re: UA Basketball (16-15, 8-10)

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Third, and this is critical: Alabama, and this goes beyond Oats, needs to recognize that it is teetering on the brink of an Ole Miss-like level of basketball relevance and are doing so in a worse facility than Ole Miss has. Yes, there are financial realities that will keep Coleman Coliseum from a well-earned destruction. Yes, there are “plans.” But it’s time for concrete plans about when the concrete will be poured.

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Everyone can see what’s happening. It’s sad for those of us that care

I want to take just a minute to respond to someone who questioned whether or not Madonna Thompson is qualified to take the reigns of the Alabama women's program. Rick Moody, the winningest coach in either men's or women's basketball at Alabama and the only coach to take a Tide team to a Final Four, had zero experience as a head coach at the college level. He was a former successful high school coach who spent a few years as a grad assistant then assistant coach at Alabama. He then was the head coach of Guntersville High School before getting the call to lead the Tide. It is my humble opinion that someone who has coached at the Junior College level for 22 year, has an 82% winning percentage, 20 consecutive 20 win seasons, won 13 of the last 16 conference titles, and went 29-2 this year (one of the 2 losses is to Gulf Coast State College here in Panama City, also conference winners and invited to Dance) is more than qualified to take the reigns if a former boys high school coach could do it. She was also a member of that Final Four team under Moody. She's a winner, plain and simple. I'd love to see if she could take us to the next level.

Do ya'll think that Saban demands that so much money is put into the football program that we don't have enough left to renovate Coleman?

When we do raise more money who is to say that there's not all of the sudden something football related we end up spending it on.

Not that Saban doesn't deserve to us to give him everything he wants to keep him, if we didn't there are a ton of other places out there that for sure would.

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Reese, Galin and Davis are all around 6'9 245.

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...and can't jump over the top of their Nikes.

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Cecil has had enough lol

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For sure. Love to see Cecil do this. Usually when he turns or writes an article like this, something happens. Hopefully the result of this is that we get some firm ETA on when this renovation will start.

But Saban is the answer. Saban himself said 5 or 6 years ago that he’d like to take kids on an official visit to a basketball game if it were the right atmosphere. He was implying it wasn’t. Hard to argue but now enter Nate Oats. Oats is a huge Saban fan and has a similar style. Nate needs to use his access to Saban to recruit Saban over to his side. If he can get CNS to support him and to say that Nate should get what he needs, there’s no way in hell the FOGs and good ole boys would say no.

In 1968 Coach Bryant was both the football coach and the AD and wanted to turn around the struggling basketball program at Alabama. He called Adolph Rupp whom he knew from his days at Kentucky and asked Rupp who he should hire as coach. Rupp suggested a former player who played on one of Rupp’s national championship teams, CM Newton. Newton had been the basketball coach for Transylvania University for 12 years before he accepted Bryant’s offer. In 1969, Newton went to Bryant and convinced him he needed to recruit black players to be successful on the court. Bryant agreed and Newton recruited Wendell Hudson as the first black athlete at the University of Alabama. He would have never been able to do that without Bryant’s support. But Bryant used that to his advantage to open the door for black football players as well. I tell this story to show how football and basketball should and have had a symbiotic relationship at Alabama, not an adversarial one.

Agreed. Javian has the athleticism and 3 more years of eligibility. He’s shown enough flashes and potential to be an Oats big, that it’d be foolish to lose him.

I’d guess Hawkins definitely gone. Smith worked hard, but will be shown the door due to the system not suiting him. Reese is a tough call. He’s perfect for the system and battling an injury. I’d like him to stay.

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Reese is a tough call. He’s perfect for the system and battling an injury. I’d like him to stay.

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Agree on Reese, but the in-game comments by Oats and later allusions to his lack of effort makes me think it's more of a mental deal with him. If he was out there gutting it out with an injury, Oats would probably be more forgiving. When you watch him run back up the court slapping himself in the head for a mistake, you can tell something just isn't right.

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First Team All-SEC honors:

Kira Lewis Jr., Alabama
Mason Jones, Arkansas
Samir Doughty, Auburn
Keyontae Johnson, Florida
Immanuel Quickley, Kentucky
Nick Richards, Kentucky
Skylar Mays, LSU
Breein Tyree, Ole Miss
Reggie Perry, Mississippi State

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Second Team All-SEC honors:

John Petty Jr., Alabama
Isaac Okoro, Auburn
Kerry Blackshear Jr., Florida
Anthony Edwards, Georgia
Tyrese Maxey, Kentucky
Maik Kotsar, South Carolina
John Fulkerson, Tennessee
Saben Lee, Vanderbilt

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POTY: Immanuel Quickley
COTY: John Calipari
Freshman: Anthony Edwards
Defensive Player: Yves Pons
Sixth Man: Tyson Carter
Scholar-Athlete: Skylar Mays

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Shack should have made at least 2nd team All-SEC