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Give the Alabama basketball team credit for one thing as it enters its third annual February swoon. Over the course of back-to-back blowout losses in the past week, one in Starkville and the other at home to a Florida team struggling to stay above .500, the Crimson Tide hasnāt caused any heart attacks or heartbreak, hasnāt offered any false hope.
It has come out, fallen behind by double digits pretty quickly and played out the final 30 minutes of each game as if something more important was due to start in 35 minutes.
In 80 minutes of basketball for the week, Alabama never led, not for a single second. Say what you want about that, it was a blessing for the collective blood pressure of the fan base.
As Avery Johnson said in the wake of his teamās 71-53 loss to Florida, the Southeastern Conference is a tough league ā āshark-infested waters,ā he called it, mixing his aquatic predator metaphors after the Gator victory but making his point.
Alabama is at .500 as the SEC regular season reaches the two-thirds mark. Several other pretty good teams are hovering around that mark. But the point isnāt really the record ā itās the way Alabama seems to be trending. Over its last five games, the Crimson Tide is 2-3. The wins are against the bottom two teams in the league, Georgia and Vanderbilt. The losses have been thorough tip-to-buzzer beatings.
Hereās the thing about losses like that. For better or worse, February is the month when Alabama basketball fans really, really want to be engaged with the program. Football is over for the year. The spotlight shifts. The conversation on ESPN or on sports radio is all about bracketology. Half the fun of basketball season is the speculation, the chatter, the chance to watch four or five games on a weekend and have them all mean something.
Instead, Alabama came out Saturday like it had been hit by a tranquilizer dart. You could almost smell the listlessness in the air. It wasnāt just because the Crimson Tide couldnāt make a shot, although that didnāt help matters. But there was no area ā defense, rebounding, even the no-visible-concentration free throw shooting ā where Alabama looked ready to play.
The most inexplicable thing was Johnson saw it coming.
As a columnist, I donāt spend a great deal of time dwelling on whether a team should be playing a 2-3 matchup zone or running back-door cuts off the high post. That is best left to coaches. But when Johnson said in the post-game that āin video session this morning, our energy level was low,ā thatās a different matter.
How can the energy level be ālowā before a crucial home game? If for some inexplicable reason the āenergyā is low, how much does video study matter? Isnāt there a point where you turn off the video, throw the laptop against the wall, and declare a two-minute, no-whistle scrimmage in which the last five guys standing will be your starters? If not that method, then donāt you find some other way of finding five players with a bit of fire?
Perhaps thatās not Johnsonās style. If itās not, thatās the root of the problem. He at least hinted that heād look at things differently going into the final six games.
āEverything is on the table,ā he said. āThatās the starting lineup. Thatās what time we take shoot around. Thatās whether weāre eating too much food in the pregame meal. Thatās all on me. Iāll evaluate everything. Maybe I havenāt done a good enough job of holding them accountable.ā
Itās the middle of February. The accounts have come due. Alabama could win in its remaining games, but will lose every one unless the āenergy levelā increases ā and fast.
It has come out, fallen behind by double digits pretty quickly and played out the final 30 minutes of each game as if something more important was due to start in 35 minutes.
In 80 minutes of basketball for the week, Alabama never led, not for a single second. Say what you want about that, it was a blessing for the collective blood pressure of the fan base.
As Avery Johnson said in the wake of his teamās 71-53 loss to Florida, the Southeastern Conference is a tough league ā āshark-infested waters,ā he called it, mixing his aquatic predator metaphors after the Gator victory but making his point.
Alabama is at .500 as the SEC regular season reaches the two-thirds mark. Several other pretty good teams are hovering around that mark. But the point isnāt really the record ā itās the way Alabama seems to be trending. Over its last five games, the Crimson Tide is 2-3. The wins are against the bottom two teams in the league, Georgia and Vanderbilt. The losses have been thorough tip-to-buzzer beatings.
Hereās the thing about losses like that. For better or worse, February is the month when Alabama basketball fans really, really want to be engaged with the program. Football is over for the year. The spotlight shifts. The conversation on ESPN or on sports radio is all about bracketology. Half the fun of basketball season is the speculation, the chatter, the chance to watch four or five games on a weekend and have them all mean something.
Instead, Alabama came out Saturday like it had been hit by a tranquilizer dart. You could almost smell the listlessness in the air. It wasnāt just because the Crimson Tide couldnāt make a shot, although that didnāt help matters. But there was no area ā defense, rebounding, even the no-visible-concentration free throw shooting ā where Alabama looked ready to play.
The most inexplicable thing was Johnson saw it coming.
As a columnist, I donāt spend a great deal of time dwelling on whether a team should be playing a 2-3 matchup zone or running back-door cuts off the high post. That is best left to coaches. But when Johnson said in the post-game that āin video session this morning, our energy level was low,ā thatās a different matter.
How can the energy level be ālowā before a crucial home game? If for some inexplicable reason the āenergyā is low, how much does video study matter? Isnāt there a point where you turn off the video, throw the laptop against the wall, and declare a two-minute, no-whistle scrimmage in which the last five guys standing will be your starters? If not that method, then donāt you find some other way of finding five players with a bit of fire?
Perhaps thatās not Johnsonās style. If itās not, thatās the root of the problem. He at least hinted that heād look at things differently going into the final six games.
āEverything is on the table,ā he said. āThatās the starting lineup. Thatās what time we take shoot around. Thatās whether weāre eating too much food in the pregame meal. Thatās all on me. Iāll evaluate everything. Maybe I havenāt done a good enough job of holding them accountable.ā
Itās the middle of February. The accounts have come due. Alabama could win in its remaining games, but will lose every one unless the āenergy levelā increases ā and fast.
CECIL HURT: Alabama must fix 'energy level' issue, and fast | TideSports.com
Give the Alabama basketball team credit for one thing as it enters its third annual February swoon. Over the course of back-to-back blowout losses in the past week, one in Starkville and the other at home to a Florida team struggling to stay above .500, the Crimson Tide hasnāt caused any heart...
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me. Although he did it much more eloquently than I did.
