Following Alabama Crimson Tide football and basketball recruiting can lead to concern some players and their families are too ‘me’ focused.
Recruiting for the Alabama Crimson Tide and all top programs chases the athletes with elite skills and physical attributes. But signing great athletes is not enough. An essential component in any championship roster is a buy-in from individuals that ‘me’ can never be more important than ‘we.’
Football coaches have a somewhat easier task of achieving that buy-in. In football, the execution by team units is required before any individual can shine. The size of football rosters also offers coaches some buffer. In football, when an elite athlete proves to be an individual whose attitude or behavior is unacceptable, there is another player ready to step in.
Basketball coaches have a greater buy-in challenge because the game can be dominated by one player and certainly by two. To some extent, many college basketball rosters have ‘me’ guys. The best coaches and the smartest teams learn how to mesh all the player elements into a functioning unit. But basketball coaches cannot be wrong about many recruits. It is a numbers game. If one or two expected-to-be top players on a roster don’t deliver, a basketball team suffers.
Following Alabama basketball recruiting and the FBI investigation into college basketball has turned my attention to the ‘me’ issue. For what it is worth, I do not believe Nick Saban cheats. I don’t believe Anthony Grant cheated and I think Avery Johnson did not either. As we all knew, long before the FBI investigation, plenty of other coaches do cheat.
What boosters do is beyond the practical control of any school’s compliance department. Particularly among college basketball’s sleazy underworld of handlers and wanna-be-somethings, money tarnishes too many players and programs.
As Alabama Crimson Tide fans it is difficult for us to understand a father letting a son sign with Will Wade at LSU. Wade appears to have been directly involved in ‘pay-for-play’ deals for recent LSU players. Yet, insiders report LSU is the probable choice of recruit, Trendon Watford.
Assuming some coaches don’t want to try building championship teams with ‘me’ guys, what is a coach to do? Apparently, Tom Izzo has figured it out. Based on recent testimony in a trial stemming from the FBI investigation, Izzo said no to money demands for an elite recruit.
A little history may be of value. When Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant began his head coaching career, cheating was widespread. Players would move from school to school, some playing well beyond mandated NCAA limits. Bryant used that approach at Maryland and perhaps also at Kentucky. What else he did is less well known. We do know at some point during his Texas A&M tenure, he soured on boosters using money to influence recruits. Bryant said he learned he could not count on that type of player. In Bryant’s mind quitting was a cardinal sin. He decided he could never know if, or when, a bought player would quit on him.
Maybe Bryant’s assessment, from what we consider a less complicated time, is not relevant to today’s players. Maybe today’s players are all willing to embrace ‘we’ and discard ‘me’ in training, practice and games. And, maybe many more than we realize have the necessary team perspective from the start.
I sure hope so.