Happy Friday, everyone. The Gym Tide compete a little later in the weekend than usual, facing Michigan tomorrow in Ann Arbor. The game will be carried on B1G+ at 5pm. Baseball has feasted on a manageable early slate but kicks off SEC play tonight in College Station at 6pm on SECN+. Softball also opens conference play, hosting Mississippi State starting at 2pm today on SECN+. Saturday’s game was moved to a doubleheader today with inclement weather expected this weekend.
Of course, men’s basketball faces Kentucky tonight in the SEC Tournament. They may get Derrion Reid back for it.
Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats had said Wednesday that Reid’s return could be imminent.
“Derrion was able to practice in some limited capacity,” Oats said. “But wasn’t doing 5-on-5 stuff. Provided he has another good day tomorrow morning at practice, he will hopefully be cleared to play for the week, which would be great. Give us a little more depth if we’re fortunate enough to be playing three games in a row.”
It’s never easy to beat a team three times in the same season, but that’s what Alabama will be trying to do. Kentucky remains banged up.
“It’s incredibly challenging,” Kentucky head coach Mark Pope said. “That’s why it’s March magic, right? It’s March magic. If you can do it, then you do it, right? We get to be tested in an epic way. We lost twice to Alabama. They’re a top four or five team in the country. We’re a little beat up and a little shorthanded. All that’s fine.
“That’s actually where you write the great stories. That’s why we’re all attracted to March, is because there are just these few teams that step up and do things that nobody thinks they can do, under major duress and all kinds of problems. If you don’t want to be part of that, don’t go to March.”
Kentucky guard Lamont Butler re-aggrevated his shoulder injury in the first half of the Oklahoma game, and Pope said his status will need to be evaluated further tomorrow. Butler played in the first matchup against Alabama on Jan. 18 with 17 points, four rebounds and eight assists.
For those counting, Alabama already has a basketball national title.
Alabama’s 1929-30 team made its case on the court: Under coach Hank Crisp, the Crimson Tide went 20-0 for its only undefeated basketball season to date.
In Tuscaloosa, 1930 was a big year. Iconic Denny Chimes was dedicated on campus in honor of UA president Mike Denny that May. That fall, Alabama football would go 10-0 for the program’s third claimed national title, sealed with a 24-0 victory over Washington State in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, 1931.
In 1929-30, Alabama basketball also won its first regular-season and league tournament championships as members of the Southern Conference, taking wins over Clemson, Georgia and Tennessee leading up to the title game in Atlanta.
Do with that what you will.
The Alabama Football documentary spent some time on Nick Saban’s last day in Tuscaloosa, including some details about that final speech.
“When Coach Saban first got on stage, he was having his normal conversations like we were getting ready to go fight for another championship,” said HaHa Clinton-Dix, a director of player development. “Towards the end of the conversations in this meeting, he started stumbling a little bit. Like started getting kind of teary eyed. You can feel the energy change in the room.”
Then Saban shared he was done. After a legendary career with six national championships over 17 years at Alabama and seven national championships overall, he was retiring.
“The players are like shocked,” said Denzel Devall, a director of player development. “I think staff members are shocked. Everybody is in disbelief like it’s a dream. When he walks off the stage, that’s when reality hits like, ‘damn, the GOAT gone.’”
It sounds like Nick was trying to talk himself out of it, right up until the words came out. The people who were in that room will never forget it.
Greg Byrne quipped about one minor mistake he made in the aftermath.
In the latest episode of ”The Tides That Bind: Inside Alabama Football” on FOX Nation, Byrne and multiple members of the Alabama athletics staff recollected on the coaching search that ended with the hiring of former Washington coach Kalen DeBoer.
And in that process Byrne only regrets one mistake.
“If we had to do it over again, I don’t know a whole lot we would do differently from a planning standpoint,” Byrne said. “Tell you one we missed on: We didn’t have a bag of Alabama gear when Kalen got off the plane. I kicked myself after that. I figured, if that’s what you miss on, we’ll survive that. And coach DeBoer has plenty of Alabama gear now.”
Courtney Morgan has high praise for 5-star tackle Jackson Lloyd.
Case in point: Morgan saw offensive lineman Jake Long at an early age. Morgan was a senior when Long was a freshman for Michigan. That’s the same Long whom the Miami Dolphins selected with the first overall pick in the 2008 NFL Draft.
“So I know what that offensive tackle looks like,” Morgan said in December. “I think Jackson Lloyd coming in here can be a guy like that. Jake Long was a guy who was (6-8, 303 lbs) as a freshman who was special by his movement skills.”
That would work.
Scott Cochran just keeps adding Saban era studs to his football staff at West Alabama.
Another day, another pair of Alabama football champions added to Scott Cochran’s staff at West Alabama.
West Alabama announced that former Crimson Tide running back Bo Scarbrough would join the staff as the team’s director of high school relations, and Damion Square, who spent nine seasons in the NFL, as defensive line coach.
Scarbrough won national championships at Alabama in 2015 and 217, and finished his career with 1,512 yards and 30 touchdowns.
“Bo’s experience and passion for player development will be invaluable as our new Director of High School Relations,” Cochran said in a statement.
Last, guess who was ranked the most delusional fanbase, just ahead of Georgia?
Auburn fans live in their own reality where they’re constantly this close to toppling Alabama and taking over the SEC. They’re obsessed with their coaching carousel, convinced every hire will be “the one.” And let’s not forget the yearly tradition of believing they’ll beat Bama, no matter how bad they are.
Yes, let’s not forget any of that.
That’s about it for today. Have a great weekend.
Roll Tide.
