re: Alabama Basketball 2012-13 Season Thread

I honestly don't see them ever amounting to much under Anderson. Their fans are convinced he will lead them back to national relevance because he is a Richardson guy, but that way of running a program just doesn't work anymore. They play the same way no matter what the other team throws at them. All their players know how to do is play within that specific system, and that kind of basketball just doesn't work the way it did 20-30 years ago.

Kind of hard to develop a full roster when the players he were getting early on would transfer.

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That's on him...

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I don't get what is so difficult about accepting that roster management problems are 100% on the shoulders of the coach. Saban certainly doesn't have any problems with it. I realize that the basketball dynamic is a lot different, but it still doesn't excuse a consistent failure to successfully recruit enough quality players. Last year we had 12 scholarship players, and Grant knew we would lose one of them at an absolute minimum. Yet he never seriously went after anyone but Pollard. Had Stansbury not been fired, we literally would not have had a recruiting class last year.

This year, we have 10 scholarship players. We lose 1, and currently have 2 signed. Barring a late signing, we will have 11 next year. If we manage to get 1 more in the late period, we will have 12 next year. Then we lose Releford and Moussa, assuming Carl obtained a medical RS. That brings us back down to 9 or 10 assuming no one is kicked off the team/transfers. So we can sign at the very minimum, 3 or 4 guys in the 2014 class. Currently, we have 0 2014 commits.

You cant compare him to Saban at all but we are kind of young at safety this year and didnt recruit and he went after more than Pollard last year. Gavin Ware, Marcus Hunt, Devon Walker, and Willie Cauley we just couldnt close the deal with them. Look how long it took Creen to get INDIANA to where they are at. A basketball school with lots of tradition. Guys line up to go there. We havent won shite before Grant so I dont think we should be soo demanding about it. Hell who knew Jason Carter and Kendall Durant would transfer. Who knew Tony Mitchell was a head case. He has had 3 full recruiting cycles and people are blaming him for our roster not being full SMH. Big man dont grow on trees. Tell me who else in the SEC has big man worth a damn. FLA and Kentucky. Who else. I think Grant has done pretty damn good but I do want to see some improvement next year.

I agree with you and honestly if the big Swede was healthy I think shite wouldve been a lot different. Look im no 100% Grant supporter because he does a lot of shite I dont understand but he isnt the blame for everything.

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Look how long it took Creen to get INDIANA to where they are at. A basketball school with lots of tradition. Guys line up to go there. We havent won shite before Grant so I dont think we should be soo demanding about it.

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Indiana basically self imposed a recruiting ban for a couple of years to avoid the NCAA hammer after the Kelvin Sampson fiasco. On top of that, they lost pretty much all of their good players that offseason either from graduation, draft entry, dismissal, or transfer. IIRC, Crean started out with something like 4 guys on the roster once the dust settled. He was essentially building a program from scratch. The situation Grant inherited from Gottfried, as bad as it was, isn't even in the same zip code as the situation Crean inherited from Sampson. That program was destroyed. Once they were finally able to recruit as aggressively as everyone else, they started getting high quality players pretty much right off the bat.

ETA:

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Tell me who else in the SEC has big man worth a damn. FLA and Kentucky. Who else.

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Oriakhi, Bowers, Stokes, JOB, Buckner, Ray Turner, Powell, and Holloway. Then you have Maymon who was hurt. None of those guys play for UF or UK. Each one of them would have started every game for us this season.

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Powell and Holloway are nobodies big man honestly.

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Either player puts Bama in touney this year. Holloway would have been an absolute difference maker for Bama, 10RPG and 15PPG and good post defense.

Bama's two leading rebounders were two skinny guards at 4RPG each.

I agree with everything you've said, bro Namath.

So yea Creen inherited a player thats better than anyone we have on our roster right now.

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So yea Creen inherited a player thats better than anyone we have on our roster right now.

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No, he didn't. He recruited him, got his commitment, and signed him to a LOI. Watford was a freshman in Crean's 2nd year at Indiana. I don't even know why I am arguing this point with you. It doesn't even deserve a response it's so stupid. Indiana made dumpster fires look like Final Four teams in 2008.

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There fricking 6'6 and 6'7 but ok.

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So? Both of them are forwards, and both of them would have been our leading rebounders this season. Stokes is 6'7" too, so why does he count but Holloway and Powell don't? Plenty of guys have been very good post players despite not being 6'10". Chuck Hayes was a beast at Kentucky and he was only 6'6". DeJuan Blair is 6'7" and he doesn't even have any ACLs. Charles Barkley, one of the greatest basketball players in the history of the sport, was a fricking 6'5" power forward and averaged over 11 rebounds for his career in the NBA.