Former Dallas Mavericks and Brooklyn Nets head coach Avery Johnson is hoping to lead the Alabama Crimson Tide basketball program to glory, after being hired earlier this week to replace Anthony Grant.
It will be no easy task for Alabama and Avery Johnson, but he has one idea of how he can immediately begin to improve.
The key: one-and-dones — just ask the Kentucky Wildcats and Duke Blue Devils.
According to al.com, Johnson says Alabama will need to recruit some one-and-dones to the program in order to take the Crimson Tide basketball team where he would like it to go.
“My philosophy is we need to get a couple of one-and-dones. I think it would help our whole program. We need to recruit kids that have that capability,” Johnson said. “If they have that capability and I can help them get into the lottery or into the first round and they can go on and make millions of dollars and really feel grateful for the University of Alabama and they would give back to the university, that would be great.”
Of course, Johnson does understand the value of having seasoned veterans, too.
“But we also need two-and-dones and we need some kids that are going to be four-year students that can get out here and maybe not get to the NBA, but get out here into the petroleum engineering arena, or maybe get into the oil and gas business or financial business, one of these Wall Street firms so we need to have a balance in our program,” he added.
It will be interesting to see what happens with the Crimson Tide under the direction of Avery Johnson, but it is clear that he plans to hit the ground running.
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*Featured Photo (above) credit to Vasha Hunt/[email protected]
