I've read quite a bit about Bama basketball this week and some of the beatdown has been kind of hard to swallow. I will say that I've been kind of hard on them at times for the lack of production from their offense but maybe there are some reasons for the lack of consistency of the team this year.

We'll start from the beginning and maybe I can shed some light on why I think they didn't reach their goal this year. Personally I think it all started from last years team. Bama lost three players from that team that could have made all the difference in the world for them this year.

Mitchell was kicked off the team, Hankerson transferred for some reason, and Eblen decided not to play the extra year that he had. Mitchell, an All-American, was the main key to this team this year because he owned the baseline and anything around the goal and that is where Bama hurt the most this year. Hankerson gave the club some very good minutes off the bench, he had a decent shot from the outside. Eblen couldn't shoot a lick, but he could sure play defense.

Now let's look at what happened this year. The only senior on the team, Steele, gets hurt immediately and misses an extensive amount of games. Jacobs came in hurt and never had many quality minutes until the last few games of the season. Lacey goes down with an injury and misses some games, Releford goes down with an injury and misses some games, and Engstrom goes down with a knee injury and is lost for the season. Pollard was being counted on heavily but he showed immediatly that he needed some work and would not be a force on the team this year. Gueye is only a body on the floor playing hard but has very few skills to help the team.

I am really surprised they won as many games as they did but I am also surprised they didn't win even more games as well. There were some conference games that they let get away from them that could have made a big difference in their post season play but I can't be mad at them for losing them though, only disappointed. Now I might be mad about the Auburn game.

How good could this team have been had they had the other 3 players? I say they could have been a much better team than they were but what happened to those three are just bad breaks that go along with sports. This team played their hearts out for the most part but just came up short and I can't turn my back on them.

I'll be there Tuesday night cheering for them as though they were in the Big Dance, and I'll be there next season cheering them on in hopes of making it to the Big Dance. They have won twenty or more games the past three seasons, that is much more than they were winning before CAG came to Bama. There are brighter days ahead for this team. ROLL TIDE!!!!

I had been wondering how Alabama ended up with the #4 seed when we finished in a 3-way tie for second with Kentucky and Ole Miss. I just found out.

First tie breaker is head-to-head. UK beat OM, OM beat Bama and Bama beat UK. Still tied.

Second tie breaker is who beat the highest seeded team, in this case Florida. OM and Bama both lost to Florida on the road. UK also lost to Florida on the road but they also got to play them at home and beat them. Their 1-1 record is better than out 0-1 record. UK # 2 seed. OM and Bama still tied.

Third tie breaker is head-to-head of the teams that are still tied. OM beat us.

IMO the tie breaker sucks. It is not fair for a team to get two shots and one of those are at home while our only shot was on the road. What makes it worse is we beat UK head-to-head and had the tie breaker over them.

I was in Tuscaloosa this weekend for a sorority alumnae function with my wife.  Got a tour of the recruiting room, media room, football locker room and access to the field.  Weather was rotten but we stood at the 50 and just marveled at the view and imagined what the sound must be like on a Saturday.  There may be a lot of reasons that a recruit wouldn't pick BAMA but facilities and atmosphere ain't one of them!  Houndstooth tile work in the showers!  ROLL TIDE!!!!

My analysis of this team after 3 weeks of the season:

Pitching:  Again this year this will be out strength.  Although Traina has not looked like she is in mid-season form at times, she is still probably the Best all round pitcher in College softball.  Jury appears to have matured nicely and has gained control of her pitches.  Sewell's return will give us the depth we need for tournament play.

Outfield:  Having lost 2 outstanding outfielders off the National Championship Team one might expect some drop off in outfield play.  The recruitment of McCleney and the development of Davis will minimize any potential drop off in defense and/or  hitting at this position for this team.  Hawkins also looks ready to play and could backup in any of the outfields. This position will definitely be a strength for this team.

Middle Infielders:  The position switch of Hunt and Hays will strengthen the defensive ability up the middle.  Hays has a much quicker release on her throw and can make the sidearm throw quicker than Hunt.  Her range also better fits the shortstop position.  Hunt is an adequate fielder who will be a team leader in hitting for average as well as with power.  With this combination we will be solid up the middle.

ON the Corners:  Although Coach Murphy has tried numerous combinations at 1st and 3rd, nobody has risen above the pack to claim a clear advantage over the others.  Conley is a really good defensive 3rd baseman who is capable of hitting with power, maybe she will find her grove soon.  Richards has proven a capable
sub at 3rd, but I don't see her replacing a 3 year starter unless Conley completely tanks.  First base is a different story, we lost an outstanding defensive and offensive player in Ri-Bo, and as far as I can tell, there is still no clear leader in the competition for that position.  Spenser has the potential but has not shown much yet.  Lafaele may also develope, but may not be ready yet to face SEC type pitching.  This position appears to be one of 2 weakness this team has at this point.

Catcher:  Kendell Dawson was an outstanding defensive catcher who we are going to miss.  She didn't have a big bat but had an outstanding arm.  As with 1st base, no one has risen to the top as a clear leader for this position.  Fichtner  certainly has potential but has not found her groove yet.  I saw Bell catch a couple of innings in last years SEC tournament and was impressed with
with the way she handled the position, but again she has not risen to the top in that competition.  

Summary:  Pitching - Outstanding
               Outfield - Great
               Middle Infield - Good
               Corners - satisfactory
               Catcher - Unknown

We have one more week of pre conference play, before we take on Florida and Tennessee.  We need to find who the "winners" are at 1st and at catching.  Our offense production from the outfield and middle infield had been good (maybe bordering on great), but the offensive production from 1st base, 3rd base, and catcher has been inadequate for a championship team.

I have confidence that Coach Murphy is every bit as smart as I am, and already has a plan of how to address these issues

Time to make your predictions.  Will we make the NCAA men's basketball tournament this year?  Will it be March Madness or March Sadness for Tide fans?

I say we will make it in based on finishing pretty high in the conference.

Pathetic is really an understatement for this team and who's at fault, the players or the coaches? If you guess both, you are exactly right.

I blame the coaches for not having a designed offense for this team, the Bama offense reminds me of a good pickup game at a local park. I sat there last night and tried to make myself understand that at any minute the offense would begin to click, but I guess when there is no game plan for the offense, it can never click. The only chance this team has to score is in an uptempo setting and after the first half there was no effort whatsoever in trying to make that happen.

I blame the players, for not trying to make something happen to change the tempo of the game. This team cannot rebound nor can they shoot from the outside and in many cases from underneath the basket, and whose fault is that? Again it is both, the players and the coaches. The coaches are at fault for not providing and teaching the players and the players are at fault for giving very little effort on either the offensive boards or the defensive boards to generate a tempo of the game that would help the offense in some way.

I have supported CAG from his arrival at Bama, but I can't support what I've seen this season. There are teams with far less talent than what Bama has, but are playing a much better brand of basketball. Bama should be playing like a veteran team regardless of the number of seniors on the team, they returned almost all of the starters from last year's team, which is a coach's dream. If CAG's plans are to make a career at Bama, he might better step up his style of basketball that he is coaching, because the fan support is starting to get a little restless and that might not be so good, ticket sales play a major role in who the coach is or isn't. Roll Tide!!

I attended the Fan Appreciation Day last Saturday and had a really good time. There was a good crowd on hand and if the weather had been a little nicer, I think there would have been a much larger crowd. The players sure made friends with a lot of fans as they wandered among the crowd signing autographs and taking pictures.

The team put on quite an exhibition during batting practice. Stephanie VanBrakle threw batting practice and she is no slouch when it comes to pitching, but home runs were flying out of the stadium at a very rapid pace.

The team scrimmaged with Jury pitching for the Crimson and Sewell pitching for the White team. I talked a little with Jury Friday afternoon and I asked her how Sewell was doing with her injured knee and she said she is 100% cured. This is a plus if she can work her way back into part of the pitching rotation. I only stayed for a couple of innings of the scrimmage as the weather turned a little nasty but Jury seems to be better mentally with her pitches. When Traina came to bat, Jury went right after her and 6 pitches later Traina was in the dugout. Jury couldn't do that last year because she was always pitching from behind in the count on most batters which is a great recipe for failure. Traina seems to have dropped a few pounds and looks to be in better shape than she was last year and this could be more bad news for her opponents. This team looks to be two deep at every position and the freshmen look nothing like freshmen. The team will have more speed than I have ever seen them have before and Murph said that anytime these speed merchants get on base, they have a green light to go at any time.

With all of the said above, there is one key ingredient that must happen for this team to take it all again this year. As all championship coaches will tell you, team leadership is the key ingredient. Last year I thought Jen Fenton and Cassie Reilly-Bochia were the leaders as they always seemed to be the two that did something to bring the Tide back from the jaws of defeat so many times and the other players seemed to follow their lead. Being a leader is something very special and can be very hard to do, so it will be interesting this year to see who will earn this privilege.

I hope that some of you that like the sport but haven't had the chance to come to T-town and watch them play will get that chance this year. They are an amazing bunch of athletes and loads of fun to watch. Roll Tide!!