H2 For You: Why Foster Auditorium for Tide Tipoff?

It's a question worth asking, what it means to be more than a football school.

Why is my question. Why Alabama is hosting its Tide Tipoff in Foster Auditorium. Why there instead of Coleman Coliseum or, say, the Quad like it's 2014, is what I can't answer.

And what I wondered aloud until in print.

Because it makes little sense, the setting of the October 22 occasion, why Alabama men's and women's basketball will showcase and promote its players and programs in what's left of the preseason at a venue which, with its attractive façade-yet-archaic insides, devolves from the recent theme of Crimson Tide hoops.

It's an ushered-in new era, new age or some variation of a stale and still accurate description. Particularly with reference to the men's program under third-year coach Nate Oats. 

That is, if not for the women's side under Kristy Curry sustaining then adding to its recent success.

You've got a defending SEC champion, regular season and tournament, returning and replacing talent so not to dip in entertainment value, and first come, first serve seating is the answer; you've got a women's team looking to build on a 22-year NCAA Tournament drought snapped in March, and an outside videoboard is the answer.

Just think, one week ago I sat here to explain why basketball at the University was a soon-to-bloom stock. Not that this should bring about wavering confidence, but I do now wonder how devout its following actual is, regardless of on-court products.

Foster, dense in its definition, is too broad and interpretive to be known anymore for its hospitable game of hoops, and its significance tops the weight of any residing hardwood floor.

Again, why there is the question, more so as the palatial home arena sits empty that Friday night than anything else.

Why not capitalize at every stop, the University's upwards trajectory on a macro scale, the Crimson Tide's momentum on the hardwood, the Name, Image and Likeness evolution, every bit of it, I wonder why not. 

Surely there's a way.

Student enrollment is up, Alabama fans exponentiate by the day it seems, and NIL already has materialized for the standouts of the Tide men's team.

Imagine being a perspective student, NIL-involved party of interest or visiting basketball recruit and walking into a larger, more crowded venue. Now compare that impression to entering Foster Auditorium on October 22 in hopes of witnessing an altered take on Kentucky's Midnight Madness.

You wouldn't, but because of its promotional elements more than anything. And you'd wonder why in the world Foster was the site selected. 

You'd ask, rhetorically, 'Does no one here care about college basketball?'

Foster seats about three thousand people, that compared to Coleman's 15 thousand. What a statement if the Coliseum was seated at maximum capacity for glorified, entertainment-led scrimmages. 

You'd think, 'Everybody here cares about college basketball.'

The event is supposed to be treated as a concert-like atmosphere, not a prep basketball game. I know, I know, the itinerary includes a dunk contest, et cetera, though you can at least admit its significance could be greater with improved planning.

How I see it, a preseason, fan-driven event like Tide Tipoff signifies not only growing anticipation for another tough-sledding schedule ahead, but a chance to feel more connected to each player just as spectators hope.

The atmosphere is looser, there's music playing, there's more smiling and less anxiety, and there's a chance to better promote the entire basketball organization as more than a wallflower in its first on-campus time slot of the fall semester. 

All to say as long as capacity isn't fragile, that is, literally.

Let there be fans watching it from the cheap seats, so long as they're there, not cursing inbound traffic on University Boulevard all to watch a live feed from the Malone-Hood Plaza outside a cramped Foster Auditorium. 

It's an opportunity not captured because, between the men's and women's national uprising last year, it's ideally created in hopes of more and more intrigue in basketball and the broader scope of Alabama athletics.

It's a chance to show skeptics, here and elsewhere, that the University backs its basketball program as much as it says. 

Comfortable, large-scale accommodations is a variable involved in such statements.