From 1988 to 2013, Avery Johnson was first a player and then a coach in the NBA.
So just because the calendar has flipped to February, it doesn't make the adjustment to college any easier for the first-year coach at Alabama. This season has been erratic for the Crimson Tide, with Johnson still getting used to working with younger players.
"You have to use different voices," Johnson said this week. "You can't just use your discipline voice or your intense voice. You need your teaching voice and your loving voice. Sometimes they just need a hug, and finding that balance with the guys is very important."
Alabama suffered a grisly 32-point loss at Dayton early this season but then recorded some of the Southeastern Conference's top victories so far in 2015-16, knocking off Wichita State, Notre Dame and Clemson. The Crimson Tide dropped five of their first six league games but are now 12-9 overall and 3-6 in SEC play after Tuesday's 82-80 overtime win at Mississippi State.
The Crimson Tide host cellar-dwelling Missouri on Saturday in this time of adjustment for Johnson, who was a player on San Antonio's 1999 title team and was named NBA coach of the year in 2006 after guiding Dallas to its first championship series appearance.
"These guys have to go to class," Johnson said, "and you're dealing with moms more than you're dealing with wives, like at the next level."
Pearl defends LSU
LSU traveled to Auburn on Tuesday and put an 80-68 thumping on Bruce Pearl's Tigers. That win improved talent-rich LSU to 14-8 overall and 7-2 in SEC play, but did it silence the critics?
"LSU is getting way too much negative publicity," Pearl said. "They're a young team starting two sophomores and a freshman, and their three losses in January were at Florida, at Texas A&M and a last-second buzzer-beater against the best team (Oklahoma) in the country.
"It's time for people to get off their backs and start getting them some credit for blending a talented and young team. Personally, I would love to see them go on a run just so some of the people criticizing them would have to eat their words."
LSU coach Johnny Jones has been blasted for not getting the ball to phenomenal freshman Ben Simmons more in last Saturday's 77-75 loss to the Sooners. Simmons took seven shots, making six of them.
"People talk about getting Ben Simmons the ball at this time or that time, but I love a guy who is willing to make the pass and make his teammates better," Pearl said. "That's what I love about him at the next level. He takes good shots and gives teammates better shots."
Great Gator now
Florida is 15-7 overall and 6-3 in SEC play following an 87-83 escape of Arkansas on Wednesday night, when the Gators' Dorian Finney-Smith, a 6-foot-8, 220-pound senior forward, had 22 points and nine rebounds. Finney-Smith is averaging a team-high 30.6 minutes, 15.1 points and 8.2 rebounds per game.
"We're just shooting the basketball a lot better this last month than we were at the beginning of the season," Florida first-year coach Mike White said, "but the biggest factor for us is that Dorian Finney-Smith has gone from a good player to an elite-caliber player."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.