I want to address those who say "the sky is falling". I am not overwhelmed with this hire, but I think it was solid. I do think the admin. was right to reject the hire of Donnie Jones, if indeed that took place. I am also not thrilled if Grant hasn't yet contacted Svoboda, though it's quite possible that Grant looked at his film and decided that Svoboda does not meet the style he wishes to play... or that that evaluation is still ongoing.
But those who say that Alabama's results prove that AG is a mediocre coach, or that they can't be explained away are wrong. And I'll give you a couple of reasons why...
1. One of his biggest of big time recruits, 2012 recruit Devonta Pollard, ended up off the team and eventually transferred due to his assumed involvement with a kidnapping that actually ended up being on his mom. He was on the team for a while, but that had to be a time of incredible turmoil. For those of you who say that's on AG for not vetting the recruit, he was a McDonald's All American. You don't turn down a McDonald's All American unless he was caught on tape murdering someone. More on this story:
http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/sto...-start-houston
2. Two other recruits, 5-star guard Trevor Lacey and 4-star top JUCO center Moussa Gueye eventually transferred due to disagreeing with Grant's "playing style". What really happened is that Lacey went to join the man who initially recruited him to Alabama, Mark Gottfried, when Gottfried was hired at NC State. The stated reason was that Lacey was unhappy with being trained to play the point, which was a position of need... but he was being selfish. He was a very good player and continued to be so at NC State.
And Gueye was a player who only averaged 5 points and 5 boards as a 7-foot graduate transfer to Valparaiso. For those of you who say this just shows that there was a lack of quality evaluation from Grant and his staff... I think most of us would kill for a 4-star 7 footer here at Dayton. To say we haven't had good luck with big men would be a gross understatement. Many schools were after Gueye after his JUCO time.
3. Grant is responsible for bringing in one of the best players in Alabama basketball history, Trevor Releford. They struggled to replace Releford's leadership in Grant's final season.
Yes, Grant's teams had offensive issues. Some complain that they couldn't seem to run an effective offense. They also had a poor run in conference play when they were set up to make the tournament in Grant's final year.
The optimist in me says that Grant will at the very least, be able to out-recruit Archie... and if you have good players in place, you at least earn more leeway on coaching ability.
So at least think about that the next time you want to bad mouth Grant's time at Alabama... he was working shorthanded for his last 3 years or so, much to factors out of his control.
