Why Coach Grant’s Job is Safe

With a 9-12 record this season, many people are suggesting that a change be made for the Alabama Men's Basketball team, and most believe that this change starts with finding a new head basketball coach. I am not one of those people.

* NOTE: This article does not necessarily represent the views of TIDE 99.1.*

Let's face it. Alabama is having a rough basketball season. Actually, "rough" doesn't describe it properly. It's just a bad season. 9-12 is not, by anyone's standard, considered "good." And many people are calling for Anthony Grant's termination.

Well, those people are wrong.

I'm not saying it won't happen (in fact, I'm fairly confident that it will happen at season's end), but firing Grant does nothing for this program, simply because he is on par with being a normal, typical, average Alabama basketball coach. Average is what this program is used to. Success of one sport doesn't guarantee success for another sport. Each individual sport is mutually exclusive of the other sports, no matter how much one tries to rationalize the relation of each sport.

I mentioned that Alabama basketball is an average program, and I'd like to further elaborate that comment (I'll substitute the word "mediocre" in for "average" from now on, just a forewarning). For starters, in 100 years of basketball, Alabama has only a 62% win percentage. That isn't exactly great, by no person's standards. Here's a comparison: Levi Randolph has a career free throw percentage of about 67%. We don't win games, as a program, near as often as Randolph makes free throws (in case you were wondering, 67% isn't a great free throw percentage, but it's not terrible. It's average).

As for Coach Grant, he has won 61% of his games while at The Capstone, including his first season of 17-15 (which most sensible people will ignore a coach's first season. If you argue, "No, you have to include his first season," then don't get mad when someone brings up Coach Saban's first season at Alabama.)

Also, do you know which Alabama coaching legend Grant is very close to in win percentage? If you guessed C.M. Newton, then you are absolutely correct. Newton only won 63% of his games as the head coach at Alabama (211-123). In 12 seasons, Newton only made the post season 6 times (NIT 4, NCAA 2). I don't ever recall anyone ever calling for his termination over on-the-court production. (*Also, on a side note, Wimp Sanderson only won 69% of his games as head coach of Alabama. That's not even 7 out of 10 games.)

Now, let's move on from win percentage, because some people don't like numbers; they say that numbers can be skewed to prove whatever biased point one wants to make. I would like to focus on the term "mediocre." Fans don't like their teams to be mediocre, simply because they don't like anything to do with losing. The funny thing about mediocrity is that it doesn't care what fans like or dislike. Fans yell and complain and push for coaching terminations, and they usually get it. But rarely does it do any good. Most of the time, after 3 or 4 years, fans begin whining about the new coach, who wins at the same rate as the old coach.

Of course, there are anomalies that actually bring good fortune to suffering programs, like Saban becoming head coach, but Alabama football has never actually been a "suffering" program. Just like every football team, throughout the years, there are ups and downs. You can't always be good. Losing is an inevitability at some point in time.

Unless you've always been average. Then winning and losing tend to happen at the same rate... Wait. Isn't that what we just established a little while ago? Our program, over 100 years, has won and lost at about the same rate.

Now, one of my problems with this whole situation is how much Coach Grant gets paid. I do not agree, in the least bit, that he deserves $1.8 million/year. That's Jim Boeheim kind of money ($1.9 million/year). But that isn't Grant's fault. The University of Alabama administration saw that, in their budget, they could afford to pay him that much per year. The man would be completely out of his mind to decline this kind of raise. For example: if I were to get a raise, it would be because my bosses felt A. I earned it and B. there's enough in our total budget to pay me that much. I have a sneaking suspicion that B had a little more to do with that than A (in fact, you can argue that football is the reason Grant makes that much money).

"Cognitive dissonance" is a psychological effect that is basically described like so: if you think a certain way, or believe a certain idea, or have been taught a certain way of thinking, and someone presents a contradicting thought or ideal, you automatically disregard the new information because, well, you don't want it to be true.

Maybe with this article I've given you something to think about, if nothing else. Failure shouldn't be accepted in any endeavor, but when you're mediocre, you have to accept your role. If I ran a Mom & Pop store, I would never expect to be a Fortune 500 company. In fact, I would never expect to be the highest grossing small business in my town. I run this store because A. I love giving a service to the general public and B. it pays my bills, puts food on the table, and a roof over my head. I understand the fickleness of business, that not every year will yield an excessively high gross income, but every once in a while, when I do strike gold in a fiscal year, I'm not going to blow it nor will I start strutting my stuff around town. I still know my place in the business world.

I'm fine with being mediocre in basketball, because that's what our program is. I relish the occasional year of being good on a national scale, but for the most part, winning 20 games is the bar I set for Bama basketball. The bar has not risen for my standards in 24 years of breathing, and I highly doubt it will rise any time soon.

I appreciate the effort Coach Grant has put into the program, and winning 20+ games three seasons in a row is not an easy thing to do. All I'm asking is that you don't be a prisoner of the moment. Having the kind of seasons we're having now consistently is a good sign for change, but years like this are rare. Just be patient. I'm sure your company that you work for has never had a bad year, huh?