Would you be as patient with football? Would it be okay if they lost every other game as long as there is progress?
My whole issue with CAJ and Sexton/Petty is....that we seem to have sold our soul for a couple of divas who might take us to the promise land. I get the need for elite recruiting....I do. But to bring in two kids that have less than a 12 month commitment to the team is risky. And, thus far, the results are quite similar to the last few years...
As others have said, basketball is very different than football for several reasons.
1. Basketball teams have far fewer players, so one or two elite players can have a much larger impact.
2. The NBA will draft elite players based on "potential" (even as early as High School) if they think they are good enough, since there may only be a handful of truly elite players in a 5 year period.
3. The smaller number of players (fewer coaches and smaller facilities as well) on a given team means that many more universities can have a real shot at winding up in the Great 8 than in football. The top 4 or 5 programs are there very often, but 3-4 others among another 50 universities rotate in to the mix on any given year.
4. While Alabama has a history of having very good basketball under both CM and Wimp, we have never been seen as being one of the elite 4 or 5 universities for basketball and this makes it very hard to compete on the same basis.
There clearly are real dangers in putting too much emphasis on ANY single player, until they have proven themselves at this level, both in terms of skill and the maturity to play for the team as well as themselves, but CAJ must recruit the best available players, then try to get them to see the value in being team players, even if it is just for a year. At the same time, he must recruit other players who will stay for 2-4 years and provide a basis for continuity.
It is not yet completely clear how well Sexton and the rest of the players can play together as a team, but they still have time to show what they can do, starting with this Saturday. If Sexton and our team goes into Saturday focused on it being "Sexton versus Young", we are in trouble. If Sexton and the rest of the team commit to playing as a team to beat Oklahoma, we have a decent chance to beat them on our home court.
Along with everything else, I think it took CAJ a couple of years to adjust from NBA to college coaching. We need to give him a couple more years to see if he can find one of the magic combinations to make things good enough for a solid run in the NCAA tourney.
