What if Grant returns...

Tide should be much improved regardless...

    

  Truthfully, none of us know if Anthony Grant will return next. I've been told he is coming back. Everything seems to be subject to change in college sports though.  One thing will be clear - next season we will have enough talent to a lot of games. It won't be easy replacing Releford.  Players like him are rare. Give Justin Coleman some time and he'll prove to be a more than worthy replacement. However; he won't be Trevor. We might never see a point guard with his skill set again in Tuscaloosa.

     So for the sake of argument lets say that Grant does return next season. What can we expect? I don't think we'll be an Elite Eight team but we might make it through a couple of NCAA rounds if a couple of things go right. There are three areas that the Tide will have to address to become an NCAA player again.

1.  Justin Coleman can speed up the winning process if he can adjust to Division One ball. He has the talent. He has the foot speed, the ability to shoot well and score. They aren't the same. He can break the press. He is a wizard with the ball. He sometimes gets a little out of control, but players like Coleman always push their limits. You can back off some much easier than speed it up.

2.  Alabama needs to shoot a higher percentage from the outside.  Releford has been better than good, and Cooper has shown signs of life lately. No other Tide player is an outside threat. Norris, Mitchell, and Coleman are all threats. They are all big time threats. Mitchell is downright scary, and Norris won't find many players or zones he can't shoot over. Coleman will pull up on the break and shoot the three with accuracy. If all three adjust quickly it will be the first time that Alabama will have four big time shooters on the floor at the same time.

3.  Will Michael Kessens be the answer inside?  The short answer is yes because our inside game is so weak right now, almost anyone would be an improvement.  Kessens can play with his back  to the basket. Or he can show some decent range outside facing the basket. But, he's only 215 or so and is really a power. The icing on the cake would be that Taylor will get much stronger and find some type of drop step shot. Kessens could move down to the power forward.  My bet is that Jacobs be the first big off the bench if Taylor doesn't really improve. Otherwise Kessens may be forced to play the post.

      As with any team there are some sub-plots. What is going with Levi Randolph and Rodney Cooper?  Stated above it seems that Copper may be coming out of his funk. He has been steady under boards this season but his shooting has been woeful at times. Who knows what to say about Randolph. He no longer starts, he is tentative, and makes a ton of mental errors. Is his benching some type of message? I don't think there has been talk of that but you have to wonder. His defense has suffered as well.

     Sub-plot two is how is Grant going to alter his defense next season. (and all college coaches for that matter) The new rule regarding getting a little close to your friends has killed the Tide's perimeter defense. Lately, the Tide has been playing a pretty good zone defense. If this rule is going to stay the same a lot more teams will go zone and outside shooting will be even more important. Scoring is up 8% all over the NCAA. That's one reason why Alabama's allowing more points. The other reason is that the interior defense isn't as good. Taylor is changing that. Florida couldn't beat the Tide inside when they had the ball so they had to resort to the three ball. Imagine how it would effect Tide opponents if Alabama could shoot the ball as well as Florida. Alabama played Florida to a draw in the first half. The got beat by less than ten on a top three home  floor. I still believe that Grant is a first rate coach. If you can't recruit what good does that matter?  Better players are coming but the Tide hasn't found a inside banger in my opinion.That's why the loss of William Lee to UAB was such a perceived loss.