Green Grass and High Tides: Alabama Basketball Preview

It’s amazing the difference an unexpected NCAA Tournament Elite Eight run has made for Alabama Head Coach Mark Gottfried. Gottfried’s tenure at the Capstone has been described in the past in unflattering terms as a roller coaster ride. No capsule in time better illustrates this point than the slump the Crimson Tide endured mid-season to the shocking heights of a NCAA Tourney run that included upsets by #9 seed Alabama over the #1 ranked Stanford Cardinal and the #5 seed defending National Champion Syracuse Orange(men) before the inevitable crush of the eventual National Champion University of Connecticut Huskies.

Much has occurred in the off-season since the Tournament for Coach Gottfried, little of it negative. Gottfried’s name surfaced in the coaching search for the Ohio State job vacated by Jim O’Brien in a cloud of scandal. While serious consideration for this post was of dubious acclaim for Gottfried, with everyone from Pee Wee Herman to Colin Powell mentioned to replace O’Brien, for the sake of warm-fuzzies we’ll put this chit in the “Oprah gave me a Pontiac” feel-good column. After all, had Alabama been bounced in the first round of the NCAA‘s, Gottfried’s name couldn’t have reasonably been considered to replace Dan Rather’s proofreader. But being named to the John R. Wooden Award Board of Governors is a shining jewel in Gottfried’s crown that is without flaw. The board is chaired by John R. Wooden with Dean Smith as vice-chairman. This puts his name in the rarified air with unquestioned coaching greats such as Mike Krzyzewski of Duke, Roy Williams of UNC, Jim Calhoun of UConn, Jim Boeheim of Syracuse and a host of other college basketball coaching luminaries. Lofty heights for a basketball coach at a Southeastern Conference “football factory“.

The Elite Eight run has left ‘Bama basketball fans in high cotton as well. With returning starters Kennedy Winston, Chuck Davis, Earnest Shelton and Jermareo Davidson, expectations are soaring. But missing from this year’s squad will be the senior leadership at the point of Antoine Pettway. Antoine was the key to Alabama’s tournament success last season in the minds of many including Gottfried. Without a doubt the Elite Eight would have been a distant mirage had it not been for Pettway’s last second winner against So. Illinois in the first round. Also gone is Demetrius Smith at the backup point guard position. The key to this season for the Tide could lie here. Forward Evan Brock is the only returning non-starter with significant playing time and while guards Ronald Steele, Albert Weber and Glenn Miles were highly touted out of high school, freshmen in the SEC are pushed to lead with mixed results. Alabama is not a deep squad in terms of experience at any position and injury to a starter could alter the hardwood landscape drastically for Mark.

If tournament success is the yardstick, the addition of Tom Asbury to the coaching staff last year has to be considered a slam-dunk for the Tide. With his head coaching stints at Pepperdine and Kansas State, Asbury’s presence is thought of by those close to the program as a key factor in Alabama’s fortunes last season. Along with Darron Boatwright, Orlando Early and Philip Pearson in their second season together with Gottfried, continuity is the buzzword for the staff and the bedrock of any post-season hopes this team might have.

The ‘00-‘01 Tournament snub by the Selection Committee was a gut-shot to Mark Gottfried he apparently did care to experience again. Basketball intelligentsia blamed a weak non-conference schedule that year and he swiftly moved to avoid a repeat of the March Madness slight by beefing up ’Bama’s holiday agenda. This season is no exception. Alabama will break Thanksgiving bread with Alaska-Anchorage, Furman, Minnesota, Utah, Washington, Oklahoma, and High Point in the Great Alaska Shootout, Nov. 24^th - 27th. Talk about cold turkey! Then they return to Tuscaloosa for an event akin to a total solar eclipse. A Bartow will be courtside in Coleman Coliseum. No, not Gene but his son, Murray, will bring his East Tennessee State Buccaneers to Tuscaloosa. This game holds two wild cards for ‘Bama basketball fans. Murray was an assistant to his father in the 58-56 NIT Tournament loss to Alabama-Birmingham in 1996, a sore spot in the memory of many Tide basketball fans although you’d be hard-pressed to get many to admit it. Of more recent concern is the Bucs first round near upset of Wake Forest in last season’s Tournament and ETSU joins four other Tournament participants - Temple, (home) Charlotte, (road) Wisconsin (road) and Alabama State (road) - on the Tide’s non-conference schedule. The schedule upgrade not only added credibility to the Tide’s schedule in the minds of Selection Committee members but also seemed to season last year’s team for the Elite Eight run. Gottfried will be looking to work his young players in with his veterans early for experience, especially at the point.

There is a vast gulf between the expectations of this year’s team and last. While Mark Gottfried had taken this program into previously uncharted waters for Alabama basketball, first #1 national ranking in 2002 and first regular season SEC title in ’01-’02, he seemed unable to get his teams to peak at the right time resulting in unsatisfactory post-season tournament results. And in the college game, the post-season is all that matters. Gottfried cleared monumental hurdles last season in the minds of many. Last season was a time of opportunity. This year has it’s own. Can Mark bear the mantle of high expectations? Can he negotiate the injury minefield? Can he again peak this team at the perfect point? Can he dispel the “fluke” label attached to last season’s run by many national pundits and again hobnob with the elites of the sport? From this perch, I don’t think it’s realistic to expect another deep run into the Big Dance. If inexperience at any other position but point guard were the case, things might be different. With very few exceptions do championship teams not have seasoned leadership at the point. But with the returning cast, this team is one of promise, another brick in the wall, another step to the promised land for Tide basketball fans - Final Four and National Championship. Roll Tide!