Game Thread: OFFICIAL POSTGAME THREAD - Bama v. TAMU...

RTR91 · Feb 20, 2019

BamaMoon said:
I don't buy into the officiating is costing us games. I know some games are worse than others, but I think they are usually equally poor in officiating the games for both sides.

Cost? No. Affecting the play? It has at times. Not worth discussing right now, though.

Concerning the equal fouls but unequal free throw attemps, remember we fouled a three point shooter twice in the game and gave them 6 FT off two fouls. Lately, we seem to manage doing this at least once per game...another coaching detail that should be fixed.

Also, remember that near the end of the game, A&M wasn't even in the bonus. When they slow played the clock and we soft played them on defense before they hit that crucial three to seal it, we still had one or two fouls to give before they went to the line for the plus 1. Again, a coaching mistake when when should have fouled to get them to the bonus.

Just checked each foul. None of the FTs were of the and-one variety. All were shooting fouls.

Absolutely no excuse to not foul earlier in the possession at the end of the game. Was just bad.

CrimsonForce · Feb 20, 2019

No reason to even bring up the officiating the way we shoot free throws. It'd have taken 30 attempts for us to make enough enough of them to make a difference in the game.

Plus, it just doesn't make sense. In football there's a logic behind why we don't get nearly as many calls. We've been the most dominant team for a decade and bully other teams on the field. What would be the logic behind referees making a concerted effort to call a basketball game against Alabama? We're been an average team for a decade. There's just no logic behind thinking that the referees as a whole make a concerted effort to screw us over. Officiating in the college game is bad all around..

RTR91 · Feb 20, 2019

CrimsonForce said:
No reason to even bring up the officiating the way we shoot free throws. It'd have taken 30 attempts for us to make enough enough of them to make a difference in the game.

Plus, it just doesn't make sense. In football there's a logic behind why we don't get nearly as many calls. We've been the most dominant team for a decade and bully other teams on the field. What would be the logic behind referees making a concerted effort to call a basketball game against Alabama? We're been an average team for a decade. There's just no logic behind thinking that the referees as a whole make a concerted effort to screw us over. Officiating in the college game is bad all around..

Let me say it one more time - I'm. Not. Blaming. The. Loss. On. The. Officiating.

I was genuinely curious about the difference. Once I went back and looked at the plays, it made sense. Just a simple question about the difference, and people act like someone is blaming the game on the officiating. Read my other posts about it in this thread or the game thread, and you'll see I said numerous times this was on Avery.

B1GTide · Feb 20, 2019

Poor fundamentals cost you a few games. Poor effort cost you a few games. Last night was inexplicable. You are at least 20 points better than aTm, even on the road. Coming off 2 losses in a row, the players knew the importance of that game. Somehow they managed to look like the game was meaningless.

At some point you have to wonder how you can have an entire team full of players who look and play like they just don't care. Some of these guys are very talented. Even poor coaching doesn't produce a game like that. Inexplicable.

Enough games like that and recruiting will be impacted (if it hasn't been already).

I believe that Avery needs a "come to Jesus" meeting with the AD. I have not given up on him yet, but your AD has a role to play here, and he needs to exert some of his influence (IMO).

CrimsonForce · Feb 20, 2019

RTR91 said:
Let me say it one more time - I'm. Not. Blaming. The. Loss. On. The. Officiating.

I was genuinely curious about the difference. Once I went back and looked at the plays, it made sense. Just a simple question about the difference, and people act like someone is blaming the game on the officiating. Read my other posts about it in this thread or the game thread, and you'll see I said numerous times this was on Avery.

I know what you're saying but there's still a good number of people who bring up officiating after every loss and never mention it after a win. It's a tired narrative that somehow the officials are against Alabama basketball. Several losses this year were directly blamed on the officials. I'm sure no one cares but it's one of the reasons I stopped posting in game threads. They normally turn into "we're getting screwed by the refs" when that generally isn't the case at all. Yes, we get bad calls but so does the other team. The way we shoot free throws it really does us no good even when we get some calls..

BAMAVILLE · Feb 20, 2019

dayhiker said:
It seems that we have become like the Malzahn coached Auburn teams. We start so-so to bad, fans lose hope, January hits and we beat some teams we shouldn’t, optimism returns, then February hits and the wheels fall off.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Please ... say it isn't so ... :smile:

dayhiker · Feb 20, 2019

BAMAVILLE said:
Please ... say it isn't so ... :smile:

Reading the comments about our February record this morning is what made that come to mind.

TIDE-HSV · Feb 20, 2019

JDCrimson said:
We have not been able to rise above mediocrity in basketball since our last run in with the NCAA. I think there is a corelation that was confirmed for me with the Chuck Person investigation of what it takes to get elite basketball players to come to your school. It’s evident during last CMG and CAG years that those practices weren’t apart of our recruiting strategy based on the level of players we had. We tried to overcome these rightfully self-imposed limitations by hiring a name coach with a NBA pedigree that had some measure of success at that level to recruit at higher level with so far mixed results.

From day one, I was impressed with CAJ as a person and still like him. And I firmly believe we need a coach with an engaging personality to generate attention to the program when that attention is hard to come by.

But from day one I have always had this nagging question as to whether coaching ability at the NBA level translated down to college level. IMO, it does not. IMO, NBA coaches are superior psychologists whereas college coaches are superior at skill development and in game strategy. I believe that CAJ has a good eye for raw talent for an NBA player in the making as you would expect most NBA coaches to have. However, I do not believe he has the practice or discipline structure to get the best out of his players. He is our basketball version of Shula.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Actually, CMG was privately suspected of cutting some corners which could have endangered the football program. IDK for sure, but I've long thought that the open conflict between CMG and Saban may have revolved around some rules and regulations being imposed. As I say, it's just an interesting speculation. Maybe it wasn't just an ego clash...

BamaMoon · Feb 20, 2019

CrimsonForce said:
I know what you're saying but there's still a good number of people who bring up officiating after every loss and never mention it after a win. It's a tired narrative that somehow the officials are against Alabama basketball. Several losses this year were directly blamed on the officials. I'm sure no one cares but it's one of the reasons I stopped posting in game threads. They normally turn into "we're getting screwed by the refs" when that generally isn't the case at all. Yes, we get bad calls but so does the other team. The way we shoot free throws it really does us no good even when we get some calls..

I know '91 isn't blaming it on the officials either.

And I agree with your post and have said I think the officiating is equally bad and nobody is out to "get us" in basketball.

Last night was one of the first times I've participated in a live game thread largely for the reason you mentioned. I got tired of or hearing people complain about the officiating when the real truth is we were just playing bad basketball.

Since I didn't watch the UF game last Saturday, but had read about the terrible effort, I wanted to watch live and participate last night to see if Avery really meant he would try some different things.

For the record, it all looked just about like most of the other games this year. No passion from the team or Coach and NO ACCOUNTABILITY for making stupid TOs which has become the trademark of the team.

TIDE-HSV · Feb 20, 2019

I look at the team that played last night and remember the team which UT, undoubtedly one of a handful of the best teams in the nation, needed a buzzer-beater to defeat, and I just shake my head and try to figure out what happened to that team...

BamaMoon · Feb 20, 2019

TIDE-HSV said:
I look at the team that played last night and remember the team which UT, undoubtedly one of a handful of the best teams in the nation, needed a buzzer-beater to defeat, and I just shake my head and try to figure out what happened to that team...

Didn't Petty have a pretty big game against UT?

I know it's obvious, but anytime we don't have a guy get hot from 3 land, we are going to struggle.

Case in point last night, our lead in the first half was basically because Riley hit 3 three pointers. In the second half he didn't score and had one of the worse misses you'll see at this level. Seems like Mack hit one three pointer in the second hald and I don't remember another one.

There's lots wrong with this team, but on a very elementary level, we just don't do the most fundamental thing you have to do in basketball: put the ball in the hoop and in the modern game, that means at least being decent from 3 land.

RTR91 · Feb 20, 2019

B1GTide said:
Poor fundamentals cost you a few games. Poor effort cost you a few games. Last night was inexplicable. You are at least 20 points better than aTm, even on the road. Coming off 2 losses in a row, the players knew the importance of that game. Somehow they managed to look like the game was meaningless.

At some point you have to wonder how you can have an entire team full of players who look and play like they just don't care. Some of these guys are very talented. Even poor coaching doesn't produce a game like that. Inexplicable.

Enough games like that and recruiting will be impacted (if it hasn't been already).

I believe that Avery needs a "come to Jesus" meeting with the AD. I have not given up on him yet, but your AD has a role to play here, and he needs to exert some of his influence (IMO).

It all falls on the head coach in the end, but I believe you're right. There's something else at play, not just poor coaching.

At the end of January, Alabama was +5.65 in rebounding margin. After last night, it's +3.73. Alabama out rebounded A&M by 7 in the first game. Last night? Script was flipped, and A&M won +7.

The last three games have been -9, -8, and -7. The three worse rebounding games of the year.

Where did the team that went +11 against Vanderbilt go? Or +8 against Kentucky? Or +5 against Tennessee?

BamaMoon · Feb 20, 2019

RTR91 said:
It all falls on the head coach in the end, but I believe you're right. There's something else at play, not just poor coaching.

At the end of January, Alabama was +5.65 in rebounding margin. After last night, it's +3.73. Alabama out rebounded A&M by 7 in the first game. Last night? Script was flipped, and A&M won +7.

The last three games have been -9, -8, and -7. The three worse rebounding games of the year.

Where did the team that went +11 against Vanderbilt go? Or +8 against Kentucky? Or +5 against Tennessee?

Rebounding is about ONE thing: WANT TO - but that ultimately falls on the coach too. No accountability, or so it seems, is killing us.

BamaMoon · Feb 20, 2019

Has Cecil weighed in yet? After his scolding article the other day I'm curious how he follows that up?

BAMAVILLE · Feb 20, 2019

This team is truly an enigma to say the least. It seemed like we figured it out for a while during the time we had the stretch against UK and Tenn. After that, it seemed like we lost it. Not sure if Hall is injured or not but it seems like he's regressed in his initial level of play this season. I know he's not the reason why the team is losing but it seems like his energy helps drive the focus of the team.

The process of not relying on fundamentals is concerning. You can't dig your way out of a shooting slump by taking 3s as your only shot in a possession. They've been resorting to that trend the last couple of games instead of trying to attack the basket to set up a quality shot, and its been costing them dearly.

Seems like this team has regressed from consistent leadership, focus, fight and sound fundamentals. All of that is not directly on CAJ but he does have his fair share of the blame. It's a team issue, an individual player issue, AND a coaching issue. They need to really take time now to dedicate themselves playing sound basketball and fighting for each W here on out. Be a dominate team for a full game ... each game here on out.

One of the players or several players need to step up and focus on fighting for the success of this team. That's the biggest difference from last season to this season. As much flack Sexton got from some fans from him being a ball hog, he did have the focus to fight for a win each game. Right now, I can't point to one person outside of maybe Norris and AJ junior that has that similar fight game in and game out.

Ironically, it was the one game they physically almost got into a fight that they ended up dominating (Ole Miss). I'm guessing that was because of the emotion of the situation BUT they need to get into tapping into the 'mindset' of fighting and dominating as a team EACH game. And the sad thing is, they already know this as basketball players ... why they are not doing this beats the heck out of me lol

BamaMoon · Feb 20, 2019

BAMAVILLE said:
This team is truly an enigma to say the least. It seemed like we figured it out for a while during the time we had the stretch against UK and Tenn. After that, it seemed like we lost it. Not sure if Hall is injured or not but it seems like he's regressed in his initial level of play this season. I know he's not the reason why the team is losing but it seems like his energy helps drive the focus of the team.

The process of not relying on fundamentals is concerning. You can't dig your way out of a shooting slump by taking 3s as your only shot in a possession. They've been resorting to that trend the last couple of games instead of trying to attack the basket to set up a quality shot, and its been costing them dearly.

Seems like this team has regressed from consistent leadership, focus, fight and sound fundamentals. All of that is not directly on CAJ but he does have his fair share of the blame. It's a team issue, an individual player issue, AND a coaching issue. They need to really take time now to dedicate themselves playing sound basketball and fighting for each W here on out. Be a dominate team for a full game ... each game here on out.

One of the players or several players need to step up and focus on fighting for the success of this team. That's the biggest difference from last season to this season. As much flack Sexton got from some fans from him being a ball hog, he did have the focus to fight for a win each game. Right now, I can't point to one person outside of maybe Norris and AJ junior that has that similar fight game in and game out.

Ironically, it was the one game they physically almost got into a fight that they ended up dominating (Ole Miss). I'm guessing that was because of the emotion of the situation BUT they need to get into tapping into the 'mindset' of fighting and dominating as a team EACH game. And the sad thing is, they already know this as basketball players ... why they are not doing this beats the heck out of me lol

A couple of things I see different:

1. I don't see our offensive woes the way you do. I think we pass up way to many open 3s. I don't think we take enough of them and I think we force too many drives into the lane and it causes wild shots and TOs.

2. I don't see AJJr. as being a leader. I'll just stop there.

TitleWave · Feb 20, 2019

ReturnToGlory said:
Precedent doesn't really give us too much hope. Johnson is 3-12 in the last 5 games of regular season in first 3 years.

Fast approaching a Gottfraudian slip, or slash, of Occam's Razor...

crimsonbleeder · Feb 20, 2019

JDCrimson said:
...
But from day one I have always had this nagging question as to whether coaching ability at the NBA level translated down to college level. IMO, it does not. ...

This is no longer an "opinion". It is pure fact that he cannot translate coaching into the NCAA level.

CrimSonami · Feb 20, 2019

From a layman basketball fan this is what I see.

The opposition has realized we are not a good fundamental ball handling team and we're weak at the charity stripe. They know when to pressure and rush us into making decisions outside of our comfort zone. They make and execute a defensive plan to prevent us from running the court and making us run half court offense then make us uncomfortable with quickness and effort. Until such time as fundamentals are focused and practiced we'll never be a legit tourney team.

TideEngineer08 · Feb 20, 2019

I can't get as deep into the stats and numbers as some of you, but I can say that there are guys on this team that have been there for years now. And at times, they still play like lost freshmen.

The lack of effort is baffling. You are in a very special situation indeed if you have been selected to play basketball on the major college level. I know Alabama is not Kentucky or Duke. But it's not Snead State either. It is a huge deal to play in that uniform, on that stage, and it looks like most of our guys just really couldn't be bothered by it.

Game Thread: OFFICIAL POSTGAME THREAD - Bama v. TAMU...

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