Bama Basketball 2005-2006

Earlier this year I gave an update on the status of the Alabama Crimson Tide 2005-2006 basketball team's season. Well the season is over for the Tide, and it was a good news/bad news type of season. The good: Alabama made the NCAA tournament for the fifth season in a row. After struggling at times in the pre-conference schedule, the Tide had several big wins. On January 14, they defeated Kentucky in Lexington. On February 4, they defeated NCAA final four member LSU in Tuscaloosa. On February 26, they defeated another NCAA final four member, Florida, in Tuscaloosa. They defeated higher seed Marquette in the first round of the NCAA tournament and came within a basket of defeating elite 8 member UCLA to reach the sweet 16. They did all of this thanks to the emergence of several youngsters, including three freshmen, Dewayne Hendrix, Alonso Gee, and Brandon Hollinger. The bad: Alabama lost senior forward Chuck Davis to a knee injury that ended his college career. That injury, along with the defection of guard Justin Jonus, left the team short-handed with only seven available players. Once again, Alabama failed to take the next step and advance to the final four. They also failed to win twenty games. All-in-all, as a fan, I can't complain. If this represents a "down year"
for the Tide, or a re-building year, the future still looks bright with Coach Mark Gottfried at the helm.