Justin Coleman, left, and Dylan Smith, right, both grew up in Alabama, where they'll return with the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Wildcats to face the Crimson Tide.
When he wasn’t playing shortstop, left field or pitching on baseball fields as a youth, Dylan Smith would sometimes head out to the Gulf of Mexico and catch something to eat.
Whitefish. Trout. Grouper. Catfish. And, by just tossing a net in the water, maybe an entire bucket of shrimp.
“Usually, there’s a lot of them,†Smith said. “You just pull 'em up, rinse 'em off and cook 'em.â€
Simple, delicious and fun. Until Smith grew so tall he was prompted to get serious about basketball as a high school freshman, that was life in Mobile, Alabama — about 250 miles southwest of Birmingham, where ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ teammate Justin Coleman is from.
Coleman grew up in northwest Birmingham’s Pratt City neighborhood, a historic area that originally developed around coal mining, spending much of his time playing ball at the Howze-Sanford Recreation Center.
Just an hour away from where the two Alabamians will return with ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ to play Alabama on Sunday, Birmingham remains a strong part of Coleman’s identity.
“It built me to the man I am today,†Coleman said. “It’s just the things you go through as a kid, certain situations where you learn and grow.â€
Well before the two became teammates last summer, when Coleman transferred from Birmingham’s Samford University to join the Wildcats, the two Alabama natives connected through basketball. The game has a way of doing that.
During a conversation with the Star on Friday, here’s how they described their connection, their hometowns and their transition to ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥:
