It’s been two years since Luke Ratliff departed this earth, yet his presence around the Alabama men’s basketball program remains as the Crimson Tide completed its second double conference championship in three years.
“Fluff” never saw Brandon Miller’s flawless form on an attempted 3. He never watched Charles Bediako alter shots at the rim with a 7-foot frame, but if you close your eyes tight enough, you can see the larger-than-life figure sitting in the student section in his hardhat and custom-made plaid sports coat urging the home crowd to get louder.
Alabama (29-5) will have the home crowd behind it in Birmingham this week as the NCAA Tournament’s overall No. 1 seed, the first time the proud program has been a one seed. It’s just not fair that Fluff, who helped create the atmosphere and energy around Crimson Tide basketball, won’t be there.
He loved UA football, too, but basketball was his thing. He wanted others to care as much about basketball as he did. That enthusiasm was on full display in the last home game of the year, a contest against Auburn.
Ratliff’s mother, Pam, attended the game. She began getting texts around lunchtime that the student line to get in was wrapped around the track & field stadium. She immediately got dressed and rushed to see it herself.
“I walked the line and spoke to the kids and thanked them for being there,” Pam Ratliff said. “I told them how much it meant to me, but I wanted them to know that it meant something to me because of Luke. Before the games at Coleman he would (tweet) fake pictures of crowds and say, ‘If you're not here, you're late.’ I looked at that crowd and I told everybody, ’He wouldn't have to do a fake picture today.’ This is his dream in reality, right? This is his dream come to reality.”
The crowds at Coleman Coliseum this season were the best for an entire season that I can remember. There were likely years during the Wimp Sanderson run that might have equaled or topped them, but I wasn’t there for that.
That energy transferred to Nashville last weekend, too, as Alabama fans took over Bridgestone Arena as the Crimson Tide ran through the SEC Tournament with an average three-game margin of victory of 17.6 points.
Can’t you just imagine Fluff eating that atmosphere up? The tweets we would’ve all laughed at during the team’s historic season are definitely missed. It just seems unfair that he’s not here to experience this.
But he’d be thrilled to know what the city of Birmingham gets to experience this week with Alabama playing in Legacy Arena as the No. 1 seed. He’d be there in his plaid jacket the coaching staff presented to him in 2021. It’s something he treasured.
The team and the fans continue to provide comfort to the family Luke left behind, including his mother Pam, who travels to Tuscaloosa to sit in Coleman Coliseum twice a year.
“I try to make the first home game and the last home game every year,” Pam Ratliff said. “It takes about that long to fill me back up. Being in there where he loved it so much at Coleman always builds me up.”
She attended the Auburn game and made her way over to the student section, the Crimson Chaos. She placed flowers on the seat Luke sat in for every game, a seat that now bears his name.
She then went and watched the game from the players’ family section. Coming back to Tuscaloosa brings her happiness and makes her feel close to her boy.
Luke’s ability to bond with nearly everyone he met led him to relationships with the coaching staff, basketball managers, students and complete strangers. It was his gift, the ability to connect through a million-watt personality. He used it to get close to the team he so dearly loved.
“They were his family,” Pam Ratliff said. “He struggled with anxiety his freshman year, and that team and that place is where he felt comfortable. Coleman was where he felt comfortable and that's where he found his solace was with that basketball team. He found peace there. They were as much a help to him as he was to them.”
This Alabama team will be remembered long after it’s gone. Its set a new record for program wins. It has what some analysts have described as the most talented guy in the SEC in the last 10 years. It won another conference regular season and tournament titles.
Usually this time of year, sports talk is reserved for spring practice. Alabama football opens spring practice Monday. But the talk of the town right now is how difficult it is to secure a ticket inside Legacy Arena starting Thursday to watch No. 1 Alabama play. Fluff would’ve eaten it up.
“Oh, he would have loved it,” Pam Ratliff said. “He'd have been over the moon for it. You know, he believed in this team. He believed when you couldn't convince anybody else to believe, he believed in Alabama basketball. And he knew it could be what it is. And he told me and his dad before, he says, ‘All I want is for this basketball team to get the recognition they deserve just like the football team.’ And he loved football too, but basketball was his niche because he said you can directly influence what's happening on that court.”
If you need one anecdote that describes what Alabama basketball meant to him, this is the one. The night Alabama cut down the nets after beating Auburn to wrap up the SEC regular season title in 2021, Luke was presented with a piece of the net. He went to bed that night clutching it in his hand.
When his parents came to Tuscaloosa to pack up his stuff after his passing a month later, Pam found a bevy of Crimson Tide basketball treasures. There was an autographed Nate Oats basketball cased in glass with confetti from the tournament win. He also had that piece of net in there too.
She opened the case and pulled that piece of net out.
“I said, ‘This isn’t ours to keep,” she said. “He slept holding that net. This isn’t ours to keep. It goes with him.”
It’s with him now. Luke rests eternally in his plaid jacket holding that piece of net.
