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

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Its like a curse that we are consistently hamstrung on offense.

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I'm pretty stunned this year's team is this bad at offense. I'm not shocked that we have had a disappointing season overall, but I thought that'd be caused by guys failing more on the defensive end of the floor.

We've given 3 SEC bubble teams a Q1 win on our floor- Arkansas, Florida, and Mizzou. We also gave Kentucky a win to turn their season around and will do the same for A&M Saturday.

Call me crazy, but I don't think this year's offense is really that bad. Yes, it's been terrible the last 3 games, but that is mostly due to lack of effort. When it is executing and playing like it should, it's an ~80 point a game offense.

When it is bad though, it is bad. And I think that is Avery's biggest weakness, and it's his NBA mentality. He just keeps them doing the same thing hoping they'll shoot themselves out of their slump. Good college coaches tweak their defenses when the offense isn't executing. Good defense leads to turnovers, turnovers lead to easy baskets, easy baskets instill confidence.

Objectively, Avery should get 4 years. But, I just feel like I know what the 4th year will look like. I'm sure he'll be back, so I guess here's to hoping he proves me wrong.

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I'm pretty stunned this year's team is this bad at offense. I'm not shocked that we have had a disappointing season overall, but I thought that'd be caused by guys failing more on the defensive end of the floor.

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Everybody's talking all around the basic problem, but missing it.....WE HAVE NO SHOOTERS!! Teams have learned to pack the paint with a zone, keeping Sexton from driving and all but saying to us,"shoot it over us if you can". They know that Petty's the only possible shooter, so they pick him up when he curls around his screen and shut him down.
Hell, defensing Alabama has become a piece of cake. With a shot clock, if you can't shoot the ball, you can't win.

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He also competes for 40 minutes. I'd take the competitive spirit and edge of Collin Sexton 10 times out of 10. I'd sure as hell take it over sulking, mopey Ingram and Key.

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I won't argue that Sexton isn't a phenomenal talent. I also won't sit here and act like he didn't start 0-8 from the field last night before finishing 5-16. He shot 3-10 against Arkansas, 8-12 at Auburn despite us losing by 19 and 4-11 at Kentucky.

20-49 over our four game losing streak with 14 assists.


Look at the season stats and Collin has almost 100 more shots than the next closest guy, even though he's played 787 minutes compared to 857 minutes played for Petty and 834 for Ingram. I know it's popular to beat up on our shooters for not hitting open looks and that's fair and accurate, but I can also see how Collin taking shots and always getting his 15-20 points a night could be frustrating to others, especially an older guy like Ingram who has put in two years and had this team exactly where we are with Sexton being here.

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Its like a curse that we are consistently hamstrung on offense.

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Hell, just sound fundamentals hasn't been here since Wimp.

I can't remember the full tenure of Gottfried's days, but I imagine a team that couldn't play a lick of defense didn't do too well on the boards either. Grant's teams almost always gave up 2nd chance points, and his teams didn't nothing exceptional unless it was on defense. And now Avery, where we just are just bad at not boxing out, creating space when inbounding, turnovers, getting lost on switches, etc.. People will also point to the officials, but we regularly commit stupid fouls throughout the game (illegal screens, hacking a 3-point shot when the shot clock is down).

I understand the Q1 wins is a huge improvement, but dropping games to lesser opponents on a consistent basis isn't a youth thing when you're deep into conference play. Good to great coaches can motivate a team to play up to their team and not down the competition.

Once Avery's time is done, I'll respect him for getting us out of Grant's mess, but all he's really shown here on a national scale is that you can win and recruit here with the right coach. Along with that, we're willing to support it, as long as there's good direction with the program.

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What Avery has done is recruit egos equivalent to what you see at Kentucky or hell even Alabama’s football team, but Avery does not have the personality or leadership skills to keep those egos in check the way Calipari or Saban are able to.

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this is spot-on IMO.

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I can't remember the full tenure of Gottfried's days, but I imagine a team that couldn't play a lick of defense didn't do too well on the boards either.

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We always had bigs who could rebound under Gottfried. Richard Hendrix, Chuck Davis, Jemario Davidson, and JeMychal Green just to name a few. They could finish as well.