dcroz

I'm waiting on when they get around to talking baseball and softball. We're already halfway through both regular seasons.

Still not used to seeing Oklahoma and Texas discussed as SEC members.

"At the end of the day, the intrigue involved in the championship matchups matter. The men’s side had its fair share of intrigue with UConn chasing back-to-back titles and 2-time Player of the Year Zach Edey looking to topple Dan Hurley’s juggernaut, but that still paled in comparison to the women’s matchup." There was never any "intrigue" with the men's FF; UConn was not portrayed as chasing back-to-back titles but rather the story line was that UConn's victory was inevitable. That's going to lower interest in people watching when they think there's really no point since the outcome is in little doubt. But that's the power of ESPN for you; it had the women's FF and properly promoted it, but with the Turner networks and CBS having the men's, there was much less incentive to promote it and indeed every reason by the Mouse not to. Lower ratings will make that March Madness contract a little less expensive when it comes up for renewal and ESPN seeks to grab it.

As much as I want to take this as gospel, we’ve all heard this said by many coaches many times before. Until UK announces their new guy and Oats ain’t it, I’m going to be skeptical.

It's not renovations to Coleman Coliseum, it's building an entire new facility. There have been recent upgrades to Coleman (remember the lighting fiasco early in the Auburn game?) but it still cannot disguise that it's approaching 60 years old and looks like a repurposed airplane hangar. 'Bama needs to build a new, state-of-the-art facility like Auburn did in the past few years that will demonstrate the school's commitment to basketball if it wants to keep attracting players...and hopefully keep Oats around a while longer.

Except there hasn't been an East or West in basketball in several years now. And starting next year there won't be one in football, either.

Oats may have just gotten the leverage he needs to get a new arena in Tuscaloosa to keep him there.

We were right there with them until the threes refused to fall. In addition to all that UConn talent, they also have a decided edge in playing these high-stakes games and really looked like a well-oiled machine. But we did a lot more than anyone expected, both after the regular season and SEC Tournament slump and even all the way back to last November when the consensus was that we would be in the middle of the pack in the SEC and would be riding the bubble. And we are the only team so far to even give UConn a game in the second half. Great job to this team and to Coach Oats! Proud of you!

This is why the Women's Final Four is selling more tickets and at a higher price than the men's. The media has been peddling the narrative that a UConn national title is inevitable, so why watch? Thanks for showing up Alabama, Purdue, and NC State to be the lambs to the slaughter. Meanwhile on the women's side, will South Carolina win it again? Will Iowa break through to win after last year's loss in the finals? Will UConn or NC State do as well or better than their male counterparts? So many reasons to watch.

The money will keep Oats at Alabama for now, but if the administration wants to keep him there more than another year or two before he bolts for somewhere else, it needs to show its support for basketball with a new arena. Coleman Coliseum was only twenty years old when I attended UA over 35 years ago and it looked outdated even then. Rising construction costs haven't stopped upgrades or new facilities for other sports, and the athletic department certainly isn't hurting for money, so it's time to build a new arena while the momentum is there for it.

We really did not look like even a get-past-the-opening-round team with the way we closed out the regular season and SEC Tournament, losing four of six and giving up 100+ in three of them. This team figured out something in that week before Charlotte and it has kept going through to the Final Four. There will be a couple banners going up in Coleman for winning the regional and for making the FF, but this team can still win it all if it continues to play improved defense and is able to keep knocking down threes to stretch the floor. It will be tough getting past UConn, but it's doable. Just need to keep the mentality of playing with house money and that no matter what happens Saturday that this has already been an unprecedented season, so stay loose and have fun.

Incredible game! Everyone was looking to Sears, but it was Nelson that took over and put the team on his back in crunch time. Playing with house money! On to the Elite Eight!

Tennessee beats Alabama twice, Alabama beats Mississippi State twice, Mississippi State beats Tennessee twice. Go figure.

It looked like Oats figured that out against Florida a couple weeks ago in Tuscaloosa, as well, with the Tide going inside when the threes weren't falling. We did the same last night in Gainesville, but the problem is that when you play terrible defense, it takes an awful lot of offense to keep up. The Gators were shooting well, but that's because they got a lot of open looks from being in rhythm which we never seemed to find on either end of the court. With no real threat to stop anyone in the paint, any team that can defend the three-ball against us will gladly trade some layups knowing they're going to score on the majority of their trips down the court. I mean, last night Florida gave up 52 points to us in the second half and still outscored us by nine, averaging three points per minute. There are a lot of other teams that can do that to us, too.

You really are a sad, pathetic excuse for a human being, aren't you?

Auburn is stuck with Freeze for better or for worse for at least the next three seasons unless he takes off for somewhere else on his own. It cannot afford yet another coaching change this quickly, both financially and in turning the position into a poison pill no reputable coach would want. I think Freeze will get things going, but he took over a dumpster fire that's going to take time to extinguish.

This isn't about what makes the most competitive or interesting Playoff; it's about what generates the most money. They'll get everyone used to seeing 12 teams for the next couple years but they're already laying the groundwork for that to be seen as insufficient so we'll quickly be up to 16. Then they'll look at the FCS model and say that FBS should be the same way and will bump to 24. As long as the ratings continue to look good and tickets continue to move for these games, they'll keep expanding it.

That can't happen because of Title IX. Schools are required to offer athletic scholarships to females in proportion to the percentage of students they constitute at the school. That's why there are more women's sports than men's because of the massive number of scholarships football receives. Even if a school stopped offering scholarships and went strictly NIL with players as employees, it would still be unable to discriminate against women because of labor laws. Women's sports aren't going anywhere.

Even more than developing Milroe, DeBoer is going to have to develop some WRs and TEs. There hasn't been a true go-to receiver at Alabama the last two seasons, and Milroe really needs someone who can run routes and get open quickly. Of course, that also assumes that Milroe is guaranteed to be QB1 and that DeBoer doesn't open up competition for the spot in spring practice.

While the defense in the paint is still a concern, it was great to see that Oats does have a Plan B after all on the offensive side. When the three-pointers weren't falling, he directed his players to push into the lane where they did a great job scoring there instead. It kept us in the game until the long-range shooters finally got going late to catch up and force the game to overtime and then getting the win.

That doesn't seem to have anything to do with what I posted, and for that matter Blackmon didn't predict anything about who would but just said Alabama might make it.

"With Mark Sears, my current pick for SEC Player of the Year, leading a lethal group of guards, the Crimson Tide might make the program’s first Final Four next month." Perhaps, though Alabama still has that glaring problem with physicality in the paint. We saw how Tennessee and Auburn took advantage of that in their wins against the Tide. Alabama does have the shooting ability to help overcome that and win high-scoring games, but when the Tide goes cold from the perimeter or plays a team that guards them well, then it usually has no Plan B to make up for it. Whether Alabama makes that Final Four will likely depend on the draw it gets with whether it runs into a physically-dominant team.

He couldn't put Aubie's head on anyway as Auburn doesn't even allow Corso to do that. In any case, that's a Corso thing and I seriously doubt that ESPN would have the GOAT do a silly (albeit fun) gimmick like that.

I have a feeling that Milroe was told to stay in the pocket and go through his progressions rather than making an impromptu run because a) Rees wanted him to focus on developing as a passer, and b) because you don't want your starting QB taking hits, especially with no proven quantity behind him. Unfortunately on b), though, he took those hits anyway from an often-porous O-line that did improve as the year went on only to regress in the Rose Bowl. And on a) it looked like Rees called either for quick swing routes or 30+ yard ones; the quick throws on crossing routes or short-to-middle routes in the middle of the field were few. A lot of that had to do with no WR stepping up to be the go-to guy. Those are two issues DeBoer is going to have to figure out in spring practice.

Why is Sarkesian ahead of DeBoer when DeBoer has beaten him twice in the last two seasons and did so with a less-talented roster each time?

There's supposed to be a new one coming in the next couple years. Coleman looked old and outdated even when I attended Alabama 35+ years ago, and it was only about 20 years old at the time.

Auburn did take a brief one-point lead in the second half with just over nine minutes to go, but Alabama took the lead back on the ensuing possession and held it the rest of the way. But about time Alabama finally got a quality win. You can have one of the toughest schedules in the country as the Tide has played, but you've got to win at least a couple against Quad 1 teams to ensure you make the tournament. Still have plenty of chances to pick up a few more.

What frustrates ‘Bama fans right now is the way the transfer rule is constructed. When you have a coaching change, it’s open season on your roster for 30 days while you cannot add anyone yourself (except from other programs that have had a coaching change and are in a 30-day window themselves). This is something that really does not seem well thought out and needs to be addressed, though between it and NIL the NCAA does not appear to have the desire to provide any kind of structure and is content to let chaos reign.

Dude, I've seen TONS of it. Stop pretending that you haven't.

Exactly. Hayes has DeBoer as the third-best hire and the only thing he lists as a negative is that he's following Saban. Is he suggesting that Smith and Fisch would have been better hires for Alabama by ranking them ahead of him?