The 2012-13 men’s basketball season ended for the Crimson Tide in the National Invitation Tournament, but head coach Anthony Grant said he will waste no time preparing himself and his team for next year.
“Let’s make sure that we understand that next year starts with our choices and decisions and work ethic and habits right now,” Grant said. “Not in October or when the games start in November, it’s right now.”
The Alabama men’s basketball team fell to Maryland, 58-57, in the quarterfinals of the NIT Friday, March 26, ending the Crimson Tide’s season with a 23-13 record.
Sophomore guard Levi Randolph said the team must observe the 2012 season as a whole to detect what it needs to improve during summer workouts.
“We have to go back and look and reflect on the things that we went through this year,” Randolph said. “Then we’ll start working on the offseason.”
Alabama finished the regular season with a 2K Sports Classic championship, a home win over Kentucky and a couple of buzzer beaters to defeat South Dakota State and Georgia.
But everything wasn’t always positive for the Tide.
“If I had to say, the worst [are] the struggles we went through during the month of December,” Grant said. “I thought that kind of put us in a hole for what our goals and aspirations were, and combine that with some of the injuries, the unfortunate injuries that we had that kind of coincided with that stretch that we went through.”
Injuries to senior guard Andrew Steele and junior center Carl Engstrom hampered Alabama in terms of depth and experience. But Grant said his team never let the injuries and 1-5 record in December ruin its season, and that was the best aspect of this year’s team. It never gave up.
“Our guys never wavered in terms of their effort, in terms of the focus,” Grant said. “For our team to be able to get 23 wins, to finish tied for second overall in the league, I think it’s progress. I think we had to be better, had to get better as a team over the course of the season.”
Junior guard Trevor Releford led the Tide in minutes, points and steals per game in 2012. He averaged 14.9 points and 2.1 steals per contest. He also led Alabama in 3-point shooting efficiency by averaging 41 percent from beyond the arc.
Releford and sophomore guards Trevor Lacey and Rodney Cooper each finished the season with double digit points per game averages.
But Grant said his relatively young team still has a lot to accomplish at the Capstone.
“I think all of our guys have tremendous room for improvement,” Grant said. “I don’t think anybody’s come close to reaching their potential. I think skill-wise we can get better. I think physically we can get better.
“We’ll add some pieces to our team, which should help as well in terms of depth, and hopefully we can remain injury-free as much as you can over the course of the season.”
The Tide has already signed two recruits from the 2013 class in Jimmie Taylor and Shannon Hale. But Grant and his staff have shifted their effort toward the recruiting trail to try and add some much needed depth to the current nine-man roster.
“Without question,” Grant said. “We’re going to actively recruit, and hopefully we’ll add one or two more pieces to our team.”
Leading in today’s Crimson White:
