Bill Battle could see the negativity building as Alabama's basketball season took a southern turn. A strong non-conference start was followed by a rough patch in SEC play.
Restless fans were calling for Anthony Grant's head, but Alabama's athletics director wasn't ready to pull the trigger. Appearing on Paul Finebaum's radio and television show Thursday afternoon, Battle explained the process that eventually led to Grant's firing March 15. The school officially introduced new head coach Avery Johnson on Wednesday.
Battle said he met with Grant after the team went 3-5 against SEC competition in January. Battle suggested making announcement saying Grant would return for next season. Grant said they should hold off on any such proclamation at that point.
Grant, Battle said, wanted to let the season play out and address the situation after the year. The vote of confidence was Battle's plan to stop the unrest over the program's path.
"I felt like if I said something early ... the people who are going to be negative are going to stay negative, but there were a lot of people that really think a lot of Anthony and think a lot of the program," Battle told Finebaum's audience.
From there, injuries contributed to further struggles.
"The fan base got more negative and more negative," Battle said. "At some point, when the negativity is as great as it is, you can't recruit. And if you can't recruit, you're not going to win anyway and it becomes a matter of time. And at the end, that's where I felt like we were and I think Anthony agreed with me."
Before they reached that point of no return, Battle had a few numbers in mind. A 4-4 SEC record in the month of January would have been manageable considering the Tide faced No. 1 Kentucky twice. A 10-8 SEC record was Battle's hope, but it ultimately settled at 8-10.
Alabama was in the discussion for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament entering SEC play, but fell quickly by mid-February.
A few fans wore brown paper bags to an SEC game in Coleman Coliseum as confidence continued to sag. A disappointing 82-74 loss to Ole Miss on Senior Day had an announced crowd of 9,184, but the actual crowd was much smaller.
"As things happened the way they happened, the negativity grew and it just got to be a tough situation to turn around," Battle said.