For anyone who has kept up with Alabama basketball for the past ten years, pinch them and let them know this is not a dream. Maybe a dream season, but not a dream. Ten games into the Southeastern Conference schedule, Alabama is 8-2, with wins over Kentucky and Tennessee.
The Crimson Tide is undefeated at home and with six games left in the regular season, four of the remaining games will be played in Coleman Coliseum.
Alabama is doing it with stout defense and creative offense. Freshman Trevor Releford is still in the process of maturing into a premier SEC point guard, but the development has accelerated since the first SEC road game, which ended in a loss to Arkansas.
In that game, Alabama led for 37 plus minutes, by as many as ten points in the first half and seven points in the second half of the contest. With seven minutes left in the game, Alabama could not overcome a cold spell, offensively, and turned the ball over on key possessions, allowing the Razorbacks to complete an unlikely comeback and snatch victory away from the Tide.
Against the Hogs, Releford had 17 points, four assists and four rebounds. JaMychal Green added 16 points and five rebounds while Tony Mitchell poured in 14 points and also collected five rebounds in the losing effort. Mitchell's contribution came with only 26 minutes playing time.
It was a tough loss, a loss that encouraged this young team to grow up fast. "When you lose a game like that, in the last minutes, you either get better or fold. This team got better" stated Anthony Grant in a recent interview. The loss at Arkansas was a teachable moment for the team, in particular for the freshman point guard.
Since the loss in Fayetteville, Alabama has learned how to hold onto a lead. They have learned to win. The next test came quickly at home against Kentucky.
With Alabama leading by as many as 20 points in the second half, with 15:02 remaining, the Wildcats began cutting into the lead. Alabama had no answer for the men in blue and white. The Crimson Tide hit a cold spell and it looked as if they would not recover.
UK shaved the lead to four points with 5:15 remaining. The lead was cut to two points following a series of missed shot by Charvez Davis and a made layup by UK's Terrence Jones. Following 1-2 from the line by JaMychal Green, a foul by senior Senario Hillman sent Jones to the line. Jones made both free throws to cut the lead to a single point in what seemed to be the beginning of a final surge by the Wildcat to snatch victory from the Tide.
That is the point when JaMychal Green asserted himself as a leader on this team. Missing on a layup, Green would not be denied. He fought off two defenders and grabbed the rebound for a put-back, allowing the Tide to lead by three.
Terrence Jones once again drew the Wildcats to within one with a made layup, but he then fouled Green on the following play. Green missed the first of two free throws but made the second, securing a two point lead. UK's Doron Lamb launched a three-pointer with 2:06 remaining that missed the mark.
Tony Mitchell grabbed his seventh rebound of the night and was immediately fouled. Mitchell made both free throws to put the Tide up by four with just over two minutes remaining.
UK would not go away. They demanded excellence on the part of Alabama if they were to lose on the road. From nearly 20-feet out, well beyond the three point line, Brandon Knight sunk a shot that put the Wildcats within a single point, once again.
With 1:38 left to play, holding onto a one point lead at 67-66, Alabama tightened up with an inopportune turnover by Trevor Releford, yielding possession to the Wildcats. Releford was removed from the game for instruction, not as a punitive maneuver by the head coach. Releford was at the side of his head coach for the remainder of the game.
The Alabama defense then forced a turnover by the Wildcats Brandon Knight. And with under 30 seconds, it seemed Alabama would hold onto the ball and the lead.
Nothing comes easy in the SEC, particularly when playing on the hard court against UK. Senior Senario Hillman turned the ball over to the Wildcats with just eleven seconds left to play. But in an all-out team effort, and intelligent substitutions by head coach Anthony Grant, Ben Eblen came off the bench in the last ten seconds and stole the ball from UK's Darius Miller. A quick foul by UK's Jones sent Eblen to the charity stripe.
With only two seconds on the game clock, Eblen made the first shot to put the Tide up by two. The second shot careened off the front of the rim. UK rebounded the ball and threw up a desperation three-pointer that did not come close to the basket. Alabama held onto victory against the SEC juggernaut in a make or break game.
That victory was instrumental for the growth and maturation of this young Alabama team. Since that game, Alabama is 5-1, with the only loss coming on the road against the Vanderbilt Commodores in a contest that went down to the wire, ending with controversy due to poor officiating, allowing the home team a distinct advantage.
The game against the Commodores featured 11 ties and 10 lead changes as both teams went toe-to-toe the entire 40 minutes.
Beginning at the 17:41 mark of the second half, Alabama held the Commodores without a field goal for more than five minutes, utilizing an 11-2 run to take a 56-54 lead. During that span, the Tide forced six turnovers, including five straight at one point, flexing its defensive muscle to turn a seven point deficit into a two point lead.
Yet it was poor officiating late in the game that snatched victory from the Crimson Tide. Two key calls with less than a minute to play allowed the Commodores to steal the victory.
In a display of class, confidence and contempt, on that night, Anthony Grant let the officiating crew know that he and his team would not go away without a fight. Yet they would not disgrace the game by bickering on center stage.
They came home from that officiating debacle to dismantle the Ole Miss Rebel Black Bears, a team that had put together a 4-1 win streak, including wins against UK at home and Arkansas on the road. Ole Miss held a lead after making the first bucket in the game, lost the lead at the 18:42 mark and trailed for the remainder of the game.
Alabama led by as many as 23 points and held premier SEC point guard, Chris Warren to only two field goals in the game, the first came with 1:16 left in the game. Too little, too late for the Rebels.
JaMychal Green finished with 15 points, six blocks and three steals in the game against the Black Bears. In his third year as a starter, JaMychal is without question, a leader both offensively and defensively for this young team. Trevor Releford added 14 points, three steals and seven assists. Alabama finished the game with a 10 point lead and held off a late charge by the Rebels.
This has been a full out team effort. JaMychal Green leads the team with 16 points per game, 2.2 blocks per game and 7.5 rebounds. He is shooting 73 percent from the free throw line.
Sophomore Tony Mitchell is averaging 15.8 points per game, Freshman Trevor Releford just over 10 points per game. Senior, Senario Hillman anchors the defense and adds just under eight points per game.
Defensively, the effort by the Crimson Tide is one of the best in the country. The Tide is Top five in the country and first in the SEC with 9.5 steals per game. They rank fourth in the SEC in with 5.7 blocks per game and third in scoring, averaging 68.5 points per game.
But shooting the three-pointer is a weakness for the Tide, a statistic that must improve if they are to continue their winning way, particularly on the road and in the SEC Tournament.
On the season, the Tide is 104 of 339 from beyond the three-point arc (31 percent), while the best in the league shoot closer to 40 percent. Kentucky executes the shot best, right at 40 percent while Vandy is just behind the Wildcats at 39 percent.
On the season, Vandy has made 195 three-point shots. That is 273 point better than Alabama over the 2011 season, at this juncture. That's a lot of offensive production just hitting nine percent more from three-point range. Improving to just 35 percent, a reasonable goal, should put Alabama in good position to finish the season well.
With four of six remaining games at Coleman Coliseum, it is an achievable goal, as most teams shoot better at home than on the road. It's a great time to be an Alabama basketball fan, but there is plenty of play left in the season.
This team must keep fighting. For the remainder of the season, they will be tested by the best that the opposition can offer. The target is squarely on their backs, a challenge to finish well. But this is what Anthony Grant signed up for when he accepted the job. It is the moment in time that players such as JaMychal Green had hope for when they signed to play in Crimson and White.
This team has arrived. Cheer them on to fight for every rebound, every steal and every turnover. The crowd at Coleman should energize the players to their core substance, allowing them to outperform any contender that enters the home court of the Tide.
As a fan, seize the day. These precious moments have not come frequently for the Capstone ballers, live it up and Roll Tide.
