Point guard Trevor Releford was a bright spot in Alabama’s difficult season last year, finishing his career as the fourth leading scorer in program history. This season, Releford is playing professionally in Poland while Alabama will rely on true freshman Justin Coleman and transfer Ricky Tarrant to replace him. With Tarrant opening the season battling an injury, Coleman played 31 minutes in Monday’s exhibition against Montevallo, mostly at point guard.
“[Coleman] went against some seniors, some veterans on the other side,” Grant said. “What we try to do is talk about every single day trying to get a little better, and I thought Montevallo did a good job of putting him in some situations both offensively and defensively that he can learn from.”
When Tarrant is available, possibly as soon as this Friday’s opener against Towson, the Crimson Tide will likely look to him to run the offense. Before transferring to Alabama, Tarrant was second team All-Conference USA at Tulane, scoring 1,013 points over two seasons for the Green Wave.
“Anytime you can add some veterans to your team I think that makes a big difference,” Grant said. “Ricky, being point guard, got to go against Trevor Releford everyday in practice. Just that experience of going against an all-conference guard in the SEC helped him. He’s a hard worker. I think he’s proven in what he brings to the table.”
In fact, this Alabama team bears little resemblance to the Crimson Tide of last season. Four starters will return, but Alabama will use two transfers – Tarrant and forward Mike Kessens from Longwood – and four highly-rated freshmen: Coleman, forward Riley Norris, forward Jeff Garrett and guard Devin Mitchell. With junior guard Retin Obasohan and Kessens battling injuries to start the season, the Crimson Tide could be looking at wildly different lineups right at the start.
“Those four guys, the thing I’ve been most impressed with is from day one, when they walked on campus, they came in with the attitude that they wanted to be sponges,” Grant said. “They wanted to learn, they’ve been willing to be lead by our veteran guys, willing to be coached by our coaching staff. At the same time, they come in with a confidence and competitiveness that has added another dimension to our team, because those guys come in with a high skill level and I think they bring an edge, so to speak.”
Alabama will also look to shooting guard Levi Randolph to carry much of the team’s scoring workload and to lead the team on and off the court The team elected Randolph as captain unanimously, the first time Alabama has had a captain since the 2008-09 season, when guard Alonzo Gee was elected by his teammates.
“In the offseason, our biggest thing was the mental side of the game,” Randolph said. “Just trying to overcome adversity and being able to play through different situations. When adversity hits, you have to be strong. It’s not about the talent or anything else, it’s about what’s between your ears.
With the new lineups and the addition of several talented shooters, Alabama’s offense could be in for a transformative year, but not even Grant is sure what that might look like.
“I think that’s tough to predict what’s going to happen over the course of the season,” he said. “We try to take it one day at a time, one practice at a time and one game at a time.”
