I'm a huge fan of A-Grant, I remember going to his first game as a HC at Alabama and chatting with people who follow Bama B-Ball and they said " we'll give him about 3 years". Well as we know he exceeded expectations in his 2nd year really and got us close. This year we were a optimistic team really and many doubted him if he was losing control of his team due to the suspensions. Well rewind a little bit before the start of the season and you glance at the Preseason Top 25 and Bama is #15, many thought we were at least a Sweet 16 team such as myself. We start great winning 7 in a row, end badly losing the 3 of the last 4. Any ways what I'm trying to say, Coach A-Grant has really brought this team back up but the only problem with exceeding expectations is bigger ones come back, many Bama fans said "I'm just glad we're back in it", well what if next year we're more than just a mediocre team and we have a high seeding in the NCAA Tourn. Do you think Anthony Grant is the guy to lead us in that direction? To beat teams like the Kentucky's, the Florida's, etc.. And not just on a fluke season, I mean beating top tier teams every year. As a fan of all sports, Football and Basketball are definitely at the top, so I may focus more and have bigger expectations more than your usual fan. My take on him, is I think he is the guy but he do some very questionable things. The back-to-back Timeouts was one of those today, but not just that his substitution patterns but overall the number 1 priority is FIXING THE OFFENSE, I can't stand watching no name colleges have at least 2 guys that can shoot it from outside the ark, just unbelievable.
I'm not picking on you raider, just happened to be scrambling for time this morning. I've got one more point to make—actually more than that—but here's one that is definitely worth consideration.
I'm going to use football and the QB position as an example.
When AJ first took over last year he wasn't given the ability, which is probably not the best word to use here, to make audibles when he got under center. So, he's reading a defense with one outlet play for the run and one outlet play for the pass. He's limited, not because of
his ability but because of his
lack of experience reading defenses.
Let's fast forward to the middle of the season. He's allowed more leeway by the coaching staff because he has progressed in learning how to read defenses. Now, that's given around 10 seconds in the huddle and on average about 15 seconds at the line of scrimmage to read the defense, make the adjustment call, and call for the snap.
On basketball...
Yesterday we were looking at 4 seconds on the clock. Creighton, in a smart coaching move, made a defensive adjustment on our inbounds play. As soon as Grant saw the adjustment he called a second time out. Now we have a little over 2 seconds left on the clock.
How young and inexperienced are our players on this squad? Very.
So, we are to expect a kid with a year under his belt to be able to make that read, make the necessary adjustment, and proceed on a pressured in-bounds play?
It's simply not that simple. A squad of Jr.'s? Sure. They've been there before and have the experience to see, then react without hesitation. Our guys now? Sure, they can see it, and sure they can make the adjustments. But, within four seconds?
Three years for a football coach is one thing. Three years for a basketball coach when he can only bring in a couple of players each year? It's too short of a period.
By no means am I making a comparison between Coach K and Coach Grant in terms of coaching ability. He simply hasn't had that much experience. But, I do think a good note to consider is it took Coach K over a decade to win his first NC. 12 years, if I recall correctly.
Some coaches you can tell are in over their head. Wendall is one example right now. His team wasn't even competitive in their first round loss in the SEC tourney. (Being fair, his team has been killed with injuries this season but I'm not seeing signs of progress. With him, I don't believe he can get it done.)
We'll know more about Grant in the 2014-2015 season. At that point we'll see just what he's capable of accomplishing. He'll have brought in a full roster—as in the entire roster will be his and he'll have graduated some leaders who will have contributed to the maturation of some of our younger players.
The season didn't meet our expectations for reasons like you've mentioned. But, those expectations needed to be tempered. In hindsight we realize this. For next season, we need to exercise the same—temper expectations.
