With hoops now complete, it’s on to the diamond

By Chris Stewart

As I watched the opening round of the NCAA Tournament last week, like most people associated with the Alabama basketball program, I couldn’t help but think about “what might have been”.

A disappointing season came to a heart-breaking close in the National Invitation Tournament with an 89-87 overtime loss to UMass. It was encouraging to see that this team finally seemed to “get it”, as far as tough, hard-nosed play is concerned. Yet it was equally frustrating that it took the 32nd (and final) game of the year for that to finally occur.

The Crimson Tide wore their “throwback” uniforms against the Minutemen, which turned out to be quite appropriate. Point guard Brandon Hollinger appeared to summon the spirit of Antoine Pettway, in guiding Alabama with a career-best19 points. Mykal Riley turned in Jean Felix-like performance with numerous miscues, yet he also hit the game-tying trey at the end of regulation and finished with a team-high 24.

Adding to the frustration was watching Tennessee make its run to the Sweet 16. The turning point for both teams would turn out to be the Vols 69-66 overtime loss to the Big Orange on February 21st.

From that point on, with both teams having entered the contest squarely on the NCAA bubble, Tennessee would go on to win their final three regular season games to earn a five seed on the NCAA Tournament.

The Tide would lose three of its next four to earn a five seed in the NIT.

While it’s easy to be upset with the demise of Alabama’s season after a 13-1 start, there’s more than ample reason to be excited about next year. With a healthy Ron Steele (please, Lord, let him get healthy) and everyone except Jermareo Davidson returning, this team could again have the makings of a pre-season SEC contender.

Here’s another history lesson that leads you to believe Alabama has perhaps seen its last NIT for awhile.

Of the last 22 seasons that Mark Gottfried has been involved with as a player or a coach, 21 have resulted in postseason appearances. Gottfried’s teams have wound up in the NCAA Tournament 17 times. Only four have been to the NIT.

With that track record, don’t look for the Tide to settle for less than the Big Dance.

Baseball starts strong

It’s hard to feel down about taking two out of three in SEC competition, but Alabama’s failure to close out a sweep of Tennessee was a disappointment. The Tide was three outs away from closing out the Vols, but the bullpen couldn’t hold off a late UT rally. Even with the loss, Alabama is in a three-way tie for first in the West after the opening weekend of conference play.

If the Crimson Tide is to repeat as SEC Champions, a number of injured arms will have to get healthy soon – and the ones that are in good shape will have to find a way to hang on to late leads.

On air with The Snake

For the past 30 months I have been hosting a morning radio show in Tuscaloosa on Sports Radio 1420, The Tusk. I recently started sleeping a little later, but added a couple of hours to my broadcast day.

“The Ultimate Sports Show” hit the air February 26th. Hosted by myself and Ken Stabler, we are heard in Birmingham on News Radio 960 WERC, as well as on The Tusk. It can also be heard on the Internet at www.960werc.com.

We are hoping to eventually add several other stations around the state. The program airs weekday afternoons from 2 pm to 6 pm.

While Snake and I will obviously feature a heavy dose of Crimson Tide athletics, our show will focus on all sports and involve coverage of other programs, as well.
 

Chris Stewart writes a weekly column for bamafever.com. Stewart is the radio play-by-play announcer for University of Alabama men's basketball. He is also the pre and post game host for the Crimson Tide Sports Network's coverage of Alabama Football. In addition, he hosts a talk show each weekday morning from 7 until 9 on Tuscaloosa's Sports Radio 1420, The Tusk. Bama Fever is a company devoted to providing University of Alabama Crimson Tide merchandise. We have stores in Birmingham, Tuscaloosa  and Huntsville and have now created an online catalog for Crimson Tide fans all over the world searching for that hard to find merchandise. We carry over 7,000 items in our stores and have posted many of these items right here in our online catalog.

All University of Alabama merchandise is officially licensed and a portion of the proceeds go directly to the University.

Read all of Chris's Game Recaps