Rue's Rant on College Sports in Alabama

UTEP's Barbee should be Auburn's No. 1 choice

2010-03-13T19:54:38Z

Now that Auburn has shown Jeff Lebo the door what kind of basketball coach will the Tigers hire?

According to Auburn athletics director Jay Jacobs, the Tigers are looking for the right fit.

The "right fit" should be an up-and-coming African-American. That's what rival Alabama did when it hired Anthony Grant away from VCU last year and after one season it's apparent the Crimson Tide is close to becoming a contender in the Southeastern Conference.

At the top of Auburn's list should be UTEP's Tony Barbee (pictured right) and right behind him North Texas' Johnny Jones.

Both are proven winners. In four seasons at UTEP, Barbee's win total has gone up each year from 14 to 19 to 23 and to 24 this season when the Miners won the Conference USA regular season title with a 15-1 record in league play. Although UTEP was upset by Houston 81-73 in the C-USA Tournament championship game on Saturday, the Miners will be in the NCAA Tournament and could surprise with a run to the Sweet 16, enhancing Barbee's resume.

Barbee also is a solid recruiter, having established himself not only at UTEP, but as an assistant under John Calipari at Memphis. He might be able to convince the six players Lebo signed last November to still come to Auburn.

Jones has led North Texas to 20 or more wins in each of the last four seasons, including a record 24 this season while guiding the Mean Green to their second consecutive Sun Belt Conference title. He has ties to the Southeastern Conference as a player and assistant coach at LSU. He also is known as a good recruiter.

Of course, if Auburn can't lure either one of them to the Plains, then Jacobs might consider UAB's Mike Davis. After all a few years ago, before Lebo was hired, Auburn went after then-UAB coach Mike Anderson. For some reason, they couldn't work out a deal and Anderson remained at UAB, but eventually left for Missouri.

Whoever lands the Auburn job, when have the luxury of playing in a new $90 million arena, but at the same time they will be coming to the worst basketball town in the SEC.

Just something for the next Auburn coach to consider.

Is Auburn Spending Money Wisely?

2010-02-23T22:16:02Z

Listen closely and you can almost hear Gene Chizik and his coaching staff singing that familiar tune that reverberates at Jordan-Hare Stadium during the fall:

"It's great to be an Auburn Tiger. I say, it's great to be an Auburn Tiger."

Yeah, it is great, especially if you happen to coach football.

On the heels of an unexpected 8-5 season, including a victory against Northwestern in the Outback Bowl on New Year's Day, and the signing of a top-five recruiting class, Chizik and his assistants have reaped a financial windfall.

Chizik has received a $200,000 raise, bumping his salary to $2.1 million. Not bad for a guy whose record as a head coach is still just 13-24. Remember, he was 5-19 in two seasons at Iowa State before Auburn lured him away.

His boost in pay, however, wasn't as generous as the increase offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn received. According to a report in the Birmingham News, Malzahn received a 43 percent pay increase and will make $500,000 this year.

Also, Chizik and his nine assistants are set to make $4,131,000 this year.

That's almost as much as the combined salary total Alabama is shoveling out for head coach Nick Saban ($4 million per) and defensive coordinator Kirby Smart ($750,000 per after his salary was more than doubled recently). But the Crimson Tide did just win a national championship.

Obviously, the folks at Auburn believe Chizik and his staff have the Tigers headed in that direction. Although it will be interesting to see how they do in their encore season in 2010 with a slightly more difficult schedule and having to replace some key seniors, such as quarterback Chris Todd, running back Ben Tate and defensive end Antonio Coleman, the latter two who are projected to go in the early rounds of the NFL draft.

If Auburn continues to make strides and contends in the Southeastern Conference West Division in 2010, the Tigers' money will be well spent. But if they struggle (and they probably will), some people (like me) are bound to wonder why Chizik received a raise when there was no specific provision in his contract to get one after his first season.

Back in the day, you used to have to win a championship or at least come close to winning one before receiving a compensation hike.

Now, I guess you just have to look like one day you will. And we all know looks can be deceiving.

Auburn Deserves Rep as a Bad Hoops Town

2010-02-21T03:18:49Z

When Auburn knocked off Arkansas 92-83 Saturday night, they actually had a decent crowd show up at Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum. The attendance was listed at 8,312, a few thousand short of capacity, but still their third-best total for a home game this season.

I was pleasantly surprised because most of the time this season Auburn's arena has been near empty when the Tigers take the court. They are averaging only 5,868 spectators for their 15 home games.

Who can blame the fans? The Tigers have been mediocre at best this season. Their win against Arkansas left them with a 13-14 record overall, 4-8 in the Southeastern Conference. Besides that, they lost their first three home SEC games, even though they have rebounded to win the last three.

But a lousy team isn't the only reason fans stay away from Auburn home games in droves. Auburn simply isn't a basketball town.

In fact, ESPN.com columnist Pat Forde recently conducted a best-worst survey concerning the major conferences in men's college basketball and discovered that Auburn is the worst basketball town in the SEC.

As a former beat writer (back in the 1980s when Auburn went to the NCAA Tournament five consecutive years with the likes of Charles Barkley and Chuck Person), I can attest that the Tigers always have had difficulty generating fan interest for basketball.

Don't just take my word for it. I recently talked to former Auburn head coach Sonny Smith about Forde's column and here's what he had to say.

"I read that," said Smith, who coached Barkley and Person. "I don't buy that Auburn is the worst town, but it is under consideration. I think Starkville (Mississippi State) would have gotten the award, if they hadn't won more. Ole Miss would be up there too if it wasn't for the job (Coach) Andy Kennedy has done the last few years."

Smith, who does some color commentating on Auburn radio broadcasts and also does color on televised games in the Southeast, particularly the Atlantic Sun Conference, went on to explain why Auburn fans, especially the students, stay away.

"Way back when, Auburn had a reputation as a smaller school in a smaller town and the way the arena was set up students had to sit under the basket instead of the sidelines to watch a game, so students would go home on the weekend," Smith said. "That contributed to a lack of attendance."

That all had changed when Smith arrived in the early 1980s, but even then Auburn struggled to have much of a home-court advantage because it lacked a fan base.

"You could tell when we would have a big crowd," Smith said. "It's when we were playing Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama, and sometimes LSU. But when he played Ole Miss, we'd get about 3,000 and when we played Mississippi State we'd get about 2,000, and nobody came when we played Vanderbilt. That's when Auburn got the bad reputation as a basketball town.

"Now with the school being so big and having $300,000 condos for the students to live in, the kids are staying on campus year round, but they still don't draw. The reason they're not showing up is a reflection on the how the team is doing. Winning would change that. Bigger crowds come when you're winning than when you're losing."

Smith has a point. Auburn sold out every home game during its run to the SEC title in 1999 when it set a school record with 29 wins under Coach Cliff Ellis.

That's a distance memory now that we're 10 years into the 21st century and seemingly the only sport Auburn folks care about is football. But Smith said you can't blame football for Auburn's basketball attendance woes. Birmingham News columnist Kevin Scarbinsky said as much in a column last week.

"It's true that Auburn is a football school, but it's not so much that it's a football school than it is that we're a football state," Smith said. "But if the basketball team was winning, the fans would come."

That brought me to the subject of Auburn head coach Jeff Lebo (pictured above). I asked Smith if he thought Lebo would be back for a seventh season next year, especially with the Tigers moving into a new $92 million arena.

"I think he deserves a year in the new facility," Smith said. "He's a very good on-the-floor good and he has a good recruiting class coming in. But with all his starters (except for guard Frankie Sullivan) leaving, there are some who think he should go too.

"As far as him staying, he needs to win some games down the stretch. But if the season ends on a bad note, it wouldn't be good."

My sentiments exactly.

UAB Sitting Squarely on the Bubble

2010-02-20T14:15:28Z

Two-and-a-half weeks ago, the UAB Blazers were riding high, off to the best start (18-2) in school history, unbeaten and in first place in Conference USA, and seemingly a lock for the NCAA Tournament.

Fast forward to Saturday night when the Blazers' host the Houston Cougars and are fighting for their NCAA lives.

That's what happens you lose three of your past five games to drop into third place in a conference regarded as a one-bid league.

I believe UAB (20-5, 8-3 in C-USA) is tournament worthy and I believe C-USA deserves at least two bids this season, but I am not on the NCAA selection committee for the field of 65.

So right now the Blazers are stitting squarely on the bubble and every game is a must-win. They got one of those Wednesday night when they gutted out a 59-54 win at Southern Miss.

"Our guys came into a tough place to play, played with a lot of heart and showed a lot of toughness and we were able to get the win," UAB head coach Mike Davis said.

Tonight against Houston they will try to snap a two-game home losing streak, their longest home losing streak since the 2004-05. With three of their next four games at Bartow Arena, including tonight, the Blazers need to protect their home court. If they can do that and win one of their final two road games at Central Florida or UTEP, that should be enough to earn UAB an invitation to the Big Dance.

Plus, the Blazers could add to their resume with a good showing in the C-USA Tournament.

But if UAB doesn't reverse its recent fortunes, the Blazers will miss the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive season and that best start in program history will be the highlight of the season - even if they were to go on and win the NIT.

Grant Hopes To Lock Down State Borders

2010-02-09T15:30:17Z

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.

Please Tell Saban Commitment Is a Two-way Street

2010-02-05T16:00:17Z

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.

Midterm grades for Tide, Tigers, Blazers

2010-02-05T05:02:59Z

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-

Football Recruiting Obsession Mystifying

2010-02-01T20:42:19Z

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.

Tide's Grant Steps Into Auburn Rivalry

2010-01-29T21:56:56Z

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.

UAB Leaves No Doubt It's Best In C-USA

2010-01-27T10:55:53Z

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.

All The News That's Fit To Blog About

2010-01-25T23:14:59Z

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.

IT IS WHAT IT IS

2010-01-18T01:14:29Z

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.

]]> Webb at wide receiver

I must admit I am a little disappointed record-setting UAB quarterback Joe Webb won't get to play the position at the Under Armour Senior Bowl on Jan. 30 at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile.

The 6-4, 220-pound Webb will go to the all-star game as a wide receiver, a position he played in 2007 for the Blazers. Webb started nine games that season at receiver and caught 30 passes for 459 yards, ranking second on the team in both categories. He also had three touchdown receptions.

But the past two years, Webb established himself as arguably the top dual threat quarterback in the nation. During the 2009 season, Webb accounted for 73 percent of UAB's offensive yards, passing for 2,299 and rushing for 1,427. He threw 21 touchdown passes and ran for 11 scores, the latter tying his UAB single-season record for rushing TDs in a season. Webb also caught a TD pass during the year.

Webb didn't seem to mind that he won't play quarterback in the all-star showcase and get a chance to improve his draft stock at the position.

"I'm very excited to have the opportunity to play in the Senior Bowl," he said. "I will have the chance to show my athletic ability and show that I can do something other than play quarterback."

Perhaps, either Jacksonville State's Ryan Perrilloux or Troy's Levi Brown (or both) will get an opportunity to play quarterback for the South squad. Both are considered pro prospects. So far, the only quarterback named on the South roster is Florida's Tim Tebow.

Three quarterbacks have accepted invitations to play for the North: Oregon State's Sean Canfield, Central Michigan's Dan LeFevour and Cincinnati's Tony Pike.

UAB's charmed season reaches new high

The men's basketball bracketologists for the 2010 NCAA Tournament should consider moving up UAB's seeding, especially after what the Blazers pulled off Saturday night in Dallas.

UAB overcame a 24-point deficit, 50-26, in the final 14 minutes to beat SMU 63-62 and stay undefeated (3-0) in Conference-USA, while improving to 15-2 overall.

"We didn't show up in the first half, and to give SMU credit, they really played a heck of a game," UAB head coach Mike Davis said. "But our guys never quit and never gave up and we were able to come out with a very hard-earned win."

UAB ended the game with a 19-3 run in the final 5:14.

Elijah Millsap led the Blazers with 20 points and 11 rebounds, his 10th double-double this season.

If the Blazers' charmed season continues, they might play themselves into a top-4 seed in the field of 65, although you have to wonder what they were doing trailing SMU (and its 266 RPI ranking) by 24 points in the first place.

Hot Seat Getting Hotter For Auburn's Lebo

2010-01-15T17:58:28Z

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.

]]> "I think we really helped ourselves in some areas," Lebo said after the signings. "Obviously, we lose a lot of players so this is going to be a big class for us. We lose guys who played a lot for us so we are looking for some immediate impact from this class. We feel really good about our class. They come from winning programs and are used to winning. They are tough kids, and you hope that they come in and contribute right away. That is why you recruit them. This is a big class for us. There is no doubt about it."

Lebo should get a chance to coach his new players because his tenure, which began with the 2004-05 season and the program listing along, has been marred by player injuries (not his fault) and player defections (partly his fault).

This season, despite having three starters returning - leading scorer DeWayne Reed, leading 3-point shooter Tay Waller and forward Lucas Hargrove - plus valuable reserve guard Frankie Sullivan, little was expected from the Tigers. That's because Korvotney Barber, Rasheem Barrett and Quantez Robertson had graduated. That trio was the main reason Lebo was able to turn Auburn's program around.

Without them the Tigers were picked to finish last in the Southeastern Conference West Division, but no one foresaw some of the bad losses Auburn had during nonconference play. The Tigers lost to Missouri State, Central Florida and Troy and were blown out 107-89 at home by Sam Houston State.

Now, they are 9-8 overall and have gotten off to a 0-2 start in the SEC, falling at home to South Carolina 80-71 with the Gamecocks' Devan Downey dropping 33 points on them and on the road Thursday night at Tennessee 81-55.

Against the Volunteers, the Tigers had a 34-22 in the first half, but Tennessee went on a 16-0 run and led 38-37 at halftime. In the second half, Auburn totally collapsed, getting outscored 43-18. After hitting 10 3-pointers in the first half, the Tigers made only one in the second half. They have to rely on outside shooting because their inside game is nonexistent.

"We got nothing from our inside game, I mean zero," Lebo said after the loss to Tennessee. "We were kind of forced at that point to go out on the perimeter, and we shot the ball so poorly in the second half."

The schedule doesn't get any easier. They play host to second-ranked Kentucky Saturday, then hit the road for games at LSU and Vanderbilt before coming back home to play Ole Miss and Alabama to close January.

Any victory Auburn gets during that stretch will be considered an upset, including at LSU, which also is off to a 0-2 SEC start.

And as the losses mount, the whispers about getting rid Lebo undoubtedly will become a scream.

2009 Team Not Alabama's Best Ever

2010-01-13T15:47:13Z

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.

]]> All great teams, but I believe the best ever team in the history of the program was the 1978 national championship team that went 11-1 under Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant.

OK, I was a senior at Alabama at the time and sports editor of the school newspaper, so I am partial to that team.

But when you consider the caliber of the competition - the 1978 team opened the season with nonconference games against Nebraska, Missouri and USC, and also traveled to Seattle to play Washington - and the caliber of the players on that team, such as linebacker Barry Krauss, defensive lineman Marty Lyons, quarterback Jeff Rutledge, running back Tony Nathan, defensive end E.J. Junior, defensive back Don McNeal, center Dwight Stephenson and running back Major Ogilvie, I don't think there's ever been a better team at Alabama. Sure, they lost to USC 24-14, but then ran the table, topping it off with a victory over unbeaten Penn State in the Sugar Bowl in the famous "goal line stand" game to win the national championship.

The 2009 team did have a school record six All-Americans - senior nose guard Terrence Cody, sophomore running back Mark Ingram, senior left guard Mike Johnson and junior linebacker Rolando McClain on the first team and senior cornerback Javier Arenas and senior kicker Leigh Tiffin on the second team - and also produced the Tide's first Heisman Trophy winner in Ingram.

Plus, Coach Nick Saban is a proven winner like Bear was, although Saban hasn't reached legendary status yet, his pending statue outside Bryant-Denny Stadium notwithstanding.

But the 2009 team played a weak nonconference schedule, taking on the likes of Florida International, North Texas and Chattanooga, although I give them props for opening the season against Virginia Tech. Besides that, I thought the SEC was a little down this season. That's why when the season started it was almost a foregone conclusion that Alabama and Florida would meet in the SEC Championship Game in a rematch of the 2008 game.

So, the 2009 team was not tested throughout the season as the 1978 team was.

And that's the primary reason I think the 1978 team was the best ever.

Some of the players from the 1978 team were still around when the Tide repeated as national champions in 1979, which brings me to the next topic of debate: Can the Tide repeat in 2010?

With eight starters returning on offense, including Ingram, quarterback Greg McElroy and gifted receiver Julio Jones and a solid core of defensive players back, even with McClain's announcement Monday that he's forgoing his senior season to enter the NFL draft, the Tide will enter the season No. 1 and as the favorite to repeat.

The schedule will be more challenging with home games against Penn State and Florida and SEC road games at Arkansas, South Carolina, Tennessee and LSU, so I don't think Alabama will go through the season unbeaten.

But with Saban calling the shots, I expect the Tide to become the first team to win back-to-back BCS national championships.

Tide Finishes Saban's 'Process' With National Title

2010-01-08T14:44:31Z

Is there any doubt about who is the best college football coach in the nation?

There is none in Alabama. It's Nick Saban beyond a shadow of a doubt.

In three short seasons, he took an Alabama program beset by NCAA probation and one coaching change after another and won the national championship.

And he did it his way, using his "process" to produce the result the Crimson Nation has been waiting for since 1992, the Tide's last national title.

Alabama's 37-21 victory against Texas Thursday night at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., wasn't a classic.

I must admit that when Texas quarterback Colt McCoy had to leave the game early in the first quarter with a shoulder injury, I was deflated. I had been waiting to see how McCoy and the Longhorns would attack the No. 1 defense in the land. And suddenly he was gone, leaving Texas' offense in the hands of untested freshman Garrett Gilbert.

Even though Texas took an early 6-0 lead, in my mind the outcome was no longer in doubt. I knew the Tide's defense would devour young Gilbert. Give him credit for hanging in and throwing two touchdown passes and a two-point conversion in the second half to bring the Horns within 24-21 after they trailed 24-6 at halftime, but I never thought Texas had any chance of winning the game.

]]> Saban had the Tide too focused on finishing the "process" and hoisting the BCS championship trophy.

Saban explained what his process was when he said all the Tide players had bought into what he and his coaching staff were doing (eliminating the clutter and concentrating on the task at hand), and put in the work on and off the field to achieve their goal.

It just wasn't the players who bought in, but the rest of the Crimson Nation. They embraced him and gave him free rein to run the program his way with practically no interference.

Saban said he wasn't solely responsible for the Tide's national title, but he's the one who brought stability and direction to Alabama's football program that had meandered for almost two decades since the late Paul "Bear" Bryant retired as head coach at the end of the 1982 season - the 1992 national championship notwithstanding.

Saban might not know how to celebrate in the immediate aftermath of winning a national championship - his look of disdain after getting drenched with a sports drink showed just how no nonsense the man is - but no one can argue that the man can coach.

Saban became the first coach in the Associated Press poll era (since 1936) to win national titles at two different schools and became the second coach (Florida's Urban Meyer is the other) to win two BCS national championships. He led LSU to the BCS national title in 2003.

Now, the "process" continues as Saban goes to work on repeating, something no team has done under the BCS system.

You can bet Saban already is letting his returning players know that and his incoming recruits, too.

The best coach in the nation never rests.