Huge win for the Crimson Tide. JaMychal Green had his fourth double-double of the season with 18 points and 11 boards as ‘Bama defeated 12th ranked Kentucky, 68-66.
This is going to be an outstanding Wildcats team as the season progresses. Their freshmen this year, Terrence Jones, Brandon Knight and Doron Lamb, are excellent players and they throw in some veterans in there with Darius Miller and DeAndre Liggins. This team, in my opinion, could be as good as last year’s with John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins. They seem to be better, more clean-cut kids. They’ll make some bad decisions like Jones did at the end of the game last night taking the ball himself and jacking it from just beyond halfcourt instead of passing to an open Lamb, but they seem to listen to Calipari better and they just seem like better kids than last year’s pretty thuggish group.

This is a special win for Anthony Grant and his team. They have fought hard this year and it’s another step in Grant’s rebuilding of the program. He’s got some good players this year and getting to the tournament would be a huge accomplishment for this team as Grant tries to build a consistent tourney team every year.

The Tide was seven-of-14 from trifecta. Charvez Davis, a senior who looks like he’s coming into his own, was three-of-eight from beyond the arc. He hit one that was a couple of feet beyond NBA range. Sophomore Tony Mitchell played another solid game. He finished with 15 points on five-of-nine shooting and two-of-three from three point range. Mitchell is a stud. Senario Hillman hit a trey as did Andrew Steele. It’s good to see Steele back on the court. He’s a redshirt sophomore, after being out all season last year with an injury, and his upside is tremendous. Ben Eblen made the big steal and the free throw at the end of the game. Davis had a lot to do with the steal as it looked like he poked it out of Lamb’s hand. ‘Bama held Ky to 37 percent from the field including 33 percent from beyond the arc. Ky was seven-of-21 from trifecta. ‘Bama shot 44 percent from the field and outrebounded Ky, 37-29. Mitchell added eight boards.

This team has good potential. I think it could be  a good offensive team. It can surely play defense. ‘Bama leads the SEC in points per game allowed and fg shooting percentage among other categories. So if Davis, MItchell and Steele can start shooting well from three, freshman Trevor Releford and Eblen can handle the point efficiently and Green and Chris Hines can handle the middle, this could be a tournament team.

This is a start. ‘Bama moved to 11-7 overall and 3-1 in the SEC. KY dropped to 14-4 and 2-2 in conference. There are four frosh and one junior college player who just came into the program. Kendall Durant, a junior college player from Weatherford Community College in Texas who is Kevin Durant’s little brother, is one of them. Durant is a guard at 6’3″. Releford is a freshman and a four star recruit who has tremendous upside. The other frosh are 6’8″ Jason Carter, 7’1″ Carl Engstrom out of Sweden and Charles Hankerson, a 6’5″ small forward. All these guys were three and four star players. Engstrom looks like he’s a project who could be a force in the future. Alabama’s 2011 class is very impressive. The group is linked at the bottom. All have signed. Rivals has listed three of the four as commits, but they have signed LOI’s.

There is good senior leadership on this team with Davis, Hillman and Hines and Green is a junior with three years of playing experience (including this year), so there is no reason this team can’t make the tourney. Releford looks like a natural leader at point and Steele is a solid-leader kind of guy who has great skills. The makeup of this team is very good. Next up is Auburn on Saturday at 5 p.m. on CSS.

Another thing going for the Tide  last night was Coleman Coliseum. It was electric. So loud and supportive of their team. It was a great home court advantage for the team. The crazies in the student section were awesome. It looked like Cameron Indoor at Duke. If ‘Bama can get some more big victories, this arena could be one of the best home court advantages in the conference. Crowd was a big factor in the victory. Great to see the students high fiving the players and Grant afterwards. Anthony could make this a special program.

More on UAB and Auburn later. UAB playing pretty decent. Have some good players. Possible tournament team. Aaron Johnson playing well at the point. Cameron Moore good inside player and Jamarr Sanders is on fire. Looking like an NBA player the way he’s shooting. Auburn in total rebuilding mode. Losing Frankie Sullivan for the season doesn’t help, but it was going to be a long season any way. Tony Barbee has a lot of work to do, but he’s a good coach. Think he can get it done on the Plains. Beautiful arena at AU. All the resources there to have a successful program. Just need to recruit and try to scratch out a couple of wins in the conference this year. Alabama signees below:

2011 Alabama bball signees:

(JaMychal Green is leading a resurgent Tide.)