There was a time when nobody had more success in the Southeastern Conference men's basketball tournament than Alabama.
In their 12 seasons under Wimp Sanderson from 1981 to 1992, the Crimson Tide made nine appearances in the SEC championship game and won five titles. Alabama claimed three consecutive crowns from 1989 to '91 before Kentucky's Rick Pitino and Tubby Smith dominated the rest of the 1990s.
Sanderson was a guest this week on "Press Row" on ESPN 105.1 FM.
Q: When you think about seven different teams winning the SEC tournament in a seven-year stretch (1979-85) and coaches such as you, Sonny Smith, Dale Brown, Hugh Durham and Norm Sloan, was that the golden age of this league in basketball?
A: "It was a great era. We had a 10-team league and played everybody twice, so we had an 18-game, round-robin schedule. There were better players in the '80s than there are now, but we didn't have as many packed on one team as Kentucky has this year.
"Back then, if you came out of our league at 10-8, you had a pretty good year because it was so competitive."
Q: Was your '87 team that had Jim Farmer, Mark Gottfried, Derrick McKey, Michael Ansley and Keith Askins and went 28-5 your best?
A: "It may have been or may have been close, but I never try to pick the best. I get asked to compare this year's Kentucky team to those teams back then, and I tell them that Kentucky is just so much deeper than we were. We would have two or three really good players, like Sonny would and Dale would, but we didn't have nine."
Q: Why is today's SEC basketball struggling compared to when you coached?
A: "Our regular season had so much more meaning, and something college basketball can't do anything about right now is the scheduling. Let's face it: You have 14 teams in the SEC now, and that's because of football and the television money it brings in. But when you have 14 teams, you have the problem of getting a fair schedule because you can't play everybody home-and-home.
"I think the scheduling has screwed up things to where you don't have the competitive level of what we had, and I think it's a little bit that way in football, too."
Q: What are your thoughts on current Alabama coach Anthony Grant?
A: "I think they will give him another year to right the ship. They have not been to the NCAA tournament but one time in the six years he's been there, and that's a bit of a thorn. I think they keep him this next year, but there is a lot of speculation or grumbling or whatever you might say."
Q: When you think about the Alabama-Auburn rivalry, have there ever been coaches who have gotten along better than you and Sonny?
A: "Probably not. There was a rivalry there, and I worked hard to get my guys ready to play them, because I thought those were the two most important games of the season for us, and they felt the same way. Sonny and I got along, and we wound up doing a radio show together for six years."
Q: Would you have rather coached in the era you did or coach now, where there is more scrutiny but bigger paychecks?
A: "I would rather coach now for all that money. Anthony Grant made more money this year than I made in 32. Now, I was an assistant there for 20 years before I was the head coach for 12, but my salary all those years was not what Anthony Grant made this year."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.