Alabama is committed to ‘up-tempo’

TUSCALOOSA | Anthony Brock made the distinction between last year’s University of Alabama men’s basketball team and the new 2009-2010 edition under Anthony Grant, and made it succinctly.

“This year, we know we’re a running team,” Brock said.

Alabama didn’t play much up-tempo last season as it was bogged down by problems at the point guard position that eventually led to the departure of point guard Ron Steele and, ultimately, a coaching change. Grant, who will open his first UA practice Friday after arriving from Virginia Commonwealth last March, says the commitment to fast-paced basketball will be complete this season.

“In a word, up-tempo,” Grant said Tuesday at Coleman Coliseum. “That’s how I would describe our style. We’re going to play the full 94 feet on offense and defense in one form or another.”

That’s been Grant’s style at every coaching stop he’s had, but there may also be an element of necessity at work. Alabama was looking to be relatively thin in the post even before senior forward Demetrius Jemison tore an Achilles tendon last month, requiring season-ending surgery. Jemison, a solid role player last season, has expressed a desire to return for a fifth year in 2010-11, according to Grant. But for this season, Alabama’s post players will be junior Justin Knox (5.7 points per game, 5.1 rebounds per game in 2008-09), sophomore JaMychal Green (10.3 ppg, 7.8 rpg) and junior-college transfer Chris Hines.

“We look at it as we’ve got to play with the guys we’ve got available,” Grant said. “As a coach, you can always wish you had a little more of this, a little more of that. But what we want is an opportunity to get on the floor and control what we can control. We expect every single guy to bring a level of energy to the team so we can be able to play basketball as an aggressive, disruptive-type team.”

Green, who looks stronger after a full off-season in the weight room, will likely be the focus of the inside game, although Grant has repeatedly said that he is taking a “clean slate” approach to this year’s team, giving all players an equal chance.

A 6-foot-9 sophomore from Montgomery who has been listed as a possible NBA lottery pick in 2011 in extremely early speculation by the nbadraft.net Web site, Green said he has no problems with the up-tempo style.

“We knew coming in that Coach Grant was going to be a running coach,” Green said. “We’ve had a tough preseason so far, tougher than we have ever had. Coach Grant has pushed us out of our comfort zone, but that’s what we needed.”

On the perimeter, last year’s leading scorer, Alonzo Gee, must be replaced. The top candidates to take up that scoring slack are junior Senario Hillman (12.9 ppg), sophomore Andrew Steele (3.3 ppg) and incoming freshman Tony Mitchell.

“Tony’s a long athlete, a rebounding guard,” said Green, who has played against Mitchell in preseason pick-up games. “If you throw (the ball) up, he’ll catch everything and dunk it. He’s a talented player. We just need him to step up to the plate.”

Alabama has three candidates at point guard. In addition to Brock, who said the Crimson Tide is “pretty stacked” at the position, UA returns senior Mikhail Torrance (10.0 ppg) and incoming freshman Ben Eblen, who switched his commitment from VCU to Alabama after Grant was hired.

“At the point guard position, we need to make sure we’re efficient with the basketball,” Grant said. “We’ve got three guys with the ability to play there, but sometimes we might play with all three on the floor and other times we might play with one primary ball-handler.”

Alabama will open its exhibition season on Wednesday, Nov. 4 against Montevallo. The regular season begins 10 days later when the Crimson Tide hosts Cornell on Saturday, Nov. 14.