They’re Bouncing Back in ‘Bama

Not since Wimp Sanderson glowered courtside in the “Plaid Palace” has Alabama basketball seen such high times.

The sixth-ranked Crimson Tide have already clinched their first Southeastern Conference title in 15 years and locked up a return to the NCAA tournament after a seven-year absence.

In the process, Mark Gottfried’s team has done its best to mend the wounds left from NCAA sanctions to the state’s most treasured icon: the Tide football team.

He’s also accomplished a difficult feat at his alma mater: The basketball team is, at the moment, the school’s headline act, filling up the 15,316-seat arena for six of the last eight home games.

“It’s good to see Alabama basketball back to where it was” in the mid-1980s, said Sanderson, Gottfried’s former coach, who was known for his plaid sports coats and fiery sideline demeanor.

The Tide (24-5, 12-3) secured their first SEC title since Gottfried’s senior year, in 1987, with Wednesday night’s 73-68 victory over Auburn. That was also the last season Alabama had been ranked in the Top 10.

“Alabama’s got all the tradition in football and I think Alabama’s been building tradition in basketball over the last 10 or 15 years,” said Jim Farmer, Gottfried’s college roommate and a former NBA and Tide player.

“I think his goal is to take it to a level it’s never been. Alabama’s always been a team able to make it to the final 16 and that kind of thing. He wants it to be a team that can make it to the Final Four every year and be a Top 10 team.”

Gottfried is one of only four men to win an SEC title as a basketball player and coach, joining Joel Eaves (Auburn), Joe B. Hall (Kentucky) and C.M. Newton (Alabama/Kentucky).

Former UCLA coach John Wooden cautioned Gottfried about the potential pratfalls of returning to coach your alma mater.

“He said, ‘You know, Mark, sometimes expectations are a lot harder for you at your alma mater,’” Gottfried, a former Bruins assistant under Jim Harrick, said. “‘First, other people want you to do well, but you also put more pressure on yourself.’

“He just advised me to be aware of that.”

Gottfried left UCLA following the Bruins’ 1995 national championship season to take over at Murray State, leading the Racers to five postseason trips in six years.

“There was no doubt in my mind” that Gottfried would be a successful head coach, Wooden said in an interview Thursday. “Just getting to know him personally and seeing him as a family man and seeing what he did at UCLA.

“I think that he had a lot to do, as assistants always do, with them winning the national championship in 1995.”

That was also the last year Alabama made it to the NCAA tournament.

As for coaching at your alma mater, Wooden said, “the advantages outweigh the disadvantages,” including the added pressure.

“But I also told him that this is outside pressure and if you permit outside pressure to affect you, you shouldn’t be in this business,” he said.

Gottfried rebuilt from scratch his first two seasons.

He inherited a team in 1998 that returned three upperclass starters, but only had one returnee or signee, former sixth man Doc Martin, that made much of an impact.

“I don’t know if people really can comprehend where our program was and that we had to make the decision to rebuild the whole team,” Gottfried said. “That was the hard part.

“A number of times, you walk into a situation where you have sophomores or juniors who are proven players at this level. We were kind of void of that. There wasn’t a lot to build on.”

Three years ago, Gottfried brought in the class that would put his stamp on the program. Among the newcomers were Erwin Dudley, Rod Grizzard, Terrance Meade and Kenny Walker--all three-year starters.

Grizzard and Dudley, the front-runner for SEC Player of the Year honors, both already ranked among the school’s top 20 career scorers. Dudley is ninth in rebounding with 857.