🏈 Alabama Basketball going for a "White Out"....

[planomateo]

shaking my head.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p>UA set for &quot;White Out&quot; for Sat. home hoops game. Doesn't it always seem like those color-outs fail miserably?</p>&mdash; Mark Edwards (@MarkSportsStar) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkSportsStar/statuses/429381125450911744">January 31, 2014</a></blockquote>
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[TerryP]

I appreciate the thought of trying to "sell" the game and the program, along with getting involvement from the fans.

It's late and smells of desperation.

On the other hand, Mark Edwards opinions? I could care less, but not by a great degree. There are other Bama fans out there that will pick this up and run with it.

 

[ElephantStomp]

The right coach we don't need to "sell" the program, but since we don't take basketball seriously we better get to selling like used car salesmen

 

[bamaraider]

Little late for this kind of thing.

 

[TheChief]

There's a game Saturday? Who's playing?

 

[TerryP]

The right coach we don't need to "sell" the program, but since we don't take basketball seriously we better get to selling like used car salesmen

Try to buy season tickets and tell me there aren't people who take the program seriously. There are plenty of people that do. Those people aren't showing up for games.

In basketball let's look at both programs. Which one is getting the most fan support right now? It's the women. Why? Because one of the first things Curry did was reach out and get the boosters involved, then the students, then your fans who travel to the games.

That's selling the program to the fan base. That's building a support base.

It's a stark contrast to what Grant has done. He didn't take over a program that was losing as badly as the women, but he did take on a rebuilding job.

 

[alabama mike]

When CAG was hired, I really thought Bama basketball was back bc he would play pressure defense and be able to recruit. I thought regular trips to the big dance would be the norm, not the exception. I thought we would be consistent enough to challenge for SEC titles. I thought we would be able to land some post players that could play and not be projects. I thought the "ole Plaid Palace" would be rocking once again. BOY, HAVE I EVER BEEN WRONG!

White out, crimson out? Sounds like a gimmick to cover thousands of empty seats in Coleman.

 

[sean]

When CAG was hired, I really thought Bama basketball was back bc he would play pressure defense and be able to recruit. I thought regular trips to the big dance would be the norm, not the exception. I thought we would be consistent enough to challenge for SEC titles. I thought we would be able to land some post players that could play and not be projects. I thought the "ole Plaid Palace" would be rocking once again. BOY, HAVE I EVER BEEN WRONG!

White out, crimson out? Sounds like a gimmick to cover thousands of empty seats in Coleman.

bang.....right there. that's exactly it.

 

[TerryP]

When CAG was hired, I really thought Bama basketball was back bc he would play pressure defense and be able to recruit. I thought regular trips to the big dance would be the norm, not the exception. I thought we would be consistent enough to challenge for SEC titles. I thought we would be able to land some post players that could play and not be projects. I thought the "ole Plaid Palace" would be rocking once again. BOY, HAVE I EVER BEEN WRONG!

White out, crimson out? Sounds like a gimmick to cover thousands of empty seats in Coleman.

This makes me add another point. From what it appears, he's not taken the time to "sell" the program to recruits as well.

That said, the two era's can't be compared.

Right now, as in today, there are 71 players that are from the state of Alabama playing collegiate ball. 11 of those are what I'd call D1 guys. Five are at UA.

Attached you'll find a graphic breaking down the number of players, which schools they are attending, and how that breaks down per conference.

The numbers don't change when you move to another state within our conference, sans two: Florida and Texas.

IF we do expect a coach to recruit successfully, we have to have a guy that can go to the NE (as one example) and be able to pull guys.

 

[TerryP]

Forgot the attachment:

(click to enlarge)

 

[sean]

This makes me add another point. From what it appears, he's not taken the time to "sell" the program to recruits as well.

That said, the two era's can't be compared.

Right now, as in today, there are 71 players that are from the state of Alabama playing collegiate ball. 11 of those are what I'd call D1 guys. Five are at UA.

Attached you'll find a graphic breaking down the number of players, which schools they are attending, and how that breaks down per conference.

The numbers don't change when you move to another state within our conference, sans two: Florida and Texas.

IF we do expect a coach to recruit successfully, we have to have a guy that can go to the NE (as one example) and be able to pull guys.

that's the tricky part right there.

with football, we have a tradition that we can sell and it makes it MUCH easier to build onto that tradition. with basketball, not so much. outside of conference tournament and regular season championships, we've never won anything significant in basketball. sure we've made it to the ncaa tournament quite a few times (20), the sweet sixteen a few times (8) and even to the elite eight once, but none of those should be touted as having a tradition or "good history" for the program.

all that history tells me is that we were good enough to be in the race but not good enough to win or even get a podium finish (so to speak). how many guys race in a nascar race each weekend during their season? and how many are known as top-tier drivers? it's usually the same few that stay there until they retire.

and players know that ALABAMA is a football school first and foremost and an "everything else in sports" second; while schools like kentucky, duke, syracuse, hell even vanderbilt are basketball schools first and "everything else in sports" second. so for them it's way easier to sell a basketball player on going there instead of here. yes, we have a great academics department and one of the best fan-bases in all of sports, but players don't care about that. they wanna play.....and.....they wanna play for it all more times than not.

and i really hate that it is the way it is. i wish we could be successful in both football and basketball. actually, i wish we could be successful in both of those as well as al the other sports (of course softball and gymnastics are already successful so those are easy to sell to those athletes).

 

[bamaraider]

God oh mighty, Grant has turned into the Gene Chizik of college basketball.

 

[TerryP]

[MENTION=20125]sk33tr[/MENTION] Good post!

I hold my tongue (or better said, I walk away from the keyboard) when I see people saying, "if schools like Florida and Texas can have success in both sports, we should be able to do the same." Just using Florida as one example, this year they've got three times as many collegiate basketball players hailing from that state, three times as many playing in the SEC, and you don't find those that leave the state playing in some of the really smaller conferences. The state has 16 guys playing SEC ball right now, 18 playing in CUSA, 16 playing in AAC...