Lost in all the "Kool-Aid" drinking of the Alabama football team, (By the way, the fans were correct in their thoughts after the Clemson game, the football team is good) the college basketball season will be starting soon. Which means the ultimate media puppet master will start giving us his annual quotes.

And it's already started. Here's what our boy Mark Gottfried had to say about how the 2008-2009 team will play this year.

According to head coach Mark Gottfried and point guard Ronald Steele, the Crimson Tide will be a faster, more perimeter-oriented unit. It may not be the organized chaos of the old Arkansas teams and their "40 Minutes of Hell" approach, but Steele says it will at least be 40 Minutes of Unpleasantness for opponents.

"As far as being like the way Tennessee played last year, I don't know if we will go that far or not," Steele said at a Wednesday media briefing. "We're definitely not going to be the old Arkansas teams. But perimeter play is going to be the strength of this team. We've got a lot of guards, we've got a lot of people playing and we are definitely playing faster."

Here's another nugget..
"Remember, when we had Richard Hendrix and Jermareo Davidson, you don't want to fly up and down the floor," Gottfried said. "You got to build your team to your personnel. And we've got some real quickness on the perimeter. To run, you've got to be a great rebounding team, a great defensive team, and you've got to get some steals. We have a great opportunity for that."
Sound familiar to you?
It should.
Here's what he said last year....
Although 6-foot-9 forward and Wooden Award candidate Richard Hendrix (14.6 points per game last season) and explosive 6-6 guard Alonzo Gee (12.6 ppg) return as starters, Gottfried has equally high hopes for 6-6 shooting guard Mykal Riley in what the coach calls more of an "up-tempo style" of Alabama offense.
Whenever the Tide basketball team is coming off a bad year, the standard line is "We will go more up-tempo." Why do you think that is?
Because it sounds good. It sounds fun. Who wouldn't want to watch a team that runs the ball up and down the court? Who wouldn't want to watch a team that scores 100 points a night and has multiple highlight reel plays as possible.
But there is one problem with going "up tempo". It's the reason you won't see them play faster and the reason we hear that the team will improve in that area every year. It's something I would love to hear a member of the media ask Gottfried about sometime.
You can't run the court and play the high post offense. At least not the high post offense that Alabama has been running over the last few years. But it sounds good, so we'll read stories about it. Besides, if you want to see an up tempo team, you'll get your chance. In Maui, 2nd game. The Tar Heels. Our first great quote.... That can only mean one thing..... Basketball season is here.....