Alabama Basketball: Avery Johnson Hits The Road Recruiting, Tarrant Transferring
By Tyler Dalton
Avery Johnson has certainly hit the ground running since being introduced as Alabama’s next Head Coach on Wednesday. The next day, Johnson was traveling around the state visiting current commitments and one that Alabama is hoping to get back. To get you caught up on everything Alabama basketball, here is a quick update on the team and recruits.
Ricky Tarrant:
Reported this morning, Tarrant will be moving on from the program. This happens often when a new head coach comes in. Either the player doesn’t feel comfortable with the coach, the system, or various other reasons. Tarrant was clearly missed after his injury last season and his scoring abilities will be hard to replace next season. As of right now, Justin Coleman and Retin Obasohan will be competing for the starting Point Guard spot.
Dazon Ingram:
Per AL.com, Johnson and assistant Antoine Pettway met with Ingram and his family on Thursday night. After the Anthony Grant firing, Ingram de-committed to open talks back up with other schools and wait for Alabama to make their head coaching decision. Ingram recently won Alabama’s Mr. Basketball and is considered one of the top 2015 recruits in the state. If the staff is able to salvage this recruiting class, then that would be a major success. Considering Tarrant is now gone, Ingram could become a day 1 starter in the backcourt if he did re-commit.
Brandon Austin:
Earlier yesterday, Johnson and Pettway were in Montgomery to meet with Alabama signee Brandon Austin. After sitting down with him and his high school coach James Jackson, Austin is still 100 percent committed to Alabama. When asked about the new Alabama coach, Jackson went on to say (per AL.com):
"He really believes in high school coaches and what they do for kids. He was adamant about talking about that, getting kids to be young men and able to step up to the next level. He talked about that a lot. He thanked me for helping get Brandon in the position that he’s in."
Donta’ Hall:
Yes, Johnson met with the other current Alabama signee as well. The new guy in town appears to really want to start growing connections with high school coaches in the state, as he met with many others yesterday and not just the ones with players currently committed to the school. Johnson coming in and immediately hitting it off with the high school level should be very beneficial in the long run. Hall also remains 100 percent committed to Alabama. Johnson seems to be pushing player development a lot during his talks with players, something the program struggled with a lot when Grant was the helm. Hall will bring a lot of size and is athletic enough to play Johnson’s up-tempo style of game.
On another note, Nick King is leaving Memphis.
With the recruiting class basically done outside of Ingram, adding a player like King would be huge for Johnson’s first off season in Tuscaloosa. King was considered one of the top recruits in his class and will have two more years of eligibility. Something to keep an eye on.