Alabama Basketball: Every LSU At Alabama Game Matters

Alabama Basketball Hosts LSU Saturday at Coleman Coliseum. Why every LSU at Alabama basketball game matters.

Alabama basketball will be looking for its 9th SEC win and 16th win overall Saturday afternoon. Even with LSU mired in a 1-12 nightmare of a conference season, this game matters.

A win by the Tide will not catapult the team into anyone’s Big Dance bubble. Putting down a wounded basketball Bengal Tiger might be no more than a mercy killing. The Tide needs to win because Avery is building something and every win counts.

There are other reasons why beating LSU is important. Reasons mostly unknown to the majority of Crimson Tide basketball fans. To understand those reasons requires a sense of history, Alabama basketball history.

At the risk of losing most readers, we need to look back to 1968. And there is a story to tell.

On an early spring evening in 1968, the phone rang in the modest home of the chairman of the Physical Education department at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. The caller was University of Alabama Head Football Coach and Athletic Director Paul Bryant. Bryant was looking for a Head Basketball Coach. The man who answered the phone was Charles Martin Newton, known to all as C.M.

After a few brief pleasantries, Paul Bryant explained he was looking for a new basketball coach. Bryant asked if Newton was interested. C.M. responded that he would be willing to interview for the opening.

Bryant interrupted Newton and explained he was not talking about an interview, he was offering Newton the job.

A perplexed Newton said he would have to think about it and discuss it with his wife. Bryant said fine, he would call back later the same evening. That was how Paul Bryant hired C.M. Newton to resurrect a moribund Alabama basketball program.

Why was Bryant so concerned about Alabama Basketball? The University had just built a new 15,000 capacity arena, moving basketball from old Foster Auditorium. As Athletic Director, Bryant was very concerned about filling those 15,000 crimson seats.

For those skeptical that Bryant cared anything about basketball, here’s some proof. Bryant did not know the game well. He called fouls penalties and thought the refs called way too many on the Tide. But he wanted Alabama to be good in basketball.

A couple of years later as C.M. was building the program with then respectable NIT appearances, Bryant delayed the start of spring practice so he could travel with the team to a big NIT game.

So what does all this have to do with LSU? In early Febuary1970, after C.M.’s first team went 4-20, the Tide was sitting with a 5-12 record with LSU coming to Tuscaloosa.

LSU was the hottest commodity in the SEC and one of the hottest in all of college basketball. Hot as hot can be and all because of one hotshot Pistol, as in Pete Maravich. Pistol Pete was THE top player in the nation.

There is no room for all his stats here but check this out: http://www.lsusports.net/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=177319

Simply stated, without a three-point shot, Pistol Pete was the highest scorer in college basketball history.

February 7th, 1970. The Tide scratching and clawing its way to legitimacy and the BEST player in the game, maybe ever, coming to T-Town.

What happened is Pistol exploded and scored 69 points but the Tide won 106-104. It was a statement game for the Tide. On that day in Tuscaloosa, Alabama faced college basketball’s greatest player and won.

Here are some Pistol Pete NBA highlights. You will see he could pass better than he could shoot.

Next: Check it Out: Avery Has Help on the Way

For those who appreciate a sense of history, Alabama Basketball history, the Tide beating LSU in Tuscaloosa is always a big deal.