Alabama Basketball and Avery Johnson are building a roster with the No. 5 ranked class in the nation. Six new players join the 2017-18 Tide.
Alabama Basketball roster additions for next season could be the Tide’s best ever class. Check out the first couple of minutes from November 2016 as Avery Johnson discusses the 2017-2018 Signing Class.
The core of Avery Johnson’s temperament is optimism. So much so that it is infectious, impacting those around him and fans who yearn for an Alabama return to college basketball national prominence. An abundance of optimism can lead to unrealistic expectations. Avery aspires to Alabama becoming a regular NCAA Tournament participant and a program that every season will challenge for a spot in the Final Four.
Those are big goals. Can they be achieved, and if so, how long will it take? Before seeking these answers, let’s review what Alabama has achieved in its basketball history.
Expansions of the NCAA Tournament field only reached 64 teams in 1985. Even in the era of smaller fields, Alabama made the Big Dance every season from the 1981-82 season through the 1986-87 season.
Trying to create a fair comparison of the Tide’s NCAA Tournament participation, let’s look at two 17 season periods, going back to Wimp Sanderson’s first season in 1980-81.
In the older 17 year span, 1980-81 through 1996-97, Alabama made the NCAA Tournament 12 times. Taking Avery’s 2nd season (2017-18) and going back 17 seasons to Mark Gottfried’s 2000-2001 season as coach, the Tide has made the NCAA Tournament field only six times. Exactly half as many NCAA Tournament appearances in the two, 17 season spans.
Given the Tide’s history of success and struggles, expecting Avery to turn around the Tide program in one or two seasons was overly optimistic.
Is it realistic to look at 2017-18 as THE turnaround season? It is clear, an abundance of talent has been added to the Tide roster. Let’s look at each of the 2017-18 incoming players: