TUSCALOOSA, Alabama — Crimson Tide basketball coach Anthony Grant took time to speak with three of us reporters before practice today. Unfortunately for me, my recorder wasn’t turned on during our session.
Aaron Jordan, the Alabama athletics communications director who is in charge of men’s basketball, saved the day. His recorder worked, and we have several quotes from the coach, courtesy of Aaron.
Alabama (7-4) will play Tulane (10-3) at home Sunday at 5 p.m., having lost four its last five.
–Grant on what team can do better: “We can do a lot of things better. We are in middle of a tough streak. We’ve lost four out of five and two in a row at home. There are certainly a lot of things we can do better, but we need to get better as a team.”
–On sophomore forward Nick Jacobs: “Nick has to do some things that help himself in terms of what he’s doing from a physical standpoint, preparation and those sort of things. Our team needs Nick to step up. We need a lot of people to step up and play better. Hopefully we’ll start to get there.”
–On team’s practice this past week: “Practice for us has been pretty consistent in terms of what we’ve been able to accomplish. We are limited in bodies. Moussa Gueye has been out the last couple of days with a stomach virus and he won’t be available today. We’ll have to wait and see what we have available for the game. You win on game day, so the preparation, both mental and physical, we have to do the best we can with what we have at practice and then transfer that to the game.”
–On his holidays: “I had a chance to spend it with my kids and the guys had a chance to go home and spend time with their family.”
–On Andrew Steele’s progression: “His rehabilitation is coming along good. No setbacks as of right now. Hopefully he’ll be able to rejoin us in the next couple of weeks. Nothing has changed in terms of his return date from what I have been told by our medical staff.”
–On team’s execution: “I think our team has to get better in a lot of areas. Some of it is our execution, some is our mental approach to the game and understanding how each one of us are joined together in terms of being able to help each other and play for each other. I always tell our guys that every game brings about different challenges, but the one thing that has to be should be consistent is your effort and your passion for the game and your teammates.”
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