Poll: The Future of Alabama Basketball

[Bama Reb]

I could be wrong but I thought that the basketball program was around break-even to small profit every year?

I went back and checked,, and you are correct. Football and Basketball are the only two programs at UA that are actually profitable. My first post regarding them being "as profitable as was UAB football" was totally incorrect.

 

[Rama Jama]

Softball and Gymnastics should be at least close to profitability. I know they are not making a profit but they come close to supporting themselves.

As far as Basketball we could be very profitable with a winning program, but we have to have someone who will promote the sport with the media,students and fans. Grant has done none of this. The closest he's come is the hoops on the Quad event at homecoming and I guarantee it wasn't his idea. We need to send emails to coach Battle and lobby for a change.

 

[RTR91]

Softball and Gymnastics should be at least close to profitability. I know they are not making a profit but they come close to supporting themselves.

As far as Basketball we could be very profitable with a winning program, but we have to have someone who will promote the sport with the media,students and fans. Grant has done none of this. The closest he's come is the hoops on the Quad event at homecoming and I guarantee it wasn't his idea. We need to send emails to coach Battle and lobby for a change.

I think softball and gymnastics lose money because of the travel expenses. Otherwise, they would both make money.

Plus, gymnastics won't make money with the price of admission.

 

[CajunCrimson]

Well, to me, if you are going to be 19-13 every year and maybe making the NIT each year.....then hire a coach for $200K/year and use Bama as a stepping stone for a better position.....I bet we still go 19-13 every year.....anyway......

I guess I'm ready for a change.....

 

[Rama Jama]

Well, to me, if you are going to be 19-13 every year and maybe making the NIT each year.....then hire a coach for $200K/year and use Bama as a stepping stone for a better position.....I bet we still go 19-13 every year.....anyway......

I guess I'm ready for a change.....

From a financial point of view you are right, but if we aspire to be the best at every sport at Alabama, then we need to make a splash with a good high visibility hire. We need a young Wimp. I wonder how his kids have done in the coaching ranks.

 

[Bama Reb]

From a financial point of view you are right, but if we aspire to be the best at every sport at Alabama, then we need to make a splash with a good high visibility hire. We need a young Wimp. I wonder how his kids have done in the coaching ranks.

I agree that we need a coach who is going to bring our basketball program to one of prominence and stature. Coaching at the University of Alabama, regardless of the sport, should never be considered a "stepping stone". Nor should we consider hiring a coach who would use it as one.

 

[bamafan_bdb]

I agree that we need a coach who is going to bring our basketball program to one of prominence and stature. Coaching at the University of Alabama, regardless of the sport, should never be considered a "stepping stone". Nor should we consider hiring a coach who would use it as one.

I would love to agree with this, but I just don't see this as reality at the University of Alabama. There are without question 20-30 more prestigious jobs in college basketball than Alabama (at least 2 in the SEC alone and we're a terrible conference of late). When you begin thinking through the better jobs, the list is fairly long. We can argue the reasons for that all day long, but that's reality. We aren't Duke or Kentucky, Kansas or Michigan State, Syracuse or Arizona. Those schools and 20 others just like them are more destination jobs. I'll take any coach who does a great job and works hard while he's here, regardless of career aspirations.

 

[RTR91]

I would love to agree with this, but I just don't see this as reality at the University of Alabama. There are without question 20-30 more prestigious jobs in college basketball than Alabama (at least 2 in the SEC alone and we're a terrible conference of late). When you begin thinking through the better jobs, the list is fairly long. We can argue the reasons for that all day long, but that's reality. We aren't Duke or Kentucky, Kansas or Michigan State, Syracuse or Arizona. Those schools and 20 others just like them are more destination jobs. I'll take any coach who does a great job and works hard while he's here, regardless of career aspirations.

You're right about the more prestigious jobs, but Bama pays one of the better salaries in college basketball. That should matter to some coaches. We're paying CAG more than over 40 tournament coaches. How can that not get coaches' attention?

 

[ALA2262]

Something Has To Change

January 28, 2015

Cecil Hurt
TideSports.com Columnist

No one wants to write the same column repeatedly, even if the columnist feels like he is watching the same basketball game over and over for three years with only the most subtle variations.

But there is a great deal of consternation with the University of Alabama men's basketball team these days, and it isn't going away. Boiled down to the bare essentials, there are two fundamental reasons for all the grumbling - and it is loud grumbling about Anthony Grant's job.

First, the UA team has not, with one exception in five-plus years, made it into the NCAA Tournament field. Fans want to be a part of March Madness.

Second, Grant is either adamant or stubborn - you choose the adjective - in his belief that Alabama's best chance to win games is to play a slow tempo, keep the game close, then try to win at the end.

https://alabama.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1730741

 

[Athens-LA-Tide]

Thanks for posting Cecil!!! Can't think of a time I disagreed with him altho I'm sure it's happened. When he is talking this kinda stuff, people with suits on are listening too.....I'm so confused about our Bball program right about now....Roll Tide!

 

[RTR91]

Grant said today Ricky is out indefinitely with a lower leg injury. Just what the team needed.

 

[BamaMike05]

This is a really bad Mizzou team we are about to play. If we do not win I think it's time to make a change during the season. Me being a coach I am usually never in favor of that, but I think in this case it would need to be done.


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[day-day]

Grant said today Ricky is out indefinitely with a lower leg injury. Just what the team needed.

Just when I thought Bama may go through the season without an injury for once. Do all (any) teams get hit as hard as Bama with key injuries?

 

[beatthemtigers]

Grant said today Ricky is out indefinitely with a lower leg injury. Just what the team needed.

How'd we look without him last game? I didn't get to see it. Retin seems to be getting healthy at least right?

 

[RTR91]

Here's the exert about the basketball program in this week's Battle Plan.

Yesterday (Wednesday) was a very good day for Crimson Tide Athletics. Another successful day of football recruiting was topped off with a double-digit SEC victory by our MEN’S BASKETBALL team over Missouri (recap here). Now the Tide begins a stretch of three of the next four games on the road, beginning with a game at LSU on Saturday at 5 p.m. CT on ESPN2.

As of Thursday evening (Feb. 5), Alabama had an RPI of no. 41 in the nation according to KenPom.com. The Tide was one of nine teams in the Southeastern Conference to boast a top 50 RPI according to the website, which leads all conferences. The Tide outrebounded No. 1 Kentucky, 26-21, last Saturday in a losing effort (recap here). It was only the fourth time this season Kentucky has been beaten on the boards. We shot 45.9 percent against the Wildcats, the second-highest shooting percentage allowed by Kentucky this season.

In SEC games, Alabama leads the league in field goal percentage (.447) and three-point field goal percentage defense (.278), ranks second in scoring defense (59.9) and fourth in field goal percentage defense (.403). Four of our last seven games have been decided by two points each (68-66 loss at South Carolina, 93-91 loss at Arkansas, 57-55 win over Auburn and 52-50 loss to Florida). Of our eight defeats this season, four have come by a single possession. Heading into the LSU game, Alabama had dropped five of its nine SEC contests, three of them by two points each. In fact, the only team to have beaten Alabama by more than a basket in league play was Kentucky (twice).

The SEC is a tightly-contested conference, and one interesting stat bears this out: of the 62 SEC games played this year through Feb. 4, 24 had been decided by five points or less. There are nine SEC games left and the race for bids to the NCAA Tournament is still wide open. Let’s get behind this team and coaching staff, and give them the support they deserve.

Thoughts?

 

[TitleWave]

Thoughts?

To mix metaphors with Bill Battle's one and only head coaching stop, No fruit pumps liquid sunshine like a Big Orange spin-gineer. Otherwise, to me, it's true but almost unrelated statistical pig swill for preserving Grant's job.

 

[pchil86]

Here's an article I found regarding coach grant:

"Anthony Grant is a class guy, by all accounts. He's even-tempered, focused and hard-working. His players are the same, it seems, and they're good citizens, too.

Grant also looks much better in a suit that just about any basketball coach alive.

He just can't seem to win basketball games. At least not enough to satisfy those fans spoiled by Nick Saban's success.

In truth, the Saban Effect has little affect on the expectations for Alabama basketball. Yes, Crimson Tide football fans expect to win (not just compete for) a national title every year.

Crimson Tide basketball fans just want to be ... in the game. They want to be competitive and respectable. They want qualifying for the NCAA tournament to be a no-brianer.

Especially when about a half-a-bazillion teams qualify for the NCAAs.

Especially when the SEC is so pitiable that if undefeated and indomitable Kentucky were not atop the heap, it would be the Moon Belt Big Least Conference.

Especially when, well, it's been six seasons since the Billy Donovan protege and so-called rising star was hired to revive the Tide. He's gone a respectable 113-79 (14-8 this season) but qualified for the NCAAs only once.

That's not...in the game.

Anthony Grant is a class guy, by anyone's account. But respectable doesn't quite cut in Tuscaloosa, so with less than a month before the madness begins and Alabama -- a/k/a/ the late-game, heartbreak kids languishing in ninth-place in the woeful SEC -- it seems AG is on a NCAAs-or-bust trajectory, fair or not.

But here's the deal: If Grant is fired, who replaces him?

There's no magic-bullet coach out there waiting for Bama to call. There's not even a magic Bruce (Pearl), a former head coach with a proven record of winning who would meet all the other needs and qualifications necessary for Alabama to be revived without rebuilding.

Oh, there's Ben Howland, who led UCLA to the NCAAs seven times in 10 seasons and reached the Final Four twice, but hasn't worked since being fired in 2013 as the Bruins second winningest coach ever, behind John Wooden.

VCU's Shaka Smart will always come up in any conversation about a "hot" young coach. But the 37-year-old has turned down so many jobs since reaching the Final Four in 2011 I'm not sure it's worth the telephone call any more.

What kind of coach does Alabama need? Well, after hiring the rising star, I'd venture it's time to seek the proven star, someone who's been there and won that, maybe not an NCAA title but at least who's proven able to win games early in the season, within the conference and, most vitally, in the NCAAs.

Someone for whom qualifying for the NCAAs becomes a no-brainer. Quickly.

One name that would be at the top of my list is Fred Hoiberg. Right now, Tide fans are probably apoplectic. Fred who?

Hoiberg is a former 15-year NBA veteran who happens to be one of the so-called hottest coaches in America. He's in his fourth season at Iowa State -- lordy, those Tide fans just went into a second shock -- where he's stirred a somnambulant program and has the Cyclones poised to reach the NCAAs for the third straight season, this time as potentially a top-10 team.

One caveat: If he leaves Ames for another college job his buyout is $2 million (versus $500,000, if he leaves for an NBA gig). But is $2 mill really disincentive for a team in dire straits?

I'm sure there are other great candidates out there; I do not profess to know them all."

 

[cglaze4411]

I would love to have Fred Hoiberg, but I think it would be a hard sell to lure him from ISU.


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[RTR91]

One name that would be at the top of my list is Fred Hoiberg. Right now, Tide fans are probably apoplectic. Fred who?

Hoiberg is a former 15-year NBA veteran who happens to be one of the so-called hottest coaches in America. He's in his fourth season at Iowa State -- lordy, those Tide fans just went into a second shock -- where he's stirred a somnambulant program and has the Cyclones poised to reach the NCAAs for the third straight season, this time as potentially a top-10 team.

One caveat: If he leaves Ames for another college job his buyout is $2 million (versus $500,000, if he leaves for an NBA gig). But is $2 mill really disincentive for a team in dire straits?

I'm sure there are other great candidates out there; I do not profess to know them all."

Hoiberg is pretty much impossible because he grew up in Ames and played at Iowa State for 4 years.

 

[bama2112]

I really didnt know we had a BB thread on this board. I am not being ugly. We wouldnt let a football coach last this long with such a record in the SEC.