For Alabama basketball 2019 began with an exciting upset of the perennial powerhouse, Kentucky Wildcats. For Crimson Tide basketball, the ’19 season ended with an NIT opening game loss to Norfolk State.
Anyone surprised by Wednesday night’s loss has not been paying attention. There was an abundance of signs the Alabama basketball team would not go far in the NIT Tournament. There were the intervals in so many games when the team played listlessly. There were the too frequent second-half collapses. And the pathetic free-throw shooting coupled with an alarming inability to protect the basketball. Add in the seeming absence of a coherent plan to inbound the basketball against pressure.