Alabama basketball is never about one man. But an Alabama basketball turnaround often starts that way. With one man.
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You really have to go back to the 1999-2000 season. Alabama, with a 13-16 record, had missed the NCAA tournament for the fifth straight year. After 20-plus seasons of success under C.M. Newton and Wimp Sanderson, the Tide had fallen on hard times. They were a shell of their former selves. Actually, they were worse.
More like hoopsters on the half-shell.
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That’s when third-year head coach Mark Gottfried went out and got one man; Gerald Wallace, a high-flyer in high tops who was considered by many to be the nation’s number one player. The next season, the Tide finished 25-11 and made the finals of the NIT.
A year later, Mo Williams, one of the best point guards in the country, came on board — further validating Alabama as once again a viable player in the college basketball world.
But the key was Wallace. Getting his signature told recruits that Alabama was committed to being a major player for some of the nation’s top talent. Over the next three years, even though Wallace and Williams had already left for the NBA, Alabama rode the recruiting momentum to land players like Kennedy Winston, Chuck Davis, and Ernest Shelton.
The result: an Elite 8 run in 2004 — the deepest run in Alabama history.
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Fast forward. The Alabama basketball program is reeling once again. Only this time, it hasn’t done anything of note in over a decade. Alabama’s last NCAA tournament win came in 2006. It has only made one Sweet Sixteen since 1991 – the aforementioned Elite 8 run in 2004.
And the last Alabama player drafted by the NBA? Richard Hendrix. That was 8 years ago, and he never played a single minute in an NBA game.
Alabama needs now what Alabama needed then. That’s why Alabama needs Collin Sexton.
Avery Johnson has already proven he can get good players. John Petty is a likely commit. So is Alex Reese. But what Johnson needs to prove is that he can get a kid who, like Wallace and Williams, is wanted by the people in Lawrence, Kansas and Chapel Hill, NC, but who chooses Alabama instead.
As recently as today, many sources have predicted Sexton to Bama. The dynamic guard who can score from anywhere on the floor, and who makes everyone around him better, would be a boon for a program like Bama. Instant street cred. Instant NCAA appearance.
Sexton wouldn’t merely be a day one starter. He’d be a day one star.
Can Alabama turn things around even without Sexton? Sure. With players like Ingram and King and a few others, plus the expected addition of Petty and Reese, Alabama is clearly improved as a program.
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But if Coach Johnson can get Sexton to dribble his way to Tuscaloosa, Alabama’s turnaround will happen a whole lot faster.