re: Alabama Basketball Recruiting and Offseason Talk

I wish we could better opponents for the Huntsville game because that's a defacto home game that we get to count as a neutral site game. Overall the schedule is strong though. I believe there are 7 tournament teams from a year ago that we could potentially play just OOC.

I always knew we'd play Southern under Avery.

I'm sure that there is probably some type of rule. Alabama is weird when it comes to those types of things.

Avery is watching Kira and Trendon

Predictions for where these opponents will fall in the quadrant system. Last year's RPI in parenthesis.

Quadrant 1 - 1 game
@Baylor (68) - Baylor does lose some pieces like Lecomte and Maston from their worst team since the 2010-2011 season, but Scott Drew has been too good for me to predict them to finish outside the top 75 of RPI. Baylor hasn't missed the tournament in consecutive seasons in over a decade.

Quadrant 2 - 6 to 8 games
vs Northeastern (55) - They could get into the top 50 of RPI to become Q1. Fairly young team a year ago with only 1 senior who only averaged 6 points per game. Star Serb Vasa Pusica (18 ppg) should be back.

vs Virginia Tech (61) - Justin BIbbs is too big of a loss for me to have Virginia Tech improving to become a Q1 opponent. They still should be an upper Q2 team.

vs Purdue (9) - Purdue loses a ton of talent and experience. They'll still be good given the caliber of program they've built, but with four starters departing, I think they drop into the 50-100 range of RPI this year.

vs Wichita State (16) - Wichita State loses their three leading scorers from a year ago. Like Purdue I expect a pretty significant drop off, but the program has been consistent enough that I would be very surprised if they fall outside the top 100.

vs Davidson (47) - Leading scorer Peyton Aldridge is gone, but a young and talented backcourt returning makes a Davidson a solid team again that could wind up back in Q1 range for a neutral site opponent.

Murray State (48) - Another team that loses their leading scorer. Murray State should stay in the top 75 of RPI, but they won't be nearly high enough to approach being a Q1 home game.

@UCF (84) - UCF returns a lot and have to just slightly improve to be a Q1 road game, but I don't see it. They were awful on offense a year ago, and I just don't like their roster much.

Arizona (13) - I see a big drop off from Arizona this year, but Archie Miller is too good of a coach, and their home court is too big of an advantage for them to drop out of the top 75 of RPI.

Penn State (77) - Leading scorer Tony Carr is gone, but Penn State has a solid veteran core, and I think will get into the top 75 of RPI this year off the back of a strong finish to last season.

@Stephen F. Austin (104) - 30 spots is too big a jump for me to predict S.F. Austin as a Q1 road opponent. They should be an upper Q2 opponent for sure, and maybe they can get into the top 75 of RPI to be Q1.

Quadrant 3 - 2 or 3 games
vs Ball State (126)
Georgia State (120)

vs Liberty (211) - Liberty returns a lot, so I'll go ahead and say they get into the top 200 of RPI to be a Q3 neutral site game.

Quadrant 4 - 2 or 3 games
Southern (315)

Appalachian State (250) - Q4 both at home and as a potential neutral site opponent if we bomb in Charleston

I don't know his specific situation, but Kira could always go to a basketball prep school like IMG or Oak Hill until Christmas like Austin Wiley did.

So Justin Coleman and Devin Mitchell get to play one more game in Tuscaloosa.

The only game I don't like is Southern, but that game was going to happen sooner or later.

I don’t think we’re even recruiting him much

CJ Walker will likely visit Bama LINK