Letter from Tide Men's Basketball Coach Mark Gottfried
11/12/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dear Alabama Basketball Supporter:
I hope you are as excited about the start of basketball season as I am. Believe it or not, we open the season this Friday, November 14th in New York City's Madison Square Garden against Pittsburgh, last year's Big East conference champions.  The game will be televised nationally on ESPN2 at 6:00 p.m. (CST) and will be broadcast on the CTSM radio network.
Let me get right to the point. I need you. This team needs you. We need you to come to every home game and help this young group. We are very inexperienced, but have a lot of character. I promise you, you will enjoy watching this group develop and come together as the season progresses. You also will be a part of their success because they need your support.
Over the last few years your team has been to two NCAA tournaments, won an SEC championship and climbed the polls to the first ever #1 national ranking. Over the last three years, we have had 10 seniors and all 10 have graduated. The four seniors on this 2003-04 team will all graduate as well. I realize there are ups and downs along the way but step back, look at your program and don't take for granted what has transpired.
This year we will play as difficult a schedule as we have ever played. Consider this; Pitt is the defending Big East champs, Xavier is the defending Atlantic-10 champion, Oregon is the defending PAC-10 tournament champion, Wisconsin is the defending back to back Big 10 champion, Austin Peay is the defending OVC champion and Mercer is the defending Atlantic-Sun champion. We also play Louisiana Tech from the WAC, Charlotte from Conference USA and Providence who returns their top eight from the Big East.
We are not afraid of the challenge, we welcome it. To be considered one of the best, we need to beat the best. To do this, I need you here every night!  Let's have some fun together. This is your team!
Sincerely,
Mark Gottfried
