Vanderbilt Spanks Bama or How I Spent an Evening Watching a Tivoed Game and Decided to Write About It
An absolutely dreadful performance by our team and coaching staff tonight in a game that many of us saw as a must-win with the trip to Lexington looming on Saturday. However, we must have been the only ones to feel that way because the team came out flat and uninspired.
And Coach Grant, I love ya man, but this was not your finest hour. What in the name of all that is holy was your thinking with the player rotation tonight? At one point I expected him to start pulling fans from their seats to go into the game. I lost count of how many guys played in the 1st half. Whether or not that had anything to do with the lack of chemistry on the offensive end, you decide. For better or worse, the staff must decide on a 7-8 player rotation and go with it.
Give Vanderbilt credit though. For a team that has dealt with the label of "soft" for the last few years, this team came out and just beat our guys up. They outrebounded Bama, they outhustled them to loose balls, they played physical and our guys simply did not respond well.
Yes, the officiating wasn't great, but the game was long over before their worst calls were made. You can't pin this game on the officiating in the same manner you could pin last season's loss in Nashville on questionable calls. Our guys just flat out got their ass whipped. It's gut check time, boys. If not, we will be making NIT reservations yet again.
I thought a big moment in the game happened when Andrew Steele left with an apparent injury. As usual, he entered the game and gave us a spark. After he exited the game things started to go south. I haven't heard anything about his condition yet. I sure hope he didn't suffer another concussion after just returning to the team.
Vandy also showed what a difference having two or three guys who can consistently hit jump shots makes. I'm willing to give our freshmen a pass because they're freshmen, but there's no excuse for Releford to be the same poor shooter he was a year ago.
This is a very disappointing result. For those of us who believe this program can be something great, these types of nights have become all too commonplace. You know, we start to feel confident the program is turning a corner only to then watch us suffer through another agonizing defeat in an important game.
With the loss tonight and a potential loss awaiting us on Saturday, the margin for error has suddenly become painfully slim. This team has to recover quickly or things could get very dicey. Maybe they shock the world Saturday. Stranger things have happened.
7 comments:
What is happening to this team? They're a clone of last year's team.
I thought these freshman were supposed to be shooters but I've seen nothing but bricks from them.
Mitchell and Green still lack composure, and the 3 veteran starters don't seem to mesh very well.
Speaking of Green, what is his deal? I haven't seen him do much at all lately. Maybe that's because teams are collapsing on him, forcing us to shoot from outside.
I really thought this would be a big season for us, but little has changed. The only thing we've got going for us is that we don't have the bad losses at this point that we did last year.
Otherwise this is vintage Alabama: Competitive, but can never win the games that count.
You could say we're still a year away, but with Mitchell and Green gone next year we won't have any presence inside. Just a bunch of guards running around out there.
I am utterly disappointed in the coaching. Think of what a top coach could do with this talent. Even with the poor shooting. We're not setting picks. We're not rebounding. We're not moving on offense. We're not playing BASKETBALL!
We're not even playing defense with any emotion. Someone please give CAG an enema and let's get to work!!! COACH THIS TEAM!
Tonight was not Coach Grant's finest hour, but I think it's far too easy to blame all of the problems the team is facing on the coaching staff. Grant has won something like 65% of his games in his 2+ seasons, and it's not like he inherited a powerhouse from Gottfried. He's doing good things, but he seems to be losing his patience this season with the offensive troubles. And in trying to shake things up tonight by playing so many guys, I think he made it worse. The best thing about last year's team was they accepted their shortcomings for what they were and played to their strengths. Grant has to settle on a set rotation and play to the strengths of his players.
As I see it, the biggest problem for this team right now is a lack of leadership. Last year, the team had a leader in Chris Hines. He wasn't very talented overall, but he hustled every minute he was on the floor, he played hard, he was physical, he was vocal, he just had "it". The team needs someone like that to get the guys going when things aren't going well.
If you need further proof this team lacks a leader, look at the play of Mitchell and Green tonight. Mitchell was shut out and Green had a few early buckets and then disappeared. When the team needed them they were nowhere to be found. Steele has been a great presence for this team since his return. I don't think it's a coincidence that the game got away from the team when he went out. Hopefully he's okay, because I think the team really needs him right now.
Ultimately, let's keep in mind that Bama lost on the road to a probable NCAA tournament team in State and was blitzed by a team tonight with a starting line-up of 4 seniors and a junior. A team that underachieved early, but is now starting to play to its potential. Let's not forget that Alabama was playing well coming into the State game. They can get back there, there's still a lot of basketball to play.
MSmilie, I agree with you 99%. You are spot on re leadership on this team and Chris Hines. Although at a different position, that is a lot of what Andrew Steele has been bringing to the table. If we have ANY chance at all Saturday, which is debatable in the first place, I think we need Steele to play. After seeing the way he looked coming out of the game, I doubt he is able to. I hope I'm wrong.
My only point of contention is settling on a 7 or 8 man rotation. If we have 10 guys who can play, find them some minutes and use that depth to your advantage. That was one of my biggest beefs with CMG, we seemed to always have somebody who could potentially help us riding the pine in SEC play because he refused to go more than 8 deep. Especially with the full court press we supposedly would like to play, I would like to see us go as deep on the bench as we have guys who can contribute. Of course, when you can't score, you can't press, as we saw tonight.
DJC: I agree with what you're saying about playing the bench, but I also think that if you don't settle on a rotation and that rotation of players doens't play and practice regularly, then it affects chemistry. There were some line-ups tonight that left me baffled. Maybe Grant is trying to send a message or shake things up, I don't know. One thing I do know, January is not the time to be experimenting with his line-up. He has got to figure it out.
I agree, this team lacks a leader. As talented as Green and Mitchell are, they too often disappear when needed most, and are both lacking composure.
I miss Ronald Steele and Antoine Pettway.
We are what we are... beat the crappy teams, but can't beat the good ones.
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