BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Ronald Steele can easily recite his surgical history.

“I’ve had two scopes on my left knee,” said Alabama’s senior point guard on Wednesday afternoon during SEC Basketball Media Days, “and a microfracture surgery on my right knee. There were times I wondered if I’d ever play again.”

Steele was supposed to play last season after missing roughly one-third of the 2006-07 season. But both knees kept bothering the player who had been a preseason All-American in the autumn of 2006.

Unable to escape the pain, Steele elected to redshirt after having a second scope on his left knee in August of 2007.

“In retrospect, redshirting was probably the best thing Ronald could have done,” said Crimson Tide head coach Mark Gottfried. “He’s fully healthy now for the first time in a couple of years. When he’s out there, everybody else looks a little better.”

Not that the coach was necessarily feeling better on the day Steele decided to redshirt.

“That wasn’t a great day for me when he told me he wanted to redshirt,” said Gottfried, who has heard his share of criticism while missing the NCAA Tournament each of the last two seasons.

“I probably went home that night and searched for a bottle of Jack Daniels (whiskey).”

He had his reasons. With a pure freshman Steele running the show during the 2004-05 season, the Tide went 24-8 before losing in the NCAA Tournament to Wisconsin-Milwaukee, which was coached by Bruce Pearl, who is now at Tennessee.

A little more than three years later, Pearl is more than happy to discuss Steele’s importance to the Tide.

“We played them down there my first year, and Steele destroyed us,” said Pearl. “He played a little the next year at our place, and we won a close one. He didn’t play at all last year, and we won another close one in Tuscaloosa. So if he’s healthy, I’d say Ronald Steele is going to have a tremendous impact on the SEC this season.”

Steele insists he feels as good as new.

”It’s been a long process,” he said. “But my teammates say I’m as effective as back then. I just know I’m back to playing on instinct. Every day seems to get a little better.”

Vandy’s awesome Aussie

A year ago, Vanderbilt center A.J. Ogilvy was the Dunker from Down Under, a 6-11 post player who could score (17 ppg), rebound (6.7 rebs) and defend (1.4 blocks per game) on his way to leading all SEC freshmen in scoring.

He still has all those attributes and a few more — “I’m a lot stronger than last year,” Ogilvy said during Wednesday’s SEC media days — but the awesome Aussie pivot has also found a new passion.

“I’ve really gotten into football this year,” he said. “I understand it a lot more. And we’re having such a good year. It’s a lot of fun.”

Ogilvy says he occasionally watched American football before coming to the U.S.

“But I really didn’t understand it,” he said, adding it bears little resemblance to Australian Rules Football. “Every now and then I still have to ask somebody what’s going on. But I really got into the Auburn game. The (ESPN) GameDay crew was there. That was a great night.”

That doesn’t mean that the Commodores’ stirring 14-13 victory over the Tigers tempted Ogilvy into trading a round ball for an oblong one.

“Definitely not,” he said. “Too physical. Too many rules. I’ll stick to basketball.”

Call a cab, Bruce

It seems that a little less than 24 hours before the kickoff of last month’s Tennessee-Auburn football game, Tigers basketball coach Jeff Lebo got a phone call from his Vols counterpart, Bruce Pearl.

“He told me he really needed a parking pass for the game,” said Lebo. “So I told him he could borrow mine.”

Trouble was, Pearl lost the pass after the game.

“I swear we looked everywhere for it,” he said. “We called everyone who’d been in the car. It just disappeared.”

At that point, so did the smile on Lebo’s face. At least temporarily.

“I had to walk to the next game,” said the former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga coach, attempting to suppress a grin. “We’ll see where Bruce’s seats are when they come to Auburn this winter.”