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Anthony Grant will enter his sixth year with Alabama next season.

(Vasha Hunt/vhunt@al.com)

TUSCALOOSA, Alabama — Sporting some slick new glasses, Anthony Grant stood in front of a few hundred faces at the Alabama basketball banquet.

The floor of Coleman Coliseum was covered in the most loyal Crimson Tide basketball boosters Tuesday evening. They honored seniors, but the message was more about the future following the program's first losing season in 14 years.

"As a coach, my vision, my belief in this program and our players and the direction we're headed in no way shape or form has wavered," Grant said, his voice echoing through the empty arena. "I think if you look at the results we got, we didn't get the final results, but I can tell you this about every game in my memory, we were right there. We're not far, even though the results, the final win and loss numbers don't say it, I think we are close.

"As a program, we're not where we want to be ... yet."

The Tide went 13-19 last season and lost its SEC tournament opener to LSU. Athletics director Bill Battle gave his backing to Grant the next day after public pressure mounted.

"In no way am I discouraged in any way," Grant said. "I'm excited about the guys that we have returning to our team. I'm excited about the new pieces that we're going to add to our team. I'm excited about the prospects as we move forward into the future."

Grant spoke about stepping out of the comfort zone while acknowledging the 2014-15 schedule will be every bit as difficult if not more so than the last one. The final details are still being finalized.

"Our promised land is playing for championships, whether it be in the regular season or the postseason," Grant said. "We cannot be afraid to put ourselves in the position to face those giants."