CECIL HURT: UA’s Seawell embraces high expectations

For nearly three years, University of Alabama golf coach Jay Seawell has nurtured his team, bringing it along slowly and adding ingredients -- or in this case, golfers -- with care. But now that the slow process has nearly come to fruition, Seawell isn’t afraid to talk about the possibilities of the coming harvest.

The Crimson Tide is one of 30 men’s golf team that will compete for the NCAA championship starting Tuesday in Williamsburg, Va. More than that, Alabama is one of a dozen teams, maybe less, that has a chance at winning the event, even though there isn’t a senior on the Crimson Tide roster.

Seawell isn’t trying to hide from those high expectations, either.

Instead, he is embracing them.

“We’re dreaming big right now," Seawell said. “I see a little extra step in the team. And I’m not the typical coach looking to downplay his team’s chances. We’ve talked about doing something that has never been done at Alabama, which is winning a national championship in golf. We’re good enough. We’ve played well enough all year to get there. We’ve had one bad tournament, what I consider a 'hiccup’ tournament [a 15th-place finish at Georgia Southern’s invitational] and even that was really one bad round.

“Since then, we’ve almost never been out of the last group, or gone to the last few holes without a chance to win."

The core of Alabama’s team is a group of juniors -- Mark Harrell, Gator Todd and Joseph Sykora -- who are in their third season together. The starting lineup will also include sophomore Matthew Swan and Tulane transfer Michael Thompson, who has been Alabama’s top player for the past month.

Thompson transferred from Tulane because of the disruption that Hurricane Katrina caused at that New Orleans school.

While Thompson’s addition has been important, it’s also been the maturation of the other players that has mattered. A year ago, the Crimson Tide wasn’t able to qualify out of a tough West Regional. This year, the Tide’s maturity saw them through a difficult Central Regional draw with a second-place finish.

“That’s the difference that experience makes," Seawell said. “It’s amazing when you see how much difference a year can make in players. One thing that they have learned is how to handle success and deal with pressure, which is a very important lesson for young players."

Since he was hired in the late summer of 2002, Seawell has made steady progress with the Crimson Tide, making the men’s golf team one of the success stories in an athletic year which has not seen an abundance of such stories at UA.

While there might be a temptation to look to 2008, considering that there isn’t a single senior in the Tide’s playing rotation, Seawell ranks UA among the teams “with a fighting chance."

“Georgia is definitely the favorite," he says. “They have been ranked No. 1 all year long. But after them there is a group of five or six teams who could be there at the end. I would put us in that group along with Oklahoma State, [defending national champion] UCLA, Florida, Stanford and USC. I think any one of those teams, if they play well, can win a national championship."

That’s lofty company for Alabama -- but if confidence counts for anything, then the Crimson Tide belongs in the group.

Cecil Hurt is sports editor of the Tuscaloosa News. Reach him at cecil.hurt@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0225.