The University of Alabama Football and Crimson Tide Sports Source
April 26, 2024
March 21, 2015
Time to get serious
As the Crimson Tide gathers up the sad remains of the 2014-15 basketball season and heads back to Alabama, fans and alumni can hold their heads up. The basketball team and the coaching staff gave its best effort in the last couple of games. Now what is Bill Battle going to do?
Alabama can afford to spend big bucks on a top tier coach. There are two questions. Will they do that and will a big name coach come to Alabama where basketball takes a back seat to football? Unless there is some sort of cosmic shift in the time-space continuum football will always be more important and popular at Alabama and for that matter in Alabama.
I don’t look for a time-space shift. Then again I never thought I’d see gay marriage in Alabama or a Republican governor calling for a $700 million dollar tax hike – but neither of those things is college football. Stuff happens and I digress. Honestly, I think it would be nice to have a basketball team that’s competitive. The Tide’s teams in the past have been. They never challenged Kentucky for conference supremacy, but hey they beat the Big Blue every now and then and made the Big Dance regularly. Is that too much to ask? I think not.
Bill Battle is not in Tuscaloosa for the long haul. He’s more or less a care taker until the powers that be decide on a replacement. However, he has an opportunity to create a legacy with this hire. There’s also the issue of Auburn. Their hire of Bruce Pearl cannot be overlooked. Bringing him in means Alabama has to do something to upgrade the program or they’ll be faced with the real possibility of Auburn pulling ahead and beating them regularly. Perhaps worse Tide fans will have to listen to Charles Barkley go on and on about it, which might be worse.
I urge Bill Battle to conduct a serious search. Look for the best available coach and bring him to Tuscaloosa. This is something that needs to be done. The other sports are making progress and this is an opportunity to make in-roads in the other money sport. Find the right person and bring him in and change the culture of the program. That’s a tall order but it can be done.
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