As much as he can, Alabama coach Anthony Grant will try to separate his personal feelings from his professional feelings when Alabama plays host to VCU tonight.
Grant coached the Rams from 2006 to 2009, going 76-25 with three Colonial Athletic Association regular-season titles, two tournament titles and two NCAA appearances.
"From an emotional standpoint, you try to separate that," said Grant, who's in his third year with the Crimson Tide. "But there are a couple of guys (Bradford Burgess and David Hinton) who remain there who played for me. The emotion of having to go against those guys and certainly all the different people who are associated with the program or the university ... I'm sure I'll see a lot of familiar faces who will make the trip as well.
"At the end of the day, it comes down to the basketball game that is going to be played. It's two very good teams. It's just about trying to prepare our team."
Grant recruited the core group — Joey Rodriguez, Brandon Rozzell, Ed Nixon, Jamie Skeen and Burgess — that fueled VCU's magical march to the Final Four last year, a run that Grant said made him happy and proud for everybody involved.
He returned to Richmond for see Rodriguez, Rozzell, Nixon and Skeen graduate.
"That was great to see those guys, see their families be proud of everything they accomplished," he said. "They had that experience of being in the Final Four, then to see those guys get to walk across the stage, that was great."
Grant is scheduled to bring the Tide to the Siegel Center next year. Awkward?
"We'll see," he said. "I'm trying to focus on this one. That's got enough of my attention right now."
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