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Steve Victory JOURNAL – SEC campaign 2020-21
Like the weather in Tuscaloosa in January and February, Alabama cools once the SEC schedule hits. The ‘Tide loses to Arkansas in the opener, beats a solid LSU team (ranked #6) and then falls to #3 Mississippi State. A win over South Carolina is followed by a defeat to a much-improved Auburn squad.
Alabama plays some of its best basketball of the season midway through the SEC slate. Victory’s bunch reels off five straight wins by impressive scores – at Kentucky 70-55, Florida 73-56, at Mississippi 78-60, Arkansas 99-57 (nice revenge for earlier defeat!) and at #7 Vanderbilt 86-77. At this point, even Frank is cracking a smile or two as the Tide moves back up to #13 in the national rankings and joins Auburn and Mississippi State as the front-runners in the SEC South.
But someone stashed some “bitter beer” in Alabama’s remaining season, and by the time the SEC tournament rolls around even Steve Victory is wearing the contorted face of an anguished coach. ‘Bama drops four of its last six games, including the last three against Georgia (75-74), #2 Mississippi State (81-67) and #19 Auburn (79-66)… The final regular season record looks more tame: 20-9, 9-7 in the SEC (hey, at least Victory met program expectations ). Mississippi State and Auburn ran away with the SEC South with 14-2 records. Vandy led the North with a 13-3 mark.
‘Bama will make the NCT this season for sure. But the team hurt its chances for a nice #2, 3 or 4 seed with the late-season collapse. Now, it will likely be a #6 or #7, even a #8…
On a more positive front, Victory nabbed a pair of hot-shot (at least on paper) recruits for next year. Tyler Tate is a five-star PF who averaged 30.7 ppg and 15 rpg as a high school senior. The South Boston, Va. native could challenge Brett Fischer’s FT records, making 92 percent of his shots. Roland Ward is a 5-star SG, who pumped in 34.5 ppg for his Connecticut high school as well as pulled down 7.1 rpg and dished out 6.7 apg. Victory likes that this guard can rebound too!!
This could be Victory’s best recruiting grab since landing Michael Bliss and Brett Fischer, who both went on to the NBA after three years in Tuscaloosa. Tate is ranked #25 nationally and Ward is #13… Too bad they can’t come for the post-season this year…
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