In an unprecedented move, the University of Alabama Athletics Department has apparently given up basketball as a University sanctioned, organized sport in order to focus entirely on football.

How else can you explain the Crimson Tide’s performance this season in Anthony Grant’s fourth year at the Capstone?

After starting 6-0, Bama now sits at 7-5 after home losses to Dayton, Mercer…freaking Mercer…and Tulane, and a couple of road losses to VCU and Cincinnati. As the 2012-2013 season unfolds, Alabama looks to extend its streak of average seasons where it struggles to just get close to 20 wins and sits on pins and needles on selection Sunday.

Then if it gets in the Tournament quickly gets ousted by a University of Wisconsin-Green Bay or Creighton.

The Alabama basketball program is a joke…the antithesis of its football program. Coleman Coliseum is an aircraft hangar turned basketball arena. While other schools build state-of-the-art facilities, the Tide keeps putting lipstick on a pig.

And the home crowds are about as electric as a piece of drift wood. If it weren’t for the funny face guy in the crowd there would be no electricity at all.

Jack Blankenship is the only reason to go to Alabama basketball games.

And while the football program will compete for its 15th National Title a week from today, and its third in four years, the basketball program has never come within sniffing distance of relevance in that department.

Anthony Grant is making in the neighborhood of $2 Million. Two…freaking…million…dollars. Shouldn’t we expect more than this after four years?

Grant is 70-44 in his time at Bama. This includes:

2009-2010
Overall record: 17-15
SEC record: 6-10
Non-Conf regular season record: 10-4
SEC Tournament record: 1-1
Post season tournament: none

2010-2011
Overall record: 25-12
SEC record: 12-4
Non-Conf regular season record: 8-6
SEC Tournament record: 1-1
Post season tournament: NIT (4-1)

2011-2012
Overall record: 21-12
SEC record: 9-7
Non-Conf regular season record: 11-3
SEC Tournament record: 1-1
Post season tournament: NCAA (0-1)

2012-2013
Overall record: 7-5
SEC record: n/a
Non-Conf regular season record: 7-5
SEC Tournament record: n/a
Post season tournament: n/a

I still think Anthony Grant is a good coach. He was just apparently better at VCU where he went 45-9 in three seasons, reaching the NCAA Tournament 2 out of 3 of those years.

But then, you have Mark Gottfried, who looked like a world beater at Murray State, tanked at Alabama (after a good season or two), and now looks the part again at NC State.

So maybe it’s not them…it’s us. Maybe it is finally time to put basketball at Alabama to rest. After all, if we’re not going to take it serious as an athletic department or a fanbase, we might as well throw in the towel. Like my grandaddy used to tell me, if you’re not going to do something right, don’t do it at all.


(Follow ITK on Twitter for Bama news, commentary and smack.)

11 thoughts on “University of Alabama gives up basketball to focus more on football”

  1. I couldn’t agree more with this article. Until U of A and the fans take a real interest or develop a true passion for this sport I don’t see us ever being what we were in the 1980’s under Wimp Sanderson, much less competing for national championships. We seem to be able to compete at the top level in several other sports…thus the 4 national championships last year and almost a 5th. But the fan base and the athletic department seem lifeless in the men’s and women’s basketball department. Obviously facilities play a big role in stirring enthusiasm, but the problem is far greater than that. Perhaps the athletic department needs to become much more serious about basketball and then we would see new facilities and a new enthusiasm within the fan base as well.

  2. I didn’t even know we had a basketball team!

    That funny face guy is pretty cool. I think he should wear a tuxedo t-shirt for his job cause that says ‘hey – I’m the funny face guy and I’m here to support the team, but I like to party!’

    I like to party so I’d like our funny face guy to party…

  3. Com’on people, at least try to sound intelligent. This was going to be a young team to begin with and then one of the centers left the team followed by two starters lost to injuries. You can also include our top 5 recruit won’t be duplicating the feats of Kentucky’s ‘1 and done’ recruits eithe. I don’t recall him even playing yet. Let’s see how the season pans out before you call for the lynching rope. I will agree with one thing, which I’ve felt from the start that 2 million was an absurd salary for a basketball coach at a footbsll school. The dumb fuckers need to take a BIG chunk of that money and give it to Sarah Patterson and. Patrick Murray. Football schools can be successful at basketball – to wit Ohio St, Texas, Oklahoma, Notre Dame and Florida. But I wonder what they pay their coaches. Bet it’s not 2 million a year. What’s more, it appears that VCU hasn’t missed a beat since Grant left.

    1. crimsonite, if YOU can’t speak intelligently about the subj…….wait, who am i talking to?

      care to name for me the center that “left the team”???

      (hint: ben eblen, he’s a guard)(and wasn’t even a very good one)

      you don’t “recall” our top 5 recruit (even know his name??) playing yet?? had his best game against mercer.

      (as if you would remember, his name is devonta pollard and he’s played in multiple games)

      “Let’s see how the season pans out before you call for the lynching rope.”

      the season’s over dumbass. they’ll have to win the regular season championship or the sec tournament to go to the ncaa tournament. no way a team with this many ugly home losses gets an at-large. but if you’re giving odds…..

      why don’t you just admit you haven’t seen or heard a single alabama basketball game this season?

      once again you’re making a fool of yourself although i will admit not quite as bad as when you were defending the child molesters at penn state.

      do this forum a big favor: STFU.

  4. What a fuking embarrassment! We should ban LSU from the SEC. How the hell do you lose to an ACC team that was bitch slapped by FSU & USCjr? At least when we screwed up against Utah we had lost our entire offensive line including the #1 draft choice who was the reason we could run the ball with Coffee and Ingram. What was the Corndig excuse for giving up 500 yards? If it hadn’t been a damn ACC team and an embarrassment to the SEC I’d be kaughing my ass off. Bet ‘Flash’ or whatever he goes by has already opened a vein. Bwaa Haww Haww. Hope it did some good and opened up any closed eyes on Bama’s team. RTR!

  5. bama bb has the ingredients to mak
    e a nice run in the sec and make the tourney as a 10ish seed

  6. Haha! Looks like that faggot piece of shit finebummer is bak for his twice a year dogshit opinion. The season isn’t over until the SEC schedule is finished dumbass – and the SEC ‘aint exsctly a powerhouse this year. I never heard Pollards name called before I quit keeping up, which was after the Texas Tech game. I’m not into masochism. However, I am into ridding the world of antisocial, cum sucking, retarded pieces of shit. So anytime you grow balls enough to talk to my face the way you talk about the fascets of Bama’s various teams when you don’t like them – just set up a meeting with me cock sucker, and I’ll rapidly send you down to hell early. Cum deposit.

  7. Well…. I think that we need to set some kind of a standard for Basketball….. and If Mal does….. Anthony Grant cannot satisfy that standard……. he just simply cannot coach them up. His personality – sucks. He will not talk to the Fans that put up with this shit……I mean hell….. if he would just tell us the deal….. I suck and this team sucks….. I would give him nod of approval…… as he serves his last year…..

  8. Is Isadore Gouldsky reformed or is he still up to his antisocial and anti bama tactics?

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