Ken Rogers
01/27 at 12:50 AM

Embattled Alabama basketball coach Mark Gottfried resigned Monday in the middle of his 11th season.

Longtime assistant Philip Pearson, who has served on Gottfried’s staff at Murray State and his entire tenure at Alabama, is the interim coach for the rest of the season, athletics director Mal Moore said after an afternoon meeting with Gottfried.

“My number one priority is to do what is best for the University of Alabama, this basketball program, and these young men,” Gottfried said in a statement released by the university.  “Mal and I sat down today and we talked.  At that point, I notified him of my intention to resign as head coach of the men’s basketball program … It has been a wonderful decade for me and my family, and I love the University of Alabama, but I feel that it is in the best interests of everyone involved.”

Pearson called it a “tough situation.”

“Obviously, Mark and I are very close,” said the interim coach, who played at Alabama for Wimp Sanderson and David Hobbs. “I’ve worked with him for 14 years. Coach Moore called me in there today and asked if I would take over the team for the rest of the season. Certainly, I told him that I would …

“We’re going to do all that we can to make the best of a challenging and a tough situation. I think we’ve got a great group of guys and some very good basketball players … We’re just going to take it one day at a time from here and see what happens.”

Gottfried compiled a 210-131 record with the Crimson Tide, including a mark of 83-82 in Southeastern Conference games. He won one SEC regular season championship and led the team to five NCAA Tournament appearances, including an Elite Eight finish in 2004.

However, the highlights on his coaching resume haven’t been updated for several years. Alabama (11-7 overall, 2-3 SEC) hasn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since the 2005-06 season. The Crimson Tide was invited to the NIT two years ago, but didn’t make a postseason tournament last year.

In its most recent outing, Saturday’s regionally televised game against Kentucky, Alabama was outscored 16-6 in the final six minutes and lost, 61-51. Alabama next plays Thursday night at Arkansas. Its next home game is Saturday night against Georgia.

Alabama has been awful on the road in SEC games. The Crimson Tide has lost 14 straight on the road, dating back to a win at LSU in 2007. It is 1-17 on the road in the SEC over the past two and a half seasons.

Besides a decline on the court, a growing number of Alabama fans were growing restless — or worse, indifferent — with the program’s malaise. Attendance figures aren’t terrible, but it is hard to find “buzz” about the program around campus.

Also, the handling of senior point guard Ronald Steele’s departure was botched. Gottfried issued a statement saying Steele’s battle with plantar faciitis, a painful heel injury, was forcing him to leave the team. The next day, Steele said his injury had little or nothing to do with his decision to leave. The player pointedly didn’t address his relationship with Gottfried in his statement.

“I accepted Coach Gottfried’s resignation,” Moore said in the statement.  “I respect Mark’s decision and will begin immediately working on a permanent replacement.  I agreed with him that it is in the best interests of the men’s basketball program for us to move in a different direction.”

Gottfried met with each of his players before practice Monday.

“Yeah, it was emotional,” freshman forward JaMychal Green said. “Coach Gottfried shed some tears and hugged every one of us. …

“He just told us that he really loved us; that we were like one of his children. That we should continue to play hard and try to make something out of this season.”

Senior guard Alonzo Gee said, “It was sad. He recruited me. I’ve been here four years. It’s tough for me. But me being a senior, I’ve got to keep the team together we have to move on.”

Word spread quickly Monday. Auburn coach Jeff Lebo recognized Gottfried’s service to the school over the years.

“Mark played at Alabama, coached at Alabama and he loves Alabama,” Lebo said. “He loves the university. He poured his heart and soul into his job. I wish him and his family well.”

Before Gottfried left, Arkansas coach John Pelphrey spoke of his respect for Gottfried and his father, Joe, the athletics director at South Alabama.

“Mark’s obviously done a tremendous job for his alma mater for a long period of time,” Pelphrey said early Monday. “(It’s a) big challenge for us. We’re looking forward to having a few days of practice, try to get better, put ourselves in a situation where we can overachieve and compete against another one of the good teams in the SEC West.”

“I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity and the privilege to lead our men’s basketball program at Alabama for the past 10 and a half seasons,” Gottfried said in his statement. “I want to thank our players, their families, our coaching staff and their families and our great fans for all of their support over these last 11 seasons.”

Moore said he wouldn’t comment further on Gottfried’s resignation, nor on the upcoming coaching search.

“I want to extend my complete support to our players and our coaching staff,” Moore said. “We fully expect them to compete hard the rest of this season and I ask our loyal fans to rally in support of these coaches and players over the coming weeks of SEC play.

“Our process towards finding a new head coach will begin immediately.  Out of respect for our players and coaches, I will not comment on the progress of our search until it has concluded.”

Gottfried, a 1987 Alabama graduate, played guard for the Crimson Tide for three seasons (1984-85, 1985-86, and 1986-87) while starting 98 consecutive games for then-head coach Wimp Sanderson after starting his college career at Oral Roberts University (1982-83 season).