Alabama loses NIT opener… Again

For the second straight year, Avery Johnson’s Tide lost their opening game in the junior varsity of post season tournaments. 

With respect to the late great Yogi Berra, call it deja vu all over again.

Last year Alabama flamed out in the first round of the NIT to Creighton. This year, playing at home as the 3-seed against the 6-seed Richmond Spiders, Alabama seemingly had momentum after a deep run to the SEC semi-finals against eventual champion Kentucky.

Johnson even said he was happy for the quick turnaround after last Saturday’s loss because in his estimation, the Tide was playing good ball and he didn’t want an extended break to slow their momentum. Instead, the Tide laid a proverbial egg for a disappointing end to an up and down season.

This game was a microcosm of the Tide’s play all year long. They shot just under 42 percent for the game, and 29 percent (7-24) from three. That will get you beat every time, folks.  If you’re going to lay more bricks than a mason’s convention, you have to at least compensate by playing good defense to give yourself a chance right? Right???

Bama allowed Richmond to shoot almost 54 percent from the field and almost 39 percent from deep. Not good, hence the reason they are waking up this morning with off season conditioning the only blip on their calendar’s for the foreseeable future.

To the Tide’s credit, however, no one in Tuscaloosa seemed to care about supporting them as the official attendance was 4,041. Coleman Coliseum has a capacity of 15,383. That’s 26 percent full for you that are grabbing for your calculators. That’s very disappointing seeing as tickets were promoted at discount prices to try and spike attendance.

With the talent that will soon be arriving on campus and the returning core Johnson has, the time is now to produce better results.