First off, let’s put them both on the table. One is complete, as it was in the past, and the other is still to-be-determined as we still expect to add at least one more name to the list.
2015-2016 Depth Chart(9 total players)
PG – Retin Obasohan(1) – Justin Coleman(2)
SG – Arthur Edwards(3) – Brandon Austin(4)
SF – Riley Norris(5) – Shannon Hale(6)
PF – Michael Kessens(7) – Shannon Hale
C – Jimmie Taylor(8) – Donta Hall(9)
2016-2017 (projected) Depth Chart(11 players currently – plan is to add at least 1 more)
PG – Dazon Ingram(1) – Corban Collins(2) – Avery Johnson Jr(3)
SG – Armond Davis(4) – Brandon Austin(5)
SF – Nick King(6) – Shannon Hale(7)/Riley Norris(8)
PF – Braxton Key(9) – Riley Norris/Shannon Hale
C – Jimmie Taylor(10) – Donta Hall(11)/(Potential Addition?(12?))
The first thing that should jump off the page at you is the difference in depth between the two rosters. As Coach Johnson said at times last year, he had to get out there and play a role in practice due to the fact that we didn’t have enough bodies, luckily for him it looks like that won’t be needed this year. After Dazon Ingram went down last year Alabama was left with only 9 eligible scholarship players. Assuming Avery Johnson Jr is on scholarship, the recent addition of Corban Collins already improves that number by 2 to 11 with the hope of adding at least one more. The extra bodies should aid in preventing any late season exhaustion caused collapses like we witnessed last year down the stretch.
Now I’ll look at each position and determine if it has improved, digressed or remained the same as we move forward to the 2016-2017 season.
Point Guard – Not to knock Retin Obasohan’s talent or contributions last year(because there is a massive list of them) but due to Dazon Ingram’s injury, he had to play out of position. Some observers would even say he played two positions simultaneously last year. Due to him playing out of position, Alabama rarely had a true point guard on the court last year and when they did, it was in the form of undersized Justin Coleman.
In the 2016-2017 campaign, barring any unforeseen injuries like last year, Alabama will go from zero true SEC caliber point guards to three(Dazon Ingram, Corban Collins and Avery Johnson Jr). Replacing Retin and Coleman with Ingram, Collins and Johnson Jr is seen as an improvement in my eyes.
Shooting Guard – Along with Retin, Arthur Edwards was the unsung hero of this team many times last year. He was also nowhere to be found for stretches of the season. He could catch on fire from outside but if that wasn’t there, he might as well have not been there. If Dazon Ingram doesn’t go down and Retin remains at his natural position here, Arthur Edwards would have been a great sixth man off the bench to help provide productive minutes when Retin needed a breather. That was not the case, Edwards was forced into a full-time starting roll where he is relied upon to provide a lot of quality minutes and keep the defense from doubling Retin up top.
Armond Davis should provide the shooting touch of Edwards but also the ability to drive and create his own shot if the long ball is not there. Edwards’ senior leadership is an intangible that doesn’t show up in the score sheet but increases his value to the team. If not for Corban Collins’ ability to play the 2 as well as PG, Shooting Guard would be an even but the depth he will provide here in addition to PG gives the 2016-2017 version of Shooting Guard the edge as well. If Que Johnson is added here this position goes from a slight improvement to one of the deepest and most talented positions on the team.
Small Forward – Riley Norris and Shannon Hale made up a constant, solid but not flashy Small Forward duo in the 2015-2016 campaign. Either of these guys can blow up for 25+ but they can also have the ability to leave you with a goose egg on any given night. You could argue Hale is the more talented of the two but what Norris lacks in natural talent he makes up in effort. The kid busts his butt and you can depend on him to give 110% every night. This is the area many criticize Hale, he often appears to be mentally weak and tends to loaf but when he is “on” it’s a thing of beauty. This was probably the best position duo in 2015-2016.
The flash factor comes next season. Nick King sat out last year but many close to the program, including our own Cecil Hurt hinted he was one of the best, if not the best player on the court last year. With King coming in and probably forcing Norris or Hale to Power Forward this, already solid, position as well will be improved in 2016-2017.
Power Forward – For some, Kessens was an eye sore on the court. A liability with the ball in his hands and a stiff defender. There were glimmers of athleticism from time to time but he will probably be amongst peers in his final landing spot in Florida International. The knocks(sloppy, turnover prone, stiff etc) seem to outweigh the positives(physical) with Kessens. It shouldn’t be hard to improve upon this position next season.
In comes Braxton Key, a big time power forward that was relied upon by high school power Oak Hill in their championship run this season. Key’s commitment was somewhat overshadowed by the commitment of Terrance Ferguson early on but he began to turn the heads of Tide fan’s in his numerous nationally televised appearances throughout his senior campaign. Not only was he a key piece of Oak Hill’s squad, by season’s end he won the MVP of the Dick’s Sporting Goods national high school tournament and rightfully so as his team went to him when they needed a bucket or needed to kill the opposing team’s run. You aren’t going to get the super fancy 360 dunks from Key like you would’ve from Ferguson but this guy is going to win some games for Alabama and that’s what you really want. With either Shannon Hale, Riley Norris or an addition that remains to be determined backing him up, this position will definitely be improved in Avery Johnson’s second college season.
Center – At the beginning of the season the main post position, whether you label it Center or some kind of Forward hybrid was Sharpied in as Jimmie Taylor’s. Coach Johnson was singing his praises in the offseason and spoke highly of how dependent we would be upon Mr. Taylor. That carried over into the early season where we saw him get a majority of the minutes. As a reoccurring foul problem continued to plague the promising Junior we began to see more minutes from one Donta Hall. Donta wasn’t expected to be relied upon by many as he came from a small school and was relatively low profile in high school. As he began to get more minutes the light began to come on for Donta. By season’s end Donta had become a block-machine on defense and many were calling for him to start over the quiet Junior who many believed had peaked with his monstrous performance in Gainesville.
As of the moment, this position remains the same as last year. Only time will tell if Hall continues to improve through the offseason at the same rate he improved during the season and if the light will come on for Jimmie Taylor. There are rumors Taylor is not to leave the gym until he makes 500 free-throws a day this offseason. If this is true, that’s definitely a step in the right direction. If the Tide brings in another big, having five fouls alone will be enough to call this an improvement with the way our guys seem to hop on and off the court like a fat kid on a scale at Tony Perkis’ Fat Camp. Even If Alabama can land Giddens(the transfer from Ohio State that visited today that will have to sit next year) things will not improve immediately depth-wise but our bigs will definitely have an excellent scout team body to prepare against in the fall and winter and the duo of Giddens and Hall is nice to think about for the 2017-2018 campaign.
By my count, that’s four predicted improvements to a roster that flirted with the bubble pretty seriously last March until the Bulldogs from Starkville came to town and put that talk to rest. I don’t think this will be a team the national preseason magazines predict to be in the big dance but this will be a deeper, more talented team that no one will want to play by season’s end.
2015-2016 Depth Chart(9 total players)
PG – Retin Obasohan(1) – Justin Coleman(2)
SG – Arthur Edwards(3) – Brandon Austin(4)
SF – Riley Norris(5) – Shannon Hale(6)
PF – Michael Kessens(7) – Shannon Hale
C – Jimmie Taylor(8) – Donta Hall(9)
2016-2017 (projected) Depth Chart(11 players currently – plan is to add at least 1 more)
PG – Dazon Ingram(1) – Corban Collins(2) – Avery Johnson Jr(3)
SG – Armond Davis(4) – Brandon Austin(5)
SF – Nick King(6) – Shannon Hale(7)/Riley Norris(8)
PF – Braxton Key(9) – Riley Norris/Shannon Hale
C – Jimmie Taylor(10) – Donta Hall(11)/(Potential Addition?(12?))
The first thing that should jump off the page at you is the difference in depth between the two rosters. As Coach Johnson said at times last year, he had to get out there and play a role in practice due to the fact that we didn’t have enough bodies, luckily for him it looks like that won’t be needed this year. After Dazon Ingram went down last year Alabama was left with only 9 eligible scholarship players. Assuming Avery Johnson Jr is on scholarship, the recent addition of Corban Collins already improves that number by 2 to 11 with the hope of adding at least one more. The extra bodies should aid in preventing any late season exhaustion caused collapses like we witnessed last year down the stretch.
Now I’ll look at each position and determine if it has improved, digressed or remained the same as we move forward to the 2016-2017 season.
Point Guard – Not to knock Retin Obasohan’s talent or contributions last year(because there is a massive list of them) but due to Dazon Ingram’s injury, he had to play out of position. Some observers would even say he played two positions simultaneously last year. Due to him playing out of position, Alabama rarely had a true point guard on the court last year and when they did, it was in the form of undersized Justin Coleman.
In the 2016-2017 campaign, barring any unforeseen injuries like last year, Alabama will go from zero true SEC caliber point guards to three(Dazon Ingram, Corban Collins and Avery Johnson Jr). Replacing Retin and Coleman with Ingram, Collins and Johnson Jr is seen as an improvement in my eyes.
Shooting Guard – Along with Retin, Arthur Edwards was the unsung hero of this team many times last year. He was also nowhere to be found for stretches of the season. He could catch on fire from outside but if that wasn’t there, he might as well have not been there. If Dazon Ingram doesn’t go down and Retin remains at his natural position here, Arthur Edwards would have been a great sixth man off the bench to help provide productive minutes when Retin needed a breather. That was not the case, Edwards was forced into a full-time starting roll where he is relied upon to provide a lot of quality minutes and keep the defense from doubling Retin up top.
Armond Davis should provide the shooting touch of Edwards but also the ability to drive and create his own shot if the long ball is not there. Edwards’ senior leadership is an intangible that doesn’t show up in the score sheet but increases his value to the team. If not for Corban Collins’ ability to play the 2 as well as PG, Shooting Guard would be an even but the depth he will provide here in addition to PG gives the 2016-2017 version of Shooting Guard the edge as well. If Que Johnson is added here this position goes from a slight improvement to one of the deepest and most talented positions on the team.
Small Forward – Riley Norris and Shannon Hale made up a constant, solid but not flashy Small Forward duo in the 2015-2016 campaign. Either of these guys can blow up for 25+ but they can also have the ability to leave you with a goose egg on any given night. You could argue Hale is the more talented of the two but what Norris lacks in natural talent he makes up in effort. The kid busts his butt and you can depend on him to give 110% every night. This is the area many criticize Hale, he often appears to be mentally weak and tends to loaf but when he is “on” it’s a thing of beauty. This was probably the best position duo in 2015-2016.
The flash factor comes next season. Nick King sat out last year but many close to the program, including our own Cecil Hurt hinted he was one of the best, if not the best player on the court last year. With King coming in and probably forcing Norris or Hale to Power Forward this, already solid, position as well will be improved in 2016-2017.
Power Forward – For some, Kessens was an eye sore on the court. A liability with the ball in his hands and a stiff defender. There were glimmers of athleticism from time to time but he will probably be amongst peers in his final landing spot in Florida International. The knocks(sloppy, turnover prone, stiff etc) seem to outweigh the positives(physical) with Kessens. It shouldn’t be hard to improve upon this position next season.
In comes Braxton Key, a big time power forward that was relied upon by high school power Oak Hill in their championship run this season. Key’s commitment was somewhat overshadowed by the commitment of Terrance Ferguson early on but he began to turn the heads of Tide fan’s in his numerous nationally televised appearances throughout his senior campaign. Not only was he a key piece of Oak Hill’s squad, by season’s end he won the MVP of the Dick’s Sporting Goods national high school tournament and rightfully so as his team went to him when they needed a bucket or needed to kill the opposing team’s run. You aren’t going to get the super fancy 360 dunks from Key like you would’ve from Ferguson but this guy is going to win some games for Alabama and that’s what you really want. With either Shannon Hale, Riley Norris or an addition that remains to be determined backing him up, this position will definitely be improved in Avery Johnson’s second college season.
Center – At the beginning of the season the main post position, whether you label it Center or some kind of Forward hybrid was Sharpied in as Jimmie Taylor’s. Coach Johnson was singing his praises in the offseason and spoke highly of how dependent we would be upon Mr. Taylor. That carried over into the early season where we saw him get a majority of the minutes. As a reoccurring foul problem continued to plague the promising Junior we began to see more minutes from one Donta Hall. Donta wasn’t expected to be relied upon by many as he came from a small school and was relatively low profile in high school. As he began to get more minutes the light began to come on for Donta. By season’s end Donta had become a block-machine on defense and many were calling for him to start over the quiet Junior who many believed had peaked with his monstrous performance in Gainesville.
As of the moment, this position remains the same as last year. Only time will tell if Hall continues to improve through the offseason at the same rate he improved during the season and if the light will come on for Jimmie Taylor. There are rumors Taylor is not to leave the gym until he makes 500 free-throws a day this offseason. If this is true, that’s definitely a step in the right direction. If the Tide brings in another big, having five fouls alone will be enough to call this an improvement with the way our guys seem to hop on and off the court like a fat kid on a scale at Tony Perkis’ Fat Camp. Even If Alabama can land Giddens(the transfer from Ohio State that visited today that will have to sit next year) things will not improve immediately depth-wise but our bigs will definitely have an excellent scout team body to prepare against in the fall and winter and the duo of Giddens and Hall is nice to think about for the 2017-2018 campaign.
By my count, that’s four predicted improvements to a roster that flirted with the bubble pretty seriously last March until the Bulldogs from Starkville came to town and put that talk to rest. I don’t think this will be a team the national preseason magazines predict to be in the big dance but this will be a deeper, more talented team that no one will want to play by season’s end.
