Get well soon Ronald

Without Ronald Steele, this isn’t a top 10 team. Without him, Bama might not even be NCAA-tournament caliber right now.

But Steele’s balky knee won’t be acting up forever. And close escapes against inferior teams, like last night’s grinder against Louisiana-Monroe should be a thing of the past. It sounded like a brutal game, at least the part I listened to after being, um, distracted by other things.

The obvious good news is that the Tide won with Steele sidelined and Jemareo Davidson having a brutal shooting night. Mykal Riley going off for 22 points certainly didn’t hurt. In fact, he is making a strong case for starting alongside Steele, with Brandon Hollinger being purely a backup point guard.

Late > never: Tide wins Paradise Jam

Obviously not a lot left to say when you’re a day-and-a-half behind, but I did want to note that Bama got its best win to date without big scoring efforts from Ronald Steele or Jemareo Davidson. That has to be a good sign, right?

It’s hard to say that Davidson had a quiet night with 10 points and 12 rebounds, but he struggled on offense for long stretches with the outcome in doubt. My educated guess is that a whirlwind weekend of a long plane flight the day before back-to-back games, not to mention the physical and emotional toll of the wreck, finally started catching up with him.

Steele is a little harder to figure. He was up against a solid defensive guard in Stanley Burrell, and he did have six assists, but it didn’t seem like he looked for his shot, even with the Muskateers leading in the second half. Five points on 2-for-7 shooting has to be an upset.

The weather’s beautiful, wish you were here.

I get that the Iron Bowl is always the pinnacle of sports in this state, and that newspapers have to staff it accordingly. I understand that good writers have to stick around for the Mike Shula death watch.

What I don’t understand is why nobody bothered to send somebody, anybody to cover the No. 10 team in America during their most important stretch of preseason games.

None of the big four papers (Birmingham, Mobile, Montgomery, Huntsville) are staffing the Paradise Jam. Even the hometown Tuscaloosa News has gone the staff reports route. For those not familiar with newspapers, staff reports means writing the story off the box score while sprinkling in a few quotes from a quote sheet. No first-hand account, no expert insight.

Gee as in genius

It would be easy to dwell on the bad things from Sunday’s 72-60 win against Iowa in the Paradise Jam semis. But before I start griping about the disappearing bench, the poor free throw shooting or the ho-hum rebounding effort, let’s have a moment of appreciation.

Alonzo Gee is the freaking man.

Eight-for-13 from the field. 5-for-7 from the line. He had 21 points, six rebounds, two assists, two steals, a block, no turnovers and enough highlight-reel dunks to earn him a roster spot with the Globetrotters. Last years flashes of potential have gelled into an early all-SEC contender. He’s bypassed Richard Hendrix to become the No. 3 offensive choice, and is breathing down Jemareo Davidson’s neck for No. 2.

Must-win game in November?

It’s Iron Bowl weekend and the basketball team is more than 1000 miles from home in a place where pressure is deciding which fruit-falvored cocktail to order before dinner. Can the Crimson Tide really be in must-win mode this soon?

Don’t laugh. A look at the schedule says that this is Bama’s best shot at a quality non-conference win.

Paradise by the backboard lights

It wasn’t pretty, but Alabama slogged through a Jemareo Davidson-less 71-62 win over Middle Tennessee in the Paradise Jam opener.

 With Davidson missing the game for his girlfriend’s funeral, the frontcourt depth really got tested. Richard Hendrix (left)  scored 16 points but fouled out, as did Demetrius Jemison. Bama barely outrebounded Middle (31-29) and never really pulled away until the last couple of minutes. If the Tide is going to win this tournament, it needs Jemareo back. He will fly in Saturday ahead of Sunday’s game against Iowa, but how much he’ll play (if at all) is unclear.

Jemareo Davidson involved in wreck

There are very few details right now, but Jemareo Davidson was invloved in a car wreck Sunday morning in Atlanta that killed another UA student. Brandy Nicole Murphy, a friend of Jemareo’s, was on a trip with him to visit his family. Their car skidded off I-20 and turned over. Murphy was taken to Grady Hospital, where she later died. Davidson was treated and released.

There’s been no official word (and really it matters little at a time like this), but Davidson may very well miss this weekend’s Paradise Jam tournament in the Virgin Islands. The team leaves Wednesday, which would likely conflict with any funeral arrangements. But again, that matters very little.

 Prayers for Jemareo and the Murphy family.

I’m sorry Ms. Jackson

Hard to ask for a better start to the season than Friday’s 96-65 drubbing of Jackson State. Nearly everybody played, nearly everybody scored, the shooting was crisp and the outcome was never in doubt.

Of course, it always helps when your fourth-best scoring option goes on a mad binge before the first media timeout. Alonzo Gee opened the game with a nasty dunk, then started draining threes. He had 10 of Bama’s first 11 points before the Tigers had even worked up a sweat. He cooled off a little to finish with 16, mostly because foul trouble limited him to 18 minutes. At least he found time to add three rebounds, two assists, two steals, and two blocks.