When Alabama basketball coach Anthony Grant looks out on the court tonight at Kentucky's Rupp Arena during the Crimson Tide's Southeastern Conference game against the No. 3 Wildcats, he will see too freshmen who could have made a huge difference in his first season in Tuscaloosa wearing Kentucky jerseys.

Six-foot-11, 260-pound man-child DeMarcus Cousins from Mobile's LeFlore High School and guard Eric Bledsoe from Birmingham's Parker High have teamed with fellow freshman John Wall to make Kentucky one of the favorites to reach the Final Four.

Grant really didn't have a chance to recruit either player because he wasn't hired until late March, only two weeks before the late signing period in 2009. By then, Cousins (pictured right), who earlier had orally committed to UAB and later to Memphis, had decided to follow Coach John Calipari to Kentucky when he left Memphis. Bledsoe, who was uncommitted, decided he wanted to play alongside Wall.

Who could blame them? They didn't know Grant and Alabama's basketball program was in serious decline while they were in high school.

Perhaps, if Grant had been at Alabama a year or two earlier, he could have lured Cousins and Bledsoe to Tuscaloosa. At one time, the Tide had a high success rate for landing the top in-state talent, but they have only one blue-chip in-state player on their roster now -- sophomore forward JaMychal Green from Montgomery.

Grant hopes to change that in the future. He said as much during a media conference Monday.

"I think for every player, you go to the right situation for you," Grant said. "Certainly it's important to us to recruit the best student-athletes within our state and our region. Obviously we're going to take a look nationally to make sure we get our program where it needs to be, and that's what we'll do."

He is busy talking with high school coaches in the state in an effort to keep the homegrown talent at home.

"I've been pleased with what I've seen," Grant said. "Certainly I've enjoyed getting to know the coaches and building relationships with various people throughout the state. There are still obviously a lot of people that I still need to touch and get around to building those relationships with, but I've been encouraged."

This year is a down year for blue-chip talent in the state, forcing Grant and Auburn's Jeff Lebo to look beyond the state's borders for players. Lebo signed six out-of-state players in November, while Grant signed two -- four-star point guard Trevor Releford from suburban Kansas City, Mo and four-star shooting guard Charles Hankerson is from Miami.

Among the players on the Tide's radar for spring, according to Scout.com, are power forwards Ricardo Ratliffe of Central Florida Community College and Jon Horford of Grand Ledge, Mich.

But tonight, all Grant can do is look out on the court at Cousins and Bledsoe and wonder what might have been.

Alabama head football coach Nick Saban climbed back on his sanctimonious horse earlier this week during his national signing day media conference, lecturing us about commitment.

Perhaps, it's because five-star recruit Keenan Allen, a wide receiver/safety from Greensboro, N.C., orally committed to the Crimson Tide in November, but changed his mind this week and signed with the California Golden Bears.

"I'm old-fashioned," Saban said. "I think a commitment is a commitment. We tell guys when they commit that we want the recruiting to be over or we really don't want them to commit. If you're not really ready to stop recruiting, then you aren't really ready to commit because committing means you are coming to that school. I would rather you go visit other schools until you're sure that this is what you want to do rather than making a commitment and then not feeling comfortable and wanting to go explore other opportunities.

"There is an old saying, 'If you're shopping, then we should shop.' It shouldn't be that way, but when guys make commitments and then don't stick up for them, then you kind of get stuck a little bit because there may be other guys that you didn't recruit, that you could have recruited, that could have actually taken their place.

"I wish there was a better way, but there is not. We'll just have to manage it and keep recruiting guys and do the best we can with them."

What Saban didn't say is that commitment is a two-way street. How many times have college coaches promised these young men the world, such as "you are our top choice at your position," "you will get to play early," and "I will be at the school until your career is over?"

Coaches fawn over these players and tell them how great and wonderful they are, anything to get them to come to their school. The pressure to get them to commit during their recruiting visit is intense and many players cave in to the pressure.

For the most part, these youngsters honor their commitments and sign with the school they have committed to. But please don't hold 17-, 18-, 19-year-old youngsters to a higher standards than coaches are willing to follow. Didn't Saban make a commitment to the Miami Dolphins, then changed his mind and accepted a job at Alabama a few years ago? And he was under contract. High school players aren't under a contract with their college until they sign their football letter-of-intent.

Sometimes, things happen beyond a recruit's control that causes them to change their minds, and sometimes they just tell coaches what they think they want to hear just like coaches tell players what they think they want to hear.

Alabama has benefitted from players flip-flopping. Brandon Ivory, a 6-foot-3, 335-pound defensive lineman from Memphis, Tenn., committed to hometown Memphis in early January, then changed his mind and signed with the Tide.

Why didn't Saban tell him to honor his commitment to Memphis? I'll tell you why. He believes Ivory can help the Tide win football games and another national championship.

Alabama also has recruited other players who have committed to other schools, such as Shon Coleman, a 6-7, 285-pound offensive lineman from Olive Branch, Miss., who committed to Auburn in April, but visited the Tide in January.

Why didn't Saban tell him not to come to Tuscaloosa and just stay at home because he already had committed to Auburn? Because he thought he had a chance to change the youngster's mind. At least Coleman honored his commitment and signed with the Tigers.

I'm old-fashioned, too. I wish players would stick to their words. I wish I had never heard of the term "decommit."

Saban is always talking about the process. Well, "decommitments" are an ugly part of the recruiting process just as coaches up-and-leaving a school after they have told a recruit they would be there is a detestable part of college football.

It's time to assess what we have learned about the men's basketball teams at Alabama, Auburn and UAB through the first half of play in their respective conferences and hand out their midterm grades.

Alabama Crimson Tide (13-9, 3-5 Southeastern Conference)

Alabama can't seem to catch a break. They head into the second half on the heels of  back-to-back one-point losses at Auburn (58-57) and at home against Florida (66-65) in the first meeting between new Tide coach Anthony Grant and his former boss, the Gators Billy Donovan. They also dropped a one-point decision to Vanderbilt (65-64) and suffered a close loss at home to Tennessee (63-57).

When it comes to winning time, the Tide finds a way to lose. Part of that is senior Mikhail Torrance (pictured right) is not a true point guard. He's having a fine season -- in the loss to Florida he had 22 points and five assists -- but in late-game situations, the Tide needs someone to break down the defense in the half-court and make a play. That's what point guards do.

If Torrance had a point guard to get the ball to him at crunch time instead of trying to run the offense himself, he would be more effective, but he has to try to do it all. Other teams know that and make sure Torrance isn't the one who's going to take the last shot to beat them. And since no one else is capable of making a play in the late-game situations, the Tide continues to come up short in close games.

With four of their next fives on the road -- at Ole Miss, Kentucky, Georgia and Mississippi State -- and no more games remaining against LSU (two of the Tide's three SEC wins have come against the winless - toothless? - Tigers), the Tide could be headed for a losing season overall.

Grade: C

Auburn Tigers (11-11, 2-5 SEC)

The Tigers actually have been half good. Really, they have. They trailed South Carolina only 32-29 at halftime before losing 80-71; they trailed No. 14 Tennessee only 38-37 at halftime before losing 81-55; they trailed No. 4 Kentucky 39-26 at halftime, but rallied in the second half before losing 72-67; they led No. 18 Vanderbilt 43-32 on the road at halftime before losing 82-74; and they led No. 25 Ole Miss 41-38 at halftime before losing 84-74.

The reason Auburn is only half good is because the Tigers have half a team. Their backcourt trio of DeWayne Reed (16.1 points per game), Frankie Sullivan (13.2 ppg) and Tay Waller (12.6 ppg) is pretty good, but their inside game is non-existent. Forward Lucas Hargrove (pictured right) averages in double figures (13.2 ppg), but he's not a low-post player. That's why Reed, Sullivan and Waller have combined to launch 338 3-pointers (making 125, 37.0 percent).

The Tigers also get next to nothing from their bench.

Auburn's only SEC wins have come against winless LSU (84-80) and hard-luck Alabama.

No wonder head coach Jeff Lebo might be headed for the firing squad.

Grade: D

UAB Blazers (18-4, 6-2, Conference USA)

A week ago, the Blazers were riding high. They were ranked No. 25 in the Associated Press poll, were undefeated in C-USA, following a rousing 65-55 victory against Tulsa, and were off to the best start (18-2) in program history.

But after a tough double-overtime 74-65 loss at home to UTEP that left the Blazers battered and bruised (point guard Aaron Johnson's nose was broken in the game and reserve center Kenneth Cooper suffered a concussion) and their annual hiccup at Memphis, 85-75, on Wednesday, the Blazers fell out of the rankings and suddenly find themselves in a third-place tie with Memphis in the conference standings, staring up at co-leaders Tulsa and UTEP.

Johnson, wearing a facemask (pictured right), and Cooper did play Wednesday, but they couldn't prevent the Blazers from losing for the 11th consecutive time at Memphis. UAB has not won a regular-season game at Memphis since Jan. 2, 1999.

Keeping Johnson healthy the rest of the way is vital for the Blazers. Although swingman Elijah Millsap is a leading candidate for C-USA Player of the Year, it's Johnson who is the heart and soul of the team. He's also the team's only point guard and that's why he leads the Blazers in minutes played (35.9 per game).

UAB head coach Mike Davis needs to right the ship in a hurry because C-USA is probably going to receive only two bids to the NCAA Tournament, although this season the league deserves at least three.

Grade: A- 

I have a confession to make: I find this obsession with college football recruiting mystifying.

What is that makes people spend hours poring over commitment and prospects lists and watching video highlights of these high school football players? Don't they have anything better to do?

They simply can't get enough of it, waiting eagerly for signing day to arrive. It's Wednesday by the way, although the recruiting obsession freaks already knew that. And as soon as it is over, they will start honing in on the prospects list for 2011 -- if they  haven't already.

I pay very little attention to recruiting because if a player has been a star in high school doesn't necessarily translate into being a star in college. The landscape is littered with big-time recruits who became big-time busts in college, although I don't like calling these youngsters busts. They might have been great high school players, but turned out be just average at the next level -- if they were able to stick around.

Besides, I have better things to do than keeping up with where guys I have never heard of are going to college. These news conferences and television shows to announce the college of their choice are ludicrous. I say get them into college and let them actually make an impact on the field before they can attract some attention.

Of course, that kind of thinking is considered old school, especially with what's happened in the past decade. Football recruiting has become a multi-million dollar business thanks to web sites such as rivals.com and scout.com, plus ESPN and MaxPreps, with their star system of rating players.

And colleges are spending more and more money on recruiting. According to a report Sunday in The Birmingham News, Alabama spent $750,045 in football recruiting expenses (or $27,779 per signee) for 2008-09.

That figure might top $1 million this year, which would be astounding (or rather ridiculous in my view).

Alabama fans are not complaining because the Crimson Tide just won the 2009 national championship and needs to reload to stay on top.

Auburn's recruiting budget also has increased. That's one reason the Tigers are headed to a top-five recruiting class for 2010. 

Auburn picked up another highly rated recruit on Monday when 6-foot-3, 295-pound defensive tackle Jeffrey Whitaker from Warner Robins, Ga., chose the Tigers over Miami and Georgia. Rivals, Scout and ESPN rate Whitaker as a four-star player.

Alabama also will be in the top five thanks to the likes of Parade All-Americans Phillip Sims (quarterback from Chesapeake, Va., pictured above), Keenan Allen (defensive back from Greensboro, N.C.), Demarcus Milliner (defensive back from Millbrook, Ala.) and C.J. Mosley (linebacker from Theodore, Ala.).

With the kind of players Alabama and Auburn are going after, no wonder college football recruiting has replaced spring football practice as the No. 2 sport in the state behind the college football season. And national signing day has become like NFL draft day in Alabama.

Apparently, this football recruiting obsession is here to stay, so I might as well get used to it.

It's not exactly like Anthony Grant is wading into the Iron Bowl at Jordan-Hare Stadium, but the first-year Alabama basketball head coach will get his first taste of the Alabama-Auburn rivalry when the Crimson Tide visits Auburn Saturday afternoon.

The basketball rivalry is not as intense as the football rivalry, but it's still heated.

Grant understands, calling it a "huge game" because it is Alabama-Auburn.

"I'm looking forward to experiencing what I've heard about for several months," Grant said earlier this week.  "We'll be in a great atmosphere in their building in obviously a very highly-contested game."

The game has added significance for Alabama. A week ago, the Tide was on the verge of irrelevancy in the Southeastern Conference West race after three consecutive losses, but then Alabama upset Mississippi State 62-57 last Saturday to stop the slide and hand the Bulldogs their first conference loss. On Wednesday night, Alabama routed LSU 57-38, holding the Bengal Tigers to only 13 points in the second half.

Now, Alabama (13-7, 3-3 SEC) finds itself only a game behind division-leading Ole Miss (16-4, 4-2), entering a crucial part of its conference schedule. Beginning with Auburn, the Tide plays five of its next seven SEC games on the road, including visits to Ole Miss, Kentucky, Georgia and Mississippi State.

That means the Tide cannot afford a slipup against an Auburn team that is only 1-5 in the SEC (its lone win came against LSU, the only team still winless in SEC play) and is 10-11 overall.

The Tigers would like nothing better than to knock off their arch-rivals. That's why they scheduled a reunion of their 1985 for Saturday's game.

Auburn's 1985 team that included Chuck Person, Chris Morris, Jeff Moore, Frank Ford and Gerald White won the SEC Tournament championship, becoming the first team to win four games in four days to capture the title. The Tigers capped that remarkable run with a 53-49 overtime victory against Alabama in the championship game.

Unfortunately for Auburn, those guys will be in street clothes watching instead of on the court Saturday.

Perhaps their presence will give the current bunch of Tigers the boost they need to pull off an upset. They need all the help they can get.

Is there any doubt who is the best team in Conference USA this season?

Not any more.

Not after UAB 65, Tulsa 55 on Tuesday night at Bartow Arena.

The 25th-ranked Blazers (18-2, 6-0) are the only unbeaten team left standing in C-USA play, while the Golden Hurricane (16-4, 5-1) suffered their first conference loss.

The Blazers also look like a lock for the NCAA Tournament. Even if UAB splits its final 10 regular-season C-USA games, it will finish 23-7 with quality wins over Cincinnati, Butler and Tulsa. That should be enough for the selection committee regardless of what the Blazers do in the conference tournament.

UAB, off to the best start in program history, changed its recent script against Tulsa. Instead of overcoming a huge deficit (they came back from 24 down to win at SMU on Jan. 16 and 14 down at home to beat Southern Miss on Jan. 20), the Blazers built a big lead, squandered it and then regrouped down the stretch.

UAB led by as many as 18 points in the first half and held a 38-22 halftime advantage. The Blazers did it with their usual get-in-the-jersey man-to-man defense - Tulsa had more turnovers (14) than field goals (nine) in the half - and 55.2 percent shooting from the field (16-of-29) thanks to better-than-usual half-court offensive execution.

They also received a huge defensive lift off the bench from 6-foot-10, 260-pound reserve center Kenneth Cooper. After Tulsa's 7-0, 253-pound senior Jerome Jordan punished UAB's slender 6-8, 240-pound Howard Crawford, who's more of a small forward than center or power forward, for four quick points, UAB head coach Mike Davis sent in the more physical Cooper. He battled Jordan, denying him the ball and pushing him off the blocks. Jordan, the C-USA men's basketball Preseason Player of the Year, scored only two more points in the half.

But early in the second half with several NBA scouts looking on, Jordan began dominating Crawford and Howard. He led a 19-2 run that gave Tulsa a 46-44 lead with 6:16 remaining. Jordan finished with 20 points and eight rebounds.

Instead of getting rattled, the Blazers turned to Elijah Millsap, who is challenging Jordan for the C-USA Player of the Year award. Millsap's three-point play put UAB back ahead, then moments later he made thunderous one-handed dunk in traffic in transition - the most spectacular of his several spectacular assaults on the basket. He was fouled and his subsequent free throw gave UAB the lead for good.

Millsap (pictured above) finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds.

"We know we can win games that are real tight," Millsap said. "We know we can come back. We feel comfortable. We never get rattled."

UAB also made 19-of-20 free-throw attempts in the second half, most coming in the final minutes to preserve their seventh consecutive victory.

Now, that the Blazers have established themselves as the team to beat in C-USA, perhaps their fans will catch on. The crowd of 7,691 for the Tulsa game was loud and boisterous - although not as raucous as the crowd for the Butler game in December - but the arena was less than full.

Perhaps, the Blazers will sell out Saturday night when they welcome UTEP to Bartow Arena. This UAB team deserves better fan support.  

I'm back, baby.

Did you miss me? Or did you even know I was gone?

Whatever.

A week ago, the phone line at my house went dead and my DSL line with it. In other words, no Internet. And since I don't have one of those do-everything cell phones, I had to wait until the folks at AT&T could get out to my house and fix the line. It took them four days.

A lot happened while AT&T held my blog hostage, so I want to share with you what I would have blogged about last week.

1. Alabama missed a golden opportunity to give first-year head basketball coach Anthony Grant (pictured right) his first signature win when they let then-No. 8 Tennessee escape Tuscaloosa with a 63-57 victory last Tuesday.

2. Auburn earned its first SEC win, but it came against LSU, which is winless in conference games. Even so, Auburn's 84-80 win came on the road and it's never easy to win on the road in the SEC.

3. UAB pulled another rabbit out of its hat, rallying from a 14-point second-half deficit at home to beat Southern Miss 57-56 last Wednesday. A few days earlier, the "Cardiac Blazers" had come from 24 down to win 63-62 at SMU.

4. Auburn's 2010 football recruiting class could be headed for a top-five finish, especially after getting an oral commitment from 6-foot-4, 315-pound offensive lineman Eric Mack from Calhoun High School in St. Matthews, S.C. That ranking would put the Tigers in the mix with SEC recruiting heavyweights Florida, Alabama, Georgia and LSU and national powerhouses USC and Texas. Auburn fans now are singing the praises of head coach Gene Chizik after lambasting his hiring with derision 13 months ago.

5. Samford's men basketball program suffered another terrible blow when head coach Jimmy Tillette suffered a seizure during the Bulldogs' 70-67 victory at UNC Greensboro last Saturday. He collapsed approximately 10 minutes into the second half of play and was immediately rushed to Moses Cone Hospital where he remained overnight. Upon his arrival at Moses Cone, Tillette was checked by emergency room staff and listed as stable. On Sunday, Tillette was transferred to UAB Hospital for further tests and observations. Last September, Bulldogs senior forward Jim Griffin was found dead in his dorm room in Samford's Beeson Woods residential village. He apparently died from an enlarged heart.

6. UAB's little 5-8 point guard Aaron Johnson (No. 1 pictured right while being mobbed by teammates) is becoming "Mr. Big Shot." He made a 17-foot jumper with 5.8 seconds remaining for the winning basket against Southern Miss and then drove in and lofted a runner over the outstretched arms of Marshall 7-foot shot blocker Hassan Whiteside with 5.6 seconds left to give the "Cardiac Blazers" a huge 61-59 road win. The victory enabled UAB to remain unbeaten (5-0) in Conference USA and improved the Blazers' overall record to 17-2, the best start in program history.

7. Alabama bounced back from its loss to Tennessee and ends its three-game SEC losing streak, handing Mississippi State its first conference loss, 62-57, and remaining relevant in the West race.

Saban's bold declaration

It wasn't a guarantee, but Alabama football coach Nick Saban came awfully close to predicting another national championship for the Crimson Tide next season.

During the Tide's celebration of its 2009 national championship college football season Saturday, Saban told the estimated crowd of 38,000:

"I want everybody here to know, this is not the end. This is the beginning. This team, our fans, our athletics administration has proven that we know what it takes, and we're going to build on that in the future with the players that we have coming back next year and the future players that are building our program into the greatest and the most consistent winning program in the country."

If Saban wasn't forecasting a repeat, he was saying that another national title could come in the very near future.

With all the talent Saban has coming back, such as Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram and quarterback Greg McElroy, who is 30-0 as a starter in high school (16-0 and college (14-0), and all the talent he has coming in (Rivals.com currently ranks the Tide's 2010 recruiting class is No. 3 in the nation behind Florida and Texas), that next national title could very well come in 2010.

The whispers are beginning to grow louder. And in the next few weeks they could reach a crescendo.

"Lebo Must Go!"

I don't necessarily want to hear it, but with Auburn's basketball season heading toward disaster it's understandable that some folks don't want to see head coach Jeff Lebo around next year for a seventh season.

Their reasoning: With Auburn set to open a new $92 million arena next season perhaps the Tigers also should have a new coach.

I think Lebo deserves a chance to coach at least one season in Auburn's new place. After all, last season he did lead the Tigers to 24 wins, the second most in school history.  The Tigers were one of the last teams left out of the 2009 NCAA Tournament and narrowly missed reaching the NIT Final Four.

Plus, Lebo signed an impressive recruiting class during the early-signing period in November. He landed Shawn Kemp, a 6-foot-10, 215-pound center from Canton, Ga.; Heath Houston, a 6-7, 225-pound forward from Powder Springs, Ga.; Jalen Steele, a 6-2, 180-pound guard from Knoxville, Tenn.; Anthony Salter, a 5-11 point guard from Tallahassee, Fla.; Allen Payne, a 6-6, 205-pound forward from Cincinnati, Ohio; and Adrian Forbes, a 6-8, 230-pound power forward from Spanish Town, Jamaica.

The class has been ranked fifth nationally by HoopScoop magazine.

In the past few days, I have read stories about the 2009 Alabama national championship team being the best ever in the Crimson Tide's storied football history, and also about whether Alabama will repeat in 2010.

I thought it was about time for me to weigh in on both matters.

I agree that Alabama was a great team in 2009. After all, the Tide was only the third team in modern history to finish a season 14-0, joining Boise State this season and Ohio State in 2002.

The Tide also had to go through the unbeaten and defending national champion Florida Gators in Southeastern Conference Championship Game and the unbeaten and Big 12 champion Texas Longhorns in the BCS Championship Game to claim the national title.

Alabama was impressive in dispatching both, so they clearly were the best team in the nation in 2009.

But I'm not so sure this was the best team in Tide football history.

The 1961 national championship team that went 11-0 allowed only 25 points the entire season and recorded six shutouts; the 1966 team that went 11-0 - and was the subject of the book The Missing Ring - outscored its opponents 301-44; the 1979 national champion team that went 12-0 recorded five shutouts and outscored its opponents 383-67; and the 1992 national championship team set a then-school-record for victories by going 13-0.