick.
We are going to make the tournament barring an epic collapse. What we do there is anyone’s guess. And yes, in many ways, that is a successful season considering where we’ve come from. But we’ve seen this team bitch slap Auburn and Oklahoma and Florida in Gainesville and go toe to toe with Zona. But we’ve also seen them shut it down against UGA and Auburn and Texas and lose to a bad UCF team. And some of that is indeed, due to youth. You can say that in Nov and Dec. But quitting on your teammates and on your school and your coach and yourself is not acceptable at any time and it certainly doesn’t wash as youth in late Feb.
I’ve seen some very disturbing trends this year that all point to weakness on the sidelines and it worries me because Avery IS looking like Bill Curry: just good enough to win the games we shouldn’t, lose the games we shouldn’t but just good enough to be right on the bubble all the time. So the sunshine pumpers will howl if you talk of change. They did so with Curry and they did so with Shula. How could we fire a coach that wins 10 games?? It’s easy when you consider how they win and lose and that maybe they win 10 games in spite of the coaching, not because of the coaching. That’s where I think we are. We’re going to make the tournament because of Collin Sexton and in spite of Avery Johnson. So when Collin leaves, where will we be? I think it’s winning 17-18 games a year and going .500 in the league on talent and hoping for a bid in spite of Avery not because of him.
We’ll know next season if I am right or dead wrong. It’ll show which it is very obviously. Until then I’m going to pull for this team to find themselves and roll into the tournament and make some noise.

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Guys our offensive numbers actually werent that bad these last 2 games

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Maybe, but those don't always tell the whole story. I thought we mostly played well enough to beat Kentucky. The one area we didn't is what cost us - keeping them off the offensive glass.

Our effort last night was just pathetic, despite what our offensive numbers show. We had a good stretch the last 10 or so minutes of the first half after getting down big, but lots of lethargic movement on offense, poor defensive help, another game of not keeping them off the offensive glass, sloppy ball handling, blah, blah, blah. And I don't think I've ever seen a game of ours where our guy got stripped in the lane as many times as we did last night.

Some of you guys need to calm the frick down. We lost to a rival on the road and their place was a damn mad house last night at points. No, we didn't hustle and rebound and it has hurt us the last two games. It isn't the end of the season. If we win out you all will hope back on the bandwagon quickly. There was nothing we could do to stop the energy that they had last night, they wanted it more.

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I posted that before the game. It’s amazing how predictable our coaching is

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To be fair, Auburn ran a zone that they've only run something like 7% of the season. The entire point of it is to nullify those 2 things.

However, the frustrating thing is we didn't seem to have a plan to counteract it, as if it wasn't predictable given their situation. Pass to the FT line extended to Key/Ingram/Herb and then let them drive and/or dish was there the entire night. A quick entry pass to the FT line, force them to collapse and either kick to the corner or immediately hit a big crashing to the basket was there THE ENTIRE GAME. We just didn't do it, and didn't run things to make it easy.

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we’re 0-2 since I posted this smh

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We've played road games against #7 and #16 teams in the RPI.

Picking one of those off would have been great, but it's not exactly some sort of massive failure to be 0-2 in those games. The effort last night was shite, but losing there wasn't.

Maybe it would help to stop posting shite like that...Speaks it into existence. Negativity breeds negativity