Coach Avery Johnson has finally finished moving in and he doesn’t plan on going anywhere else anytime soon.
It’s easy to wonder if Johnson has even seen the inside of his home lately. Between soccer games, appearing on the set of SEC nation and all of countless other public appearances Johnson has made recently when does he find the time?
“Sometimes people say, ‘Coach it seems like you are in five different places at one time?,’ ” Johnson said. “Well that’s kind of strategic.”
On Tuesday, the women’s and men’s basketball teams will make their public debut in the Tide Tipoff taking place at Coleman Coliseum. Autographs will begin at 6 p.m. Skill competitions, highlighted by a dunk contest judged by celebrities including Alabama linebacker Reggie Ragland will begin around 7. Hip hop duo Rae Sremmurd will end the night’s festivities with a performance.
Johnson has created energy around the basketball program. He seems intent on capitalizing on it as long as possible, but it will all be for nothing if the team can’t have success on the court. For that to be possible his players will have to adjust to the speed Johnson wants it to compete with, but the players can’t elevate the program by themselves.
“We want to make it hard on our opposing teams when they come here,” Johnson said. “I think the lifeline of our program has to be our student involvement.”
Johnson hopes to increase student attendance by opening 2,000 courtside seats up for the student section. Last week Johnson met with greek leadership to help drum up student interest in the upcoming season. The tipoff will be his first chance to evaluate how much his efforts have paid off.
The Tide Tipoff will also give the teams a chance to attract less passionate basketball fans to checkout how the programs have improved in the offseason. Junior Shannon Hale said students can expect to see a different team this year.
“[Its] a little glimpse for the students and the fans of what we are going to bring this year,” Hale said. “Hopefully it will be pretty exciting.”
