Can Bama turn around their season?

numbersman · January 23rd, 2007, 11:03 PM

I really don't know exactly what the problem is except lack of consistent, good, fundamental, win seeking, fun loving, and hard-nosed playing. Sometimes teams just aren't pushed as hard as they need to be. You have to make players accountable for their play. It doesn't appear that any of these things are taking place on our team this year. It is nearly unforgiveable to play so flat against your rival in the second half. And no significant and timely coaching intervention took place during the meltdown.

Whether it is injury - physical and emotional - or what, our team just doesn't seem to be able to outplay their opponents consistently. Maybe it is the fact that the league has gotten a lot better. Whatever the case, Godfrey and staff are being left behind by every SEC team they have played this season. They must find a way to fix it or we are destined for no better than a 13-16 seed and a one and done finish in the tourney at best.

My vote is that we will get our act together and at least play harder. Will the results be a 500 SEC record? I'd say that this is definitely in doubt.

RTR

rkwilkerson · January 23rd, 2007, 11:04 PM

This season feels very strange, like our guys have given up...

Steele's injury threw a monkey wrench into our team's confidence.

tiderollerfan · January 23rd, 2007, 11:11 PM

	Quote:	numbersman
	I really don't know exactly what the problem is except lack of consistent, good, fundamental, win seeking, fun loving, and hard-nosed playing. Sometimes teams just aren't pushed as hard as they need to be. You have to make players accountable for their play. It doesn't appear that any of these things are taking place on our team this year. It is nearly unforgiveable to play so flat against your rival in the second half. And no significant and timely coaching intervention took place during the meltdown. Whether it is injury - physical and emotional - or what, our team just doesn't seem to be able to outplay their opponents consistently. Maybe it is the fact that the league has gotten a lot better. Whatever the case, *Godfrey* and staff are being left behind by every SEC team they have played this season. They must find a way to fix it or we are destined for no better than a *13-16 seed* and a one and done finish in the tourney at best. My vote is that we will get our act together and at least play harder. Will the results be a 500 SEC record? I'd say that this is definitely in doubt. RTR

O.K. are you kidding me? He has been our coach for going on 9 YEARS, please for the love spell his name right.
Secondly, 13-16 seeds are reserved for conference champs from all the lower tier conferences. 13 seeds are usually the last 4 bubble teams in. We won't go that low.

rgw · January 24th, 2007, 12:21 AM

We should just let Steele take whatever corrective surgery (if any is needed) now. This team is probably not going anywhere unless something real special happens. Might as well get him on the road to recovery a few months earlier.

edit: As for seeding, if we finish around 8-8 we'll probably be a 5-8 seed. I don't see us falling below 8.

moorav · January 24th, 2007, 08:01 AM

March is when it matters - If we flop in March then yeah bad year but really March is when you BETTER win.

I think I over-rated the talent

JoeWilly12 · January 24th, 2007, 10:16 AM

	Quote:	moorav
	I think I over-rated the talent

i am with you there. although if we didn't have the off court stuff with jemareo and steele's injury we might be a different team. that being said, god teams will get through problems. instead we keep using that as a crutch. i am ready for someone to step up on this team. hendrix, riley, hollinger, or gee. gee started the season off hot but has a bad sec showing. if we want to win these players need to grow up and play some dang defense.

Bama Ben · January 24th, 2007, 10:29 AM

[QUOTE=moorav;532323 I think I over-rated the talent[/QUOTE]

Sadly, I don't think you over-rated the talent, I believe we have all over-rated the coaching. There is no energy in this team on the road and it seems at home as well (direct corellation to the coach); there is no commitment to defense (direct corellation to the coach); there is too much standing around on offense waiting for Steele to do something, which he can't do (direct corellation to coach and a problem from year 1 with Gottfried).

There is a tremendous amount of talent on this team. At least four starters will make it to the Show. There is talent on the bench. There is talent coming in next year.

The problem with Gottfried is not bringing in talent, but the offense that he runs and the lack of commitment to good, solid man-to-man defense. I like Gottfried as the face of UA basketball. He represents us well and has connections that pay off for us. However, he is not a good basketball coach. He is a good recruiter and P.R. man. In basketball, sometimes talent can overcome coaching. That happens many nights for UA. On the road, with the energy of the crowd amping up the competition, it generally cannot overcome coaching.

I don't know what the answer is with things the way they are right now. There has to be a commitment to defense in the SEC and we don't have that. There has to be movement on offense and we don't have that. There has to be energy from the players in giving great effort for 40 minutes and we don't have that. All of that has a direct corellation to coaching.

I hope I have been spelling corellation correctly

BocaLance · January 24th, 2007, 10:50 AM

	Quote:	rgw
	We should just let Steele take whatever corrective surgery (if any is needed) now. This team is probably not going anywhere unless something real special happens. Might as well get him on the road to recovery a few months earlier. edit: As for seeding, if we finish around 8-8 we'll probably be a 5-8 seed. I don't see us falling below 8.

If Bama finishes conference at 8-8 with a quick SEC Tourney exit, we might kiss the NCAA tourney goodbye with that creampuff OOC schedule. Oklahoma (11-7) and NC State (11-7) were impressive wins initially, but neither is really that good this year, then factor in the blowouts (that have happened thus far.) Seems like every year that Bama is hyped as a big-time player, they collapse.

BEATtutorsee · January 24th, 2007, 02:12 PM

I think this poll is missing a big part of the equation that you would have to factor in before you can realistically make one of the choices given. That being, will this team finally start playing defense and playing with some intensity. If the answer to those two points is yes than I firmly believe that this season will get turned around and we'll have a successful tourney run, if however it's more of the same I believe this team will be lucky to even make it to the NCAA tourney.

SoldierForTide · January 24th, 2007, 04:14 PM

If they were going to turn it around, they'd have used the UGA game as a turning point. Obviously, they didn't turn it around so I expect more road woes.

realitycheck · January 24th, 2007, 04:40 PM

It is difficult to not have high expectations of this team, since it is basicly the same team that lost by only 3 to the national runner-up last year. Only real difference being Riley in place of Felix and IMO Riley is better, except maybe on the defensive end. Felix made too many terrible decisions on the offensive end, which Riley doesn't seem to do. Theoretically this team also has more depth and more experience, but they really seem to just quit when they get 10 or more points behind on the road. Just don't know what that's about, probably one or more of the three Cs (Coachng, Character or Chemistry). Please NO Steele's hurt excuses, all teams have injuries throughout the year, they just work around them.

Tide-one-on · January 24th, 2007, 09:55 PM

How can we not have any "D" after CMG played for Wimp Sanderson and should know what it takes to win in the SEC.......

HendersonKYTide · January 25th, 2007, 11:30 AM

It may go beyond effort. We really don't have a defensive stopper on the outside. We really miss Felix in that role. He played so tall on the outside and when steele was healthy, it made it tough to shoot the 3 against us. With Steele being a step slower and Riley not being the def player Felix was, we are having a hard time adjusting. The SEC is better, look at Vandy with wins against us, then UK and LSU on the road. It should be an interesting season to say the least. I do however believe that the SEC teams that make it, should do pretty well in the tourny!!!