Alabama at Vandy Open Thread (and Links)

Honestly, I'm sick of this crap. . . Will we ever win on the road consistently under this guy?  I say no.

My complaint with CMG is that he is at an elite program but produces mediocre results. 'Bama has always been #2 in the SEC to Kentucky, and that's alright with me. As everyone knows we'll never overtake the 'Cats (and now the Gators) for a permanent seat in the SEC throne. More.... I don't fault him for not taking us to the freaking Final Four.

Now-- why does Gottfried wins games? Because he is a terriffic recruiter. I give him all the props in the world in that department. He beats teams because he has more talent than what the other bunch has. And that is a credit to him because of his recruiting skills. But, when it comes down to X's and O's, Gottfried is probably the SEC's worst.

This didn't just happen overnight. I remember watching some of the great teams over the past couple of years look lost out there. On offense, there is no movement or communication. His offense is solely based on 1-on-1 play, something that Kennedy Winston and Rod Grizzard could do some nights, but not everybody has their talent. Plus, we always seem to have at least one 4-5 minute stretch every game where we can't buy a bucket or even get off a good shot. On defense, we look lethargic and can't get back to stop the break or defend the 3. And, sometimes, looks like our "give a damn is busted." There isn't much hustle play and heart showed by this team or any of the previous Gottfried coached squads outside a handful of special players (Antione Pettway is the first to come to mind).

Let's face it.  Time after time we reach this Top 10 status that we've achieved again this pre-season.  Yet, we can't ever cross that line and solidify ourselves as a consistent program.  We're consistently INCONSISTENT... and we're likely bound for a 7 or 8 seed in the NCAA tourney as well.

One more thing, did they not know about Foster before they went frolicking up there? He dropped 30 last year in Tuscaloosa, and has 15 in the first half.  Geez!  What a great coach that Mark GottFIRED is.  I'm sick of him and his underachieving "teams."

hire a defensive minded assistant to get back what Rah Rah Scott had us doing. Mark does need to change his game planning for road games this year though.

Maybe bamahoops can help me out on this as he seems quite the student of the game.  But it was my impression from watching Bama play that we ran a high post offense somewhat similar to Wooden's UCLA teams.  An offense that is far from simple, isolation one on one play.  I could be wrong.  The highest level of ball I ever played was high school and we ran a very dumbed down version of the triangle.  

As far as the outcome of the game, we never win there.  It's that stupid, funky floor of theirs.  Those jerks.

I will concede that the D has a tendancy to look shaky at times especially on the road.  I'm often confused as to why we ran man defense and zone defense when we do.  But again, I'm not exactly Pat Riley so take it for what little it's worth.