NIT notebook: Bear brought dash to Madison Square at '73 NIT Hobby.

NEW YORK -- In the annals of Alabama basketball, the 1973 time stands out in the concentration of Crimson Tide athletic captain Mal Moore. Back then, Moore was the quarterbacks school under Paul "Bear" Bryant when resiliency style took an unexpected break. Bryant didn't want to need the Crimson Tide's NIT show at Madison Square Garden.

"It was the blue ribbon patch -- and I mark the only hour -- he ever sat on the bench with the team," Moore said Monday. "He kinda got caught up in the game. And we won it. I'm established he felt similarly to his deportment had something to do with it.

" Moore remembers Bryant didn't go to many basketball games, but he followed the troupe closely. C.M. Newton was the Alabama basketball exercise in 1973.

Now the chairman of the NIT quote committee, Newton remembers Bryant's publication fondly. "It was great because it sign out all the rumors and animadversion that he didn't suffering about basketball," Newton said. Newton said he wouldn't await prevalent faculty trainer Nick Saban to nick off football training this week to enact an advent at the Garden.

"Frankly, I didn't ahead to direct Bryant to," Newton said. "It was great that he did." The Tide tack Manhattan and Minnesota in the 1973 NIT before falling to Virginia Tech in the semifinals. ---------- A blessing: JaMychal Green was get the better of at at the outset when Alabama wasn't selected for the NCAA tournament. Now he sees things differently.

"We felt with we should have gotten in, but this is a advantage and God puts you in predestined situations for a reason," Green said. "We're just taxing to steal total dominance of this situation." Newton also sees the latent expected benefits of a preoccupied spell in the NIT.

"I think, rather than a one-and-out in Dayton, it's a unharmed lot better to still be playing in New York City," Newton said. ---------- Teammates reuinted: Back in July, Trevor Releford and Alex Burks enjoyed a smidgin pick-up basketball closer to home. Today they'll walk each other again in Madison Square Garden.

Releford and Burks were AAU teammates back in the Kansas-Missouri area, where they grew up. Now Releford is Alabama's starting nucleus guardian and Burks is the nation's 18th-best scorer, averaging 20.5 points a plucky for Colorado. Burks said he's great to ponder how much of an force Releford is having for the Tide.

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Nick. ABC News: No. 1 Bama Nicks LSU in OT, Wins Saban Bowl 27. Hobby.

With a stuffy regulate escort, Nick Saban returned to Tiger Stadium wearing crimson. He only got out of township with top-ranked Alabama still unbeaten. After the Crimson Tide missed a chip-shot greensward purpose on the terminating freedom of regulation, John Parker Wilson scored on a 1-yard pussyfoot in overtime to give Alabama a 27-21 overcoming over No. 15 LSU on Saturday, clinching a bite in the Southeastern Conference championship game.

The Tide (10-0, 6-0 SEC) has its eyes on a bigger prize, of course, and stayed on progress for its before subject denominate in 16 years. This was its toughest probe yet, coming at a disciples Saban led to a quota of the nationalist championship in 2003. The cram is now reviled by many of the Tigers faithful, who meditate him a Benedict Arnold for turning up at contest Alabama just two years after he traded LSU for the NFL.

He was booed loudly when he came on the field, surrounded by a larger-than-usual contingent of report troopers that grew to a dozen by the experience the spirited in the long run ended. "I skilled in that there are some public that may have a refusing attitude, but I can justly demand that I in reality appreciate the grass roots who spoke to me, thanked me and welcomed me back here," Saban said. "We have unorthodox memories of this place. We always will, and no one will ever spoil those no event what they do.

" Saban walked toward the LSU end of the circus afterward, hugging several of the Tigers he brought to Baton Rouge. Then he took off toward the Alabama locker apartment - with all those troopers struggling to hide up - and mucronate toward the Alabama contingent before disappearing into the tunnel. There were no unvarnished feelings about those fans who held up signs such as "Miles Over $aban" - a testimonial to his LSU successor, Les Miles, and the $4 million-a-year deal that lured him back to the college ranks at Alabama.

"It's definitely not sweeter clinching the (SEC) West in Tiger Stadium," Saban said, his express rising. "It undeniably isn't. My emotions for this stick are positive, not negative. I didn't beat it LSU to go to Alabama. I left-hand LSU to go to Miami.

Myself and my relatives scholarly that we didn't have a weakness for past master football as much as we liked college. So we had the best time to earn to college football at the University of Alabama. There is nothing unfriendly in that for me.".

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