Word is Avery may be gone. Taking the manger role with New Orleans nba team. Sure looks like somethings up there.

You must be hanging out with timbercruiser tonight with that kind of insider intel

Nah but it was an insider that told me.

I’m assuming this thread looks like a ghost thread since he’s got us on ignore tho

Probably ain't got me on ignore.

GONE

Giving up another double digit 2nd half lead and lose by 9 on the road is not the way to keep your job.

Dr. B

Avery needs to go. That team is playing like crap. He has a bunch of talent but dang sure cant get any effort out of them

He needs to go back to the NBA. I wish him the best of luck

Something has got to give... a lot of talent , NO RESULTS !!!!

I wanted Avery to make it here.....I really, really did. And in the beginning I thought he would. But man this is a bad team. I mean just fundamentally bad. I don't know what our Basketball Program's problem is, but it seems like it just doesn't matter who's at the helm, there's just no righting the ship. I have no illusions of us being a regular Final 4 contender, but I'd like to see us consistently make the tournament and occasionally make it to the Sweet 16.

Or just compete in the sec tourney!

It's really bad. Fundamentals are horrible, with no effort. Careless mistakes. Looks like a middle school team that doesn't care.

Spend the money get a great coach and go forward. Auburn did a good job getting Pearl and it paid off Bama needs to do the same.

I kept thinking he was going to do something good, but he just hasn't. Time for him to go, they've given him every chance possible. They need to fork over some bucks to get a good coach in there, well overdue.

Tennessee got better by firing him

It’s pickup basketball.

Touche....touche

This thread is making me laugh. Funny how AU/UA football comments and how they are reversed when talking about basketball.

AJ is making $3mil...making more than pearl presently. They’re spending the $$$, just not getting a good return.

I think Avery needs an extension. He will be better next year.

I heard someone on Jox's say that the last decade is the worst decade of Alabama basketball history. IDK if it is or not but we are piss poor ! The 2 Texas a&m losses where just pathetic.. Avery is a likeable guy but I hope he leaves.

Avery was a chitty coach in the NBA. He seems to recruit pretty well but losing will bring that to an end to that too. I heard from timbercruiser that this whole alabama tenure was just a way to get his son some PT for a D1 team

Affirmative action hire

His son doesn't even play.. and he's pretty good from what I've seen.

Avery needs to go.

Perhaps you're not familiar with his son. His name is Avery Johnson Jr. Hes averaging 10 mpg. And he blows

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/team/stats/_/id/333/alabama-crimson-tide

I was gonna say pretty much the same thing. He is the epitome of daddy ball because he really shouldn't be playing at all. He's definitely not playing at the next level.

Five years later after they fired Cuonzo Martin and Donnie Tyndall. Five years to be relevant again.

Tennessee didn't fire him for being a bad coach, though. They didn't even want to fire him.

They had to fire him because he is a documented known cheater.

I've been saying for a while that he wont last long

Well I really don't know my butt from a hole in the ground when it comes to basketball. I enjoy watching but I haven't watched more than a half a game all year.

Playing street ball and shooting threes and no rebounding will kill anyone! No defense most times.

If he hasn't fixed it by now, he's not able to.

Sexton, the head moon cricket from last year, left them stranded. Basketball needs to meet football and require 3 years of playing in college. It's actually worse on programs than the transfer "free agent" rule in football. Then again....Calipari coaching the same kid 3 years and he would be mentioned in the same breath as Rupp and Hall and the rest of the SEC could just play for runner up.../.

The reason for the football rule is that most high school kids aren't physically mature enough to withstand the punishment of the NFL. No reason for the rule in other sports. A kid should be able to go make his money without the school holding him back.

Basketball recruiting at the top schools is probably the dirtiest part of college sports there is.

Why? To make the college game better? If someone doesn't want to be in college, I don't see the need to make them play there. It's not like they're studying. I wish they could go straight to the NBA like LeBron did. Leave college to people that want to be there.

I was disappointed when he was hired. I wanted them to give a blank check to Gregg Marshall.

Yep.

Agreed

Just saw on the local news that UA is in the process of firing aj or "buying him out".

Yep. He gone.

Gone

You mean like we did when Gottfried was coach? Never understood why we got rid of him.

Gottfried's arrogance&laziness got him canned. Just don't think a bright young coach wants to be in the tall ring wearing midgets shadow at the capstone. Bama can be a tourny contender but I doubt nets will be cut in April.

in SEC play, he went:
2006 - 7-9 (Lost first round NIT)
2007 - 5-11 (No tournament appearance)
2008 - 2-3 (fired),

He got caught in a public affair with a student cart girl at the golf course where the University of Alabama golf team has their training facility.

How could we not get rid of him?

mike price agrees ^^^^

I think a lot of my Bama brethren are somewhat delusional about how good our Basketball team should be. Gents, we're not even a Syracuse. The thing is, it ultimately comes down to resources. Yes Alabama generates more revenue than almost every sports program in the nation (I believe only Texas and Texas A&M are ahead). To get a Basketball program to the level you all are wanting requires facilities, coaching salaries, media, etc. That's a drain on resources that we are committing to sports we actually excel at.

ya think?

better conference
better coach (in his 43rd year)
better facilities
better history (6 final fours)

Yep. Alabama is also not as good as Duke at basketball.....

Syracuse is a perennial basketball powerhouse. Not a great analogy.

One day they hope to have a jewel like Coleman Coliseum.

Bama is racist. That is the real reason Avery will be fired.

I demand reperations!!

Saw late last night Avery is negotiating a buyout. His $8 million drops to $6 million after April 15, but he won't be around by then.

I saw that too. It drops after April 1 and then again after April 15. What benefit does bammer have to hurry up and fire him? A couple of extra weeks recruiting time is all I can figure, which I imagine can be a crucial time for that.

Alabama needs to get on the phone and just ask Trendon Watford who he wants to be his coach, and hire him.

whoever that is, if he doesn't win with Watford, Petty, Kira, Reece, Herb Jones, Mack, Gidden & Dazon, (plus three 4* commits coming) he doesn't need to coach anymore anyway.

Just shooting decent free throw % would have won 4 or 5 more games this year.

People underestimate the power of the free throw. When Pearl first came to AU we were among the lowest in the SEC in free throws. I remember him saying that had to change. Now they are among the best. He changed that and a lot of other things to make AU a pretty decent team. I think if a team has a winning mentality, they will make the free throws.

That makes no sense. So you want a coach picked by a 17yo one and done, to win with guys that couldn't hit free throws this year...or he doesn't need to coach anymore, anyways? Give me a guy that coaches fundamentals, promotes the program and isn't afraid of trying to win with the "other than 1 and dones". Greg Byrne is fixin to have to earn that salary.

they say Avery devoted 0 minutes to it in practice. Said that he expected them to practice it on their own time, because that's how its done in the NBA.

well,....

1) in the NBA its your job, your livelihood

2) in the NBA you don't have to spend time in class and studying

I guess he treats free throw practice the same way Sabens treats field goals...

Actually it was perfect if you picked up on my sarcasm. A team like Syracuse is a team that's in the tourney every year, is a force in their conference but isn't really a national title contender threat. That's what people in this thread keep asking for at Bama and I'm trying to explain let's get real!!! It's never going to happen at Bama in Basketball and that's actually ok, There's 3 schools in the country that make gross bottom lines at bball, for the most part its a loss in the dollars column.

The finances don't really concern me. I don't donate to the University, and probably never will. I'd just like to see them be competitive. With the same amount of money we're paying now, we could be. Tennessee isn't exactly some basketball powerhouse. But they look pretty good this year.

Sorry, but nearly everything you've said regarding basketball is wrong...for Bama, for Syracuse, and for the rest of the nation. You should probably just sit this conversation out.

Men's basketball is very profitable for a lot of programs nationwide. Here's an article detailing the 25 most profitable men's basketball programs. Hint: Bama is one of them....

https://www.businessinsider.com/lou...balls-biggest-money-maker-in-2016-2018-2

You think they go to class at Bama? Ha!

That Dontae Hall looks like he outta have overalls on and a corn cob pipe sticking out his mouth chasing after beagle dogs

You couldn’t have nailed that any better. LMAO.

Now back to Bammer basketball. They can be an SEC contender and I think that’s all fans expect. The SEC overall has taken it up a notch in Basketball and I think you’ll see a lot of teams making bank on B-ball in the near future. AU, TN, ( Ark, when they decide to get it together) Mizzou, (see Arkansas) and Bama ( see Ark and Mizzou). Florida will be a contender if they halfway try but Basketball just doesn’t seem to be a draw there. Basketball makes $$ when you are good.
I grew up watching Bama in the late 70’s and 80’s. We didn’t drain resources at all and we’re still a contender year end and year out. Hell, Bama, UAB and USA were perennial powers at the same time for much of the 80’s. Someone needs to light a match the Coleman Coliseum, build a state of the Art 8,500 seat capacity with all the bells and whistles (see Auburn) go out and hire the best x’s and O’s coach (see Auburn) and make a run. If you can’t be one of the top 64 teams by March and have the resources of an Alabama, something is completely sideways. I’m not saying we are some kind of sleeping giant but top 64 and top 3-5 in the SEC should get you a 5-8 seed in the dance. Then you have a shot to make a run.

Rick pitino is available.

I hear he’s looking to bring back the UNLV Runnin Rebels to their rightful seat at the throne. Vegas is right up his alley.

I like Coleman's sight lines, but it's truly baffling how they haven't built a new, modern arena. They could play home games at the BJCC (probably get bigger crowds, too) and take 18 months to raze and build.

It's like the UA football-baseball complex is Cindy Crawford and Coleman is the mole on her face.

I grew up going to games in Coleman as a kid in the 80’s and that place was a dump then. I can’t imagine it now.

Same, better light bulbs

They should put the men's games at Foster Auditorium until they can rebuild Coleman

Coleman is 50+ years old and still looks pretty much like it did then. It opened in 1968 as a multi-purpose facility, similar to what Beard-Eaves Coliseum was at Auburn. Housed the coaches -- football and hoops got the big offices, of course, while other coaches had shitt offices wherever they had them -- along with everything else including storage for equipment and administrative, sports information and ticket offices.

While at Auburn I worked for sports info for about a year and remember once opening a door in the coliseum just to see what was in there. It was a catch-all closet that included trophies from bowl games from the 1940s on. I think a couple of Zeke Smith's awards were in there. I was stunned, but at the time there was nowhere to showcase trophies of any kind other than the Heismans out front by the ticket office and Dye's office.

Coleman was similar. Seems like they had some football and hoops trophies displayed but not all of them. UA, of course, had far more to showcase than AU and that still holds true even with the Bryant Museum. In the museum's storage room and file area they have some truly incredible memorabilia and trophies, along with one of the best, most extensive collections of college football-related magazines, newspapers and historical data dating more than 100 years. It's a great repository for research, but it's damned challenging to be thinking about finding data from the 1925 season for a book or story when you're looking at Orange Bowl trophies, letter jackets and other cool stuff just sitting around.

Oh, there's one of Coach Bryant's hats.

Hey, there's something from Joe Namath.

Geez, that's one, two, four trophies from bowl games by the awards from multiple players.

IMO they could play hoops in B'ham for 18 months, bulldoze Coleman and built a truly world class basketball arena with a showcase for hoops and non-revenue sports trophies, which is what those teams and athletes deserve. Bryant Museum could add another level or two and still probably not be able to show all the football memorabilia.

You would think they could be at least as good as Wafford or Liberty.

Or Norfolk State...

There’s the famous picture of Joe Namath and Bryant with Coleman getting built in the background.

I’ve been in every nook and cranny of Coleman coliseum, Auburn Arena and Troy’s. Coleman isn’t even close to those two.

He may want to check those numbers. I think Bama is around 5 or 6 in total revenue.

Nope...he's right. Bama is tied with Michigan for 3rd ($127MM) in total athletic department revenues behind TAMU and Texas.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/chriss...tballs-most-valuable-teams/#5d1906bb6c64

Well, Nate Oats is disappointing

He's a good coach and a huge upgrade from Avery Johnson. He's coming into the league at a time when it's as good as it's ever been. If the school pours some money into facilities , that are sub par at this point, and he recruits well, Alabama fans will be happy with the results, I think.

I hear he had the boys at Romulus High School really competing 2002-2013

Best player and 2 others have entered the transfer portal

Maybe they should have went after Roy Williams or Coach K. Heck, I bet Bobby Knight would come out of retirement for that job.

Oates was going to be on several schools short list and time will tell if he's as good as the pundits think he is. His success will depend directly on how committed Alabama is to basketball. To this point it hasn't been a priority, it seems.

There can be some serious conflicts of culture in hiring a yankee to work at bama. I worked for a young gun superstar professor at Auburn from Syracuse New York. He was and is to this day the most arrogant rude ass I have ever met. Hopefully Oates is great..

He would have taken the Troy job to get the hell out of Buffalo. He can now sell the snow shovel and blower.

Basketball can turn a profit but the conference needs each other. Its approx 1.7 per win plus 1.7 per team getting in the tourney. So with 4 teams to sweet 16 thats 7 teams x 1.7 + 8 x 1.7 = approx 25 million for conference.

Hey jawbone! Excuse the sanctimony but this thread was started by a barner. With barners commenting in it.

Saban and Oates!!!!! Gonna be sharing and Oates-meal cream pie for breakfast every day. Huge hire!!!!

Of the 4 that entered the transfer portal, 2 have fouled out already and the other 2 are 2/9 on free throws so far. All 2019-2020 home games will be played inside the transfer portal until Coleman Coliseum upgrades are complete....RTR

My guess is Bama hired him and then pushes for the coach at Mountain Brook as an assistant, who also just happens to have a 5* that hasn't signed yet and several more in the pipeline. Good thing about a guy who coached at a high school level is he has to develop talent, it just isn't great recruiting. Same way at Buffalo, not a house hold name and he has to develop kids to be competitive. Hopefully at Bama he will have some talent to go with development..

Also with all the FBI stuff going on Bama probably wanted to make sure they got a guy who isn't tied to it in any way.... Bama don't hire cheaters

If a former NBA coach didn’t improve Bama basketball, What do y’all think a former high school coach will do? Seems a bit illogical to believe this is an improvement.

Let em have their fun Reb. They’ll still suck in the end

Exactly. Just look at Auburn football with high school gus. And like 257 said they still suck. You agree right?

I agree. This isn't an upgrade of any sort and has caused multiple players to leave. The basketball roster is now gutted with another "up and coming" coach who's longest stint is as a coach in High School. In the coming days the recruiting class will most likely fall apart and Alabama's starting lineup next year on opening day will probably be three walk ons, and some bench players from this season. As bad as it was it's going to be much worse. Good job Byrne.


Trendon Watford? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAA...... that kid can go pretty much anywhere he wants but he's going to go to Alabama and jump on that train wreck? Nah.

Bama Basketball isn't going to be a quick turn by any means, neither was Auburn. Took Pearl 3 years to really get it going.

I imagine he's spending his first day in Tuscaloosa begging 19 year olds to stick around.

I sure hope Kira stays

Meh, Bruce Pearl is from Boston, Mass. Hard to get too much more Yankee than that and he’s seemed to do quite well. Rick Pitino from NY, NY once at UK comes to mind. Billy Donavan who grew up in NY state as we’ll won 2 titles at Florida. I do get what your saying but there are many who can break the barrier. I’m not really excited about the hire but crossing my fingers that in 4 years, yes it will take a least 3 but I’ll allow 4, that we will hopefully make the list of 64 in March. Bama basketball has reminded me of Tn football. Was once a great SEC program and has slid into mediocrity over the last 20 years. Hopefully this Nate Yankee guy can talk some sense in the powers that be and burn Coleman to the ground. Build a state of the art basketball arena. If you build it they will come.

Gotta look at the stats...guy really knows how to coach and has won at every level so far...I think he is a diamond in the rough and trust Byrne (especially after the baseball hire where bama without anywhere near the talent beat Auburn and is a scrappy team)...I mean all of the top coaches had to start somewhere...Anything is better than being the bubble team we have been that is boring and frustrating to watch! I would at least like to either suck bad or be good but not get my hopes up and then crush them everytime lol

I'd be tickled to see them hit more than 50% of their free throws, I mean 4 and 5* kids can't hit 50% of their free throws?

From what I've read he runs a high octane offense that tries to get shots off in under 10 seconds if possible, what kid wouldn't want to be in that type of offense. His Buffalo team averaged 85 points a game which is pretty stout. He also runs an in your face defense. He won 32 games this year including beating Syracuse at Syracuse, Johnson only won 38 in the last 2 years.

Fingers crossed he can turn the ship and at least get to the field of 64.

The more I’ve read about him, the more I like him,

Mostly upset me because it kills all my Gus Malzahn is a certified drivers ed high school teacher jokes

I've spoken to him several times and I don't have a clue where he is going. But, I didn't get the impression that he wants to go to Duke, he wants to be a big star surrounded by others, not one of a bunch of stars. He isn't a selfish player at all, but I get the impression he wants to be the big dog. He was solid between Alabama or LSU until a firings and FBI stuff at LSU. He says it is LSU, Alabama, Duke, Memphis and Indiana.

I think it may come down to Bucky getting an assistant job. If he gets a job at Alabama, Trendon will go there. Otherwise, I would still lean Alabama or Memphis. His brother played at Indiana. But, from what I have seen, he hasn't spoken to them in months.

From one of the biggest Bama fans on the board I realize this..... I attended the university and when I was there I worked at the O'charley's when we made it to the elite 8. I remember the team coming in after they made it to the sweet 16. Pretty cool. Even then, by the way.... we were horrible at football at the time... basketball just wasn't a big deal for Bama. All these "fans" want to act as if Wimp had us as some kind of dynasty. It's just unrealistic to ever expect us to be that team. Top basketball players in the country are never going to come to Bama because they will always play second fiddle to the Football program. I think Oats is probably as good as we could get and I'm not disappointed by it. He will have us as a bubble team every year and then the "fans" will be screaming for his head too.

There's a part of me that loves what Saban has done for the university because enrollment has almost doubled since he arrived, the money coming into the university has increased dramatically and for anyone to deny that he's the cause of that is asinine. The only downside is he has made us soooo good in Football (and Patterson had us there in Gymnastics and our Softball team is lights out as well.... Golf too) that our fans really expect it in every sport. I say let's just enjoy the ride and root on the Tide for what it is.

With the right coach, you can have good basketball at a football school. Look at Florida under Donovan.

With the right coaches and circumstances, you can use one to bolster the other.

I never believed Avery was going to make Alabama a perennial tourney team. I think Oats will do well if they give him the resources. Anyone know if any facility upgrades are in the works?

Is hey continue to “upgrade” Coleman every year. A new arena would be nice.

How much would replacing Coleman cost? $200 million?

Auburn’s was right at $90M I think, and it is nice.

So is troys

Some of yall are absolutely brain dead

Someone will hire the mountain Brook coach as an assistant, I believe that'll happen soon