Beyond horrible, beyond laughable, Bama chokes...
Going in to the Alabama game, South Carolina Coach, Darrin Horn, told the media. "we are out of excuses". I have to say that in talking with the Carolina semi-faithful in Columbia it was hard to find anyone who wanted him to have more time to get the job done.
"He came in a red hot coach, and has done flippin' nothing," Said Randall Samford, a long time Carolina supporter. "If he can't beat a mediocre Alabama basketball team at home he should just resign". So much for giving the coach a chance.
"If Steve Spurrier can win here, then Horn can too," said a woman who didn't want to be named because she worked on campus at USC. "We have a better basketball tradition that football. We can finish third each season and still go to the NCAA in my opinion. When I asked her the problem she said, "bad recruiting. We have no great players. We have one good point guard and one decent inside player, and after that I could play." If nothing else it seemed the night would be interesting. Little did I know that I was going to a preview of hell...
NO MORE EXCUSES. It is plastered every where I went. Great, just what the Tide needs - a three game skid and a team with a gun to its head. Remember -"Never Again"? It was against this background that I settled in to watch the worst basketball game played in the history of the SEC. There were no first half highlights unless you count turnovers, wide open three points shot they didn't go in. That was how South Carolina played. Alabama looked like they never played the game before in their lives. One brief highlight for Bama in the first half was JayMychal Green getting three clean blocks on one possession. What is that Chris Berman likes to say, "stumbling, bumbling," And somehow Alabama had a 2 point lead which precarious at best. You know that South Carolina as getting so many offensive rebounds it was scary. A lot of those were on bizarre bounces but most were just watching the Tide standing around and not boxing out anyone. This is hard to believe that such a good defensive team could allow this to happen. At the ten minute mark Green got a turned ankle. He returned with the Tide was down 41-39. Green was hobbling. The Tide was not rebounding under their own basket. It was a scary situation. In the arena you kept thinking one of these two teams were going to set an NCAA record for poor play. The only question was which team. Bama was the visiting team and I guess you might say they were keeping it close. I think at the ten minute mark the Tide had given up 18 rebounds. The Gamecocks had scored 12 points on second half chances. At the 11:15 minute mark the Tide switched to a zone. Carolina immediately drilled a triple to take a 44-42 lead. My thoughts were drifting to thinking about a ten hour drive home, and why did I come up here to watch a bunch of Keystone Kops trying to play basketball. At the 9:10 mark the Tide missed an uncontested layup and the Gamecocks score to go ahead by a score of 46-42 and Bama was falling apart. Green could barely walk and the Tide was trying to learn to dribble and chew gum at the same time. I have no idea how any of this looked on television but in person it was like watching a root canal. I'll tell you the feeling was that there was no way Bama was going to win this game. Carolina was playing better and Alabama couldn't stay out of the way of their own "play". Green was on the bench. Releford had become a ghost. It was a bad moment and frankly, this made the Vandy game look like we were kings of the world.
I kept thinking this is the entire season. With 5:45 Green was finished. Mitchell was showing some life. Releford was part of the walking dead. Here's the way our offense was playing the Carolina Zone. We put an offensive player directly in front of defender and passed the ball around the edge of the zone. Carolina just stood still and waited for the clock to wind down and the upcoming horrible shot. With 5:00 minutes Alabama's only offense threat, Mitchell decided that running over a screen was a short cut to his man, and he picked up number four and went to the bench. On Bama's next "offensive" possession Lacey jacked up an airball from the corner. I have no idea what Carolina was shooting at this point but I doubt it was 30%. How can I put this kindly - we were choking. Luckily for the Tide Levi Randolph was hustling and rebounding. With the game tied at 52 Releford missed a three. Bama was in the bonus and were not taking the ball inside at all.
With 1:26 Gill tipped in an offensive rebound to go up 54-52. Senior JayMchal threw a beauty of a pass to Randolph off a double team and the game was knotted up at 54. With 55.4 the game was tied when DarrIin Horn called a time-out. I remembered what CM Newton used to say - its not % that counts its the number of shots you get. I don't know the number but I'd be Carolina must have had at least 15-20 more shots than the Tide, and all of them were offensive. Releford threw the ball away with the scored and Carolina was holding for one shot. Bama had two to give and cut the Carolina possession clock to 5.4 seconds. Carlolina's Ellington made a lay-up with 1.0 second left. It was his only basket in the second half. Let me say this - Bama could have been beaten by thirty. This was the most horrible game I have ever seen an Alabama team play. This was like the Vandy game only it was a high school team that beat us. Frankly, this was an embarrassment to the Basketball Program. Here's a good question. How do give up only 56 points and lose? I'm sorry for the nature of this report. Honestly, I have no heart to write this one up. With the season on the line we choked. The only reason that Carolina didn't beat us by 30 is they missed so many wide open threes. The fat lady may not be singing for this season but I heard her warming up. I hope Green is going to be okay, or this team might struggle to win a game. Yesterday, we said that Bama would win behind Green and Releford. I'll cut Green some slack. He was hurt. Credit to Carolina. They cut off the head and heart of Alabama's team. I think rather than driving west I'll drive east into the Atlantic and put myself out of own misery. Over 1,000 games seen in person and this was the worse. At least now I can start working on my golf game. Tonight the Tide lost their poise, lost the game, and probably lost the season. Hope I'm wrong. The best thing a team can have is chemistry. It is more important than talent some times. This team couldn't meet to go the cafeteria together. It was actually worse than I've written. It was one of those games where you'd like to slink in the restroom and wait for everyone to leave so you don't have to talk to anyone. You pray you don't see a coach. So Bama is at a crossroad. They can roll over and die, or try to pick themselves up and find some respectability. In the past I'd always say they'd get on track. I honestly can't say that.
I have no stats. I was afraid to look. My only opinion would be suicidal. This team is a horse with a broken leg. They shoot horses. Where do you go from nowhere? Green came back to lead this team as a senior. Sometimes you can add up the talent level and play better than the sum. Sometimes it is the other way around. It's pretty clear which one we are. This team is broken. I honestly thought we were going to get it going. Tonight this team played without heart and didn't play hard on defense. That is being kind. I love Alabama. This is not Alabama. This is a bunch of clowns who have gotten out of a volkswagen at the circus. I'll pull for 'em until I die, but good grief guys stop playing like this you're killing me. The most important question for the Alabama players right now is how far can you sit away from Grant and not fall out of the airplane?
 |
| Playing like a bunch of clowns |
"He came in a red hot coach, and has done flippin' nothing," Said Randall Samford, a long time Carolina supporter. "If he can't beat a mediocre Alabama basketball team at home he should just resign". So much for giving the coach a chance.
"If Steve Spurrier can win here, then Horn can too," said a woman who didn't want to be named because she worked on campus at USC. "We have a better basketball tradition that football. We can finish third each season and still go to the NCAA in my opinion. When I asked her the problem she said, "bad recruiting. We have no great players. We have one good point guard and one decent inside player, and after that I could play." If nothing else it seemed the night would be interesting. Little did I know that I was going to a preview of hell...
NO MORE EXCUSES. It is plastered every where I went. Great, just what the Tide needs - a three game skid and a team with a gun to its head. Remember -"Never Again"? It was against this background that I settled in to watch the worst basketball game played in the history of the SEC. There were no first half highlights unless you count turnovers, wide open three points shot they didn't go in. That was how South Carolina played. Alabama looked like they never played the game before in their lives. One brief highlight for Bama in the first half was JayMychal Green getting three clean blocks on one possession. What is that Chris Berman likes to say, "stumbling, bumbling," And somehow Alabama had a 2 point lead which precarious at best. You know that South Carolina as getting so many offensive rebounds it was scary. A lot of those were on bizarre bounces but most were just watching the Tide standing around and not boxing out anyone. This is hard to believe that such a good defensive team could allow this to happen. At the ten minute mark Green got a turned ankle. He returned with the Tide was down 41-39. Green was hobbling. The Tide was not rebounding under their own basket. It was a scary situation. In the arena you kept thinking one of these two teams were going to set an NCAA record for poor play. The only question was which team. Bama was the visiting team and I guess you might say they were keeping it close. I think at the ten minute mark the Tide had given up 18 rebounds. The Gamecocks had scored 12 points on second half chances. At the 11:15 minute mark the Tide switched to a zone. Carolina immediately drilled a triple to take a 44-42 lead. My thoughts were drifting to thinking about a ten hour drive home, and why did I come up here to watch a bunch of Keystone Kops trying to play basketball. At the 9:10 mark the Tide missed an uncontested layup and the Gamecocks score to go ahead by a score of 46-42 and Bama was falling apart. Green could barely walk and the Tide was trying to learn to dribble and chew gum at the same time. I have no idea how any of this looked on television but in person it was like watching a root canal. I'll tell you the feeling was that there was no way Bama was going to win this game. Carolina was playing better and Alabama couldn't stay out of the way of their own "play". Green was on the bench. Releford had become a ghost. It was a bad moment and frankly, this made the Vandy game look like we were kings of the world.
I kept thinking this is the entire season. With 5:45 Green was finished. Mitchell was showing some life. Releford was part of the walking dead. Here's the way our offense was playing the Carolina Zone. We put an offensive player directly in front of defender and passed the ball around the edge of the zone. Carolina just stood still and waited for the clock to wind down and the upcoming horrible shot. With 5:00 minutes Alabama's only offense threat, Mitchell decided that running over a screen was a short cut to his man, and he picked up number four and went to the bench. On Bama's next "offensive" possession Lacey jacked up an airball from the corner. I have no idea what Carolina was shooting at this point but I doubt it was 30%. How can I put this kindly - we were choking. Luckily for the Tide Levi Randolph was hustling and rebounding. With the game tied at 52 Releford missed a three. Bama was in the bonus and were not taking the ball inside at all.
With 1:26 Gill tipped in an offensive rebound to go up 54-52. Senior JayMchal threw a beauty of a pass to Randolph off a double team and the game was knotted up at 54. With 55.4 the game was tied when DarrIin Horn called a time-out. I remembered what CM Newton used to say - its not % that counts its the number of shots you get. I don't know the number but I'd be Carolina must have had at least 15-20 more shots than the Tide, and all of them were offensive. Releford threw the ball away with the scored and Carolina was holding for one shot. Bama had two to give and cut the Carolina possession clock to 5.4 seconds. Carlolina's Ellington made a lay-up with 1.0 second left. It was his only basket in the second half. Let me say this - Bama could have been beaten by thirty. This was the most horrible game I have ever seen an Alabama team play. This was like the Vandy game only it was a high school team that beat us. Frankly, this was an embarrassment to the Basketball Program. Here's a good question. How do give up only 56 points and lose? I'm sorry for the nature of this report. Honestly, I have no heart to write this one up. With the season on the line we choked. The only reason that Carolina didn't beat us by 30 is they missed so many wide open threes. The fat lady may not be singing for this season but I heard her warming up. I hope Green is going to be okay, or this team might struggle to win a game. Yesterday, we said that Bama would win behind Green and Releford. I'll cut Green some slack. He was hurt. Credit to Carolina. They cut off the head and heart of Alabama's team. I think rather than driving west I'll drive east into the Atlantic and put myself out of own misery. Over 1,000 games seen in person and this was the worse. At least now I can start working on my golf game. Tonight the Tide lost their poise, lost the game, and probably lost the season. Hope I'm wrong. The best thing a team can have is chemistry. It is more important than talent some times. This team couldn't meet to go the cafeteria together. It was actually worse than I've written. It was one of those games where you'd like to slink in the restroom and wait for everyone to leave so you don't have to talk to anyone. You pray you don't see a coach. So Bama is at a crossroad. They can roll over and die, or try to pick themselves up and find some respectability. In the past I'd always say they'd get on track. I honestly can't say that.
I have no stats. I was afraid to look. My only opinion would be suicidal. This team is a horse with a broken leg. They shoot horses. Where do you go from nowhere? Green came back to lead this team as a senior. Sometimes you can add up the talent level and play better than the sum. Sometimes it is the other way around. It's pretty clear which one we are. This team is broken. I honestly thought we were going to get it going. Tonight this team played without heart and didn't play hard on defense. That is being kind. I love Alabama. This is not Alabama. This is a bunch of clowns who have gotten out of a volkswagen at the circus. I'll pull for 'em until I die, but good grief guys stop playing like this you're killing me. The most important question for the Alabama players right now is how far can you sit away from Grant and not fall out of the airplane?
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