Grant hopes Tide roll in 2nd season

Eighth in a series previewing SEC basketball teams.

HOOVER, Ala. - Alabama’s men’s basketball team has bigger goals after a year of getting to know Coach Anthony Grant, and vice versa.

The Crimson Tide were 17-15, including 6-10 in the SEC, in Grant’s first season, which put Alabama in a tie for fourth place in the West Division. This year, Alabama is predicted to finish third inthe West.

Alabama’s improvement will come, the team and coach believe, from better depth and better cohesion between Grant and his players.

“It’s a big difference from year one to year two in terms of guys understanding the expectations that we have,” Grant said. “The terminology I use, it was like coaching 13 freshmen. Not that they didn’t want to, but they didn’t know how to. They didn’t understand the method to the madness, so to speak.”

The Crimson Tide return eight players from a year ago,including three starters. Grant also brought in a five newcomers, led by freshmen forward Jason Carter and guard Trevor Releford.

“There’s more of a comfort level on their part and, as coaches, more of a comfort level on our part because we understand the players better,” Grant said. “Sometimes that gets overlooked. As coaches, you have to know who you’re coaching and their personalities and how to get the most out of them.”

Alabama’s top returner, junior forward JaMychal Green, agreed the team feels more comfortable with Grant and with each other. Green averaged 14 points and 7.2 rebounds per game as a sophomore.

“We made a lot of strides,” Green said. “We have a better feel for what Coach Grant wants of us. We’re going to get it done this year.”

Grant said Alabama wasn’t too far away in his first year, despite a new system and not a tremendous amount of depth for the up-tempo style he prefers. The Crimson Tide lost four conference games by three points or fewer, including three by one point.

“Experience is a great teacher,” Grant said. “We certainly gained a lot of experience last year. We finished 6-10 in the league and when you look at some of those games, we could have very easily been 10-6.

“For us, we did a lot of good things that allowed us to have an opportunity to win those games. We have to build on those and continue to improve on the weak areas in terms of being able to finish and being able to handle adversity.”

The close calls and a year of experience has Green thinking his team can surpass the preseason predictions.

“We’re on the verge of getting there,” Green said. “We’re going to get to where Coach Grant wants us to be.

“We’re going to be better than the expectations they have set up for us. We can compete with any team onour schedule. I think we can win the West.”

Grant said when he left Virginia Commonwealth for Alabama, he didn’t place any timetable on how quickly he would make the Crimson Tide championship contenders.

“As a team, the challenge is for us to become the best that we can become,” Grant said. “My expectations for us [are] to become a team that can compete on a regular basis for championships, so we’re going to work toward that. How long is that going to take? I don’t know.”

Grant said the Crimson Tide had just nine scholarship players a year ago and have 12 this year. Alabama’s five-man recruiting class includes four freshmen, but Grant said if the freshmen prove themselves worthy, they’ll see plenty of court time.

“I’ve never had a problem playing freshmen, starting freshmen,” Grant said. “In our style of play, a lot of guys are going to have the opportunity to get on the floor. As a team, we’ll be more skilled overall than we were.

“A big part of our style is playing at a fast tempo. When you have more skilled guys on the floor, that allows you to do that a little bit better.”

Next: South CarolinaAlabama at a glance COACH Anthony Grant (17-15 in one season at Alabama; 93-40 in four seasons overall) LAST SEASON 17-15, 6-10 SEC KEY LOSSES G Mikhail Torrance, G Anthony Brook KEY RETURNEES F JaMychal Green, G Senario Hillman, F Tony Mitchell KEY NEWCOMERS F Jason Carter, G Trevor Releford, G Kendall Durant, G Charles Hankerson PROJECTED FINISH Third in the SEC West

Sports, Pages 21 on 10/30/2010

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