7-foot forward Thomas Smallwood of Bordeaux, France has signed with UAB and will be a freshman on the '15-'16 Blazer squad. He has played the last two years for one of the top U-21 amateur teams in France.

At some point this season UAB's lineup could look like this:
7'0" F Smallwood recruited for 3pt shot
6'9" F Lee 46% 3pt in 2014, UAB's top rebounder
6'9" F Mehinti 68 blocks in 2014
6'5" G Brown C-USA Tournament MVP, UAB's top scorer
5'10" G Norton 39% 3pt, led team in assists

Have fun guarding us in 2015-2016.

Weren't all but one of those guys on the team that finished the regular conference season in 4th place? I'm surely pulling for them to be a lot more successful in the early games this year (November / December). Congratulations on your new recruit. Hope he pans out well for you guys.

(06-22-2015 06:14 PM)ODU BBALL Wrote:  Weren't all but one of those guys on the team that finished the regular conference season in 4th place? I'm surely pulling for them to be a lot more successful in the early games this year (November / December). Congratulations on your new recruit. Hope he pans out well for you guys.

all our starters are back. uab was the youngest team in the ncaa tourney and one of the youngest in the country. that's why it took so long to gell. this year that wont be an issue. uab has one senior on the team

Nice get! You guys should get into the dance if you pick up where you left off early and take care of ooc schedule.

(06-22-2015 09:06 PM)Cr8n Wrote:  Nice get! You guys should get into the dance if you pick up where you left off early and take care of ooc schedule.

I'm hoping you guys do the same. Right now it looks like we should be the front runners for the conference, and we should both be capable of winning some good games ooc. It would be helpful to have a couple of really good ooc rpi teams this year.

Agreed. Could very well be a 2 bid league at minimum.

(06-22-2015 06:14 PM)ODU BBALL Wrote:  Weren't all but one of those guys on the team that finished the regular conference season in 4th place? I'm surely pulling for them to be a lot more successful in the early games this year (November / December). Congratulations on your new recruit. Hope he pans out well for you guys.

I don't necessarily share in the optimism of the OP that this is the next Dirk Nowitzki . He could be, but I'll believe it when I see it. I can't find a single stat online for this kid and I find that rather strange. I know he is a Euro player so the normal websites don't know too much about him.

The reason why we're so optimistic is because of how we did in Birmingham last year. We were completely undefeated in conference play at home and at the BJCC. We have a chance to make noise in conference next season and will probably return to the NCAA's. I would find it strange for us not to get a bid if we play to our level of play.

Our Losses in conference:
@la tech by 3
@UTEP by 2
@UNT by 3
@rice 2ot
@FAU by 3
@FIU by 4

La tech won't be the same team next year and I believe we get UTEP in Birmingham. The other 4 losses I think we win most of them with an older team. @ODU is going to be our hardest game.

I think that UAB should be very strong this year and was really happy to see the dust settle for now on your team remaining in Conference USA. We need to have strong teams in the conference every year and UAB's history leads one to believe that they normally would be just that.

UTSA signed a 5'5" Power Forward from Nodunk, Missachoosex. He can't shoot, dribble, or rebound, but he's great at taking charges; although he thinks they're called light sockets because they're not heavy. He said our Convocation Center was what sold him to our program, and that it was bigger than any middle school gym he ever played in.

With the pieces UAB is bringing in for basketball, the next few years look exciting. The program looks like it could peak around the time football comes back.

(06-23-2015 09:49 AM)CameramanJ Wrote:  With the pieces UAB is bringing in for basketball, the next few years look exciting. The program looks like it could peak around the time football comes back.

I agree. Haase was always building for this to be the first big year under him. We arrived a year early. If we don't lose any major players, this could be a very strong team for the next three years at minimum.