I hope they didn't practice in Bartow at all for this game. I hope they stayed at practice facility and possibly got a few practices in at Ramsay or another high school gym. The depth perception has got to be wonky at FAU's gym.
I'm a worrier, but I get the feeling we are walking into a buzzsaw tonight. We need to bring our "A" game
They have four things that have given us trouble in he past:
Athletic wings that can handle the ball & shoot (cant really run any of our favorite traps without leaving someone open, which is a problem when every player on the floor can make you pay for leaving them open)
Rim protection. Can't teach 7-1.
Depth. They have a 9 man rotation, we aren't going to tire them out with pace. Their UConn transfer has played well for them and made it so that FAU always at least two guards who can beat their guy off the dribble on the floor, leading to open 3's no matter who they have in the game.
Good Coaching. Dusty May is a hell of a coach. Was hugely impressed with him on Davis's staff, and he did good work at Tech and Florida as well.
Ooooh boy. I was feeling really confident about this game until I dug into the stats. All the excellent insights above plus I noticed their guards are big — we struggle with that. And they can run all kinds of combinations at you and they have played well at any pace.
This jumped out also — they held Antoine Davis to 7 of 19 shooting and 0 of 3 from 3. They held Emoni Bates to 0 of 7 from 3.
And they absolutely smoked the South Alabama team that made us look bad for 30 minutes in Bartow.
Lace them tight, boys.
I kinda feel like the X factors tonight may need to be Buffen playing a high energy game on both ends and for Tavin Lovin to enter the chat.
(This post was last modified: 01-05-2023 01:07 PM by DuelingDragon.)
I'm obviously a worrier and pessimistic or negative a lot when it comes to UAB, but I have a sneaky feeling that we will play our best game of the year tonight.
That still might not be enough to pull out a W, but I think that we will play well and it'll be a close game to the end.
We should never have our second real road game this late in the season, but at least we did play at a truly hostile environment against a top 25 quality team that is known for raucous home crowds. Hopefully that will have prepared us for whatever they have in store for tonight in terms of the crowd and game atmosphere.
FAU was not bad last year, but I respect just how much they've improved year to year. It's impressive. I was expecting that kind of improvement year to year from our team, but we're basically about the same, or worse, so far.
This game is huge, and would put us back on track to be in the conversation for an at large bid. It's not a MUST WIN game per se, but I hope the team understands just how important it is.
(This post was last modified: 01-05-2023 02:05 PM by The Answer UAB.)
(01-04-2023 09:54 PM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote: Perspective..........
Ocean Bank Convocation Center (FIU) 5,000
Devlin Field House Tulane 4,100
UTSA Convocation Center 4,080
Pete Mathews Coliseum 3,500 (Capacity was reduced from 5,500)
Tuscaloosa County HS 3,000
Baldwin Arena (FAU) is 2,900.
Hoover HS is 2,800
Huntsville HS 2,500
HT HS 2,400
James Clemons 2,210 C
Oak Mount an HS 2,000
Thompson HS 2,000
Bob Jones HS 1,600
(01-05-2023 02:25 PM)BlazerMatt Wrote: All Access. Maybe check the editing next time guys
I've noticed the last had bad editing as well (DC counting down to next section).
Bham Stallion videos that came out a few months ago weren't color graded either.
(01-04-2023 09:54 PM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote: Perspective..........
Ocean Bank Convocation Center (FIU) 5,000
Devlin Field House Tulane 4,100
UTSA Convocation Center 4,080
Pete Mathews Coliseum 3,500 (Capacity was reduced from 5,500)
Tuscaloosa County HS 3,000
Baldwin Arena (FAU) is 2,900.
Hoover HS is 2,800
Huntsville HS 2,500
HT HS 2,400
James Clemons 2,210 C
Oak Mount an HS 2,000
Thompson HS 2,000
Bob Jones HS 1,600
This is wild.
A seating capacity of 2,900 would place Baldwin Arena as the 321st largest arena out of 363 in D-1.
(01-05-2023 10:12 AM)blazerblazer Wrote: I hope they didn't practice in Bartow at all for this game. I hope they stayed at practice facility and possibly got a few practices in at Ramsay or another high school gym. The depth perception has got to be wonky at FAU's gym.
This is a great idea! In high school, when we made it to regional/state tournament, our coach had our practices leading up to those games at the University of North Alabama (about 30 mins away) to get us somewhat used to stands, etc. behind the goal that we weren't used to. Good idea to do the reverse!
(This post was last modified: 01-05-2023 04:00 PM by blazinrunner.)
If last year is any indication... I see TJ puckering up and laying an egg in the moment (see LaTech x3 last year when Rongie was actually our most productive post player in a couple of those). But, I see Davis and Buffen bailing us out down low. Hopefully Gaines plays under control and complements Jelly if they smother him. Blazers win a close one, 77-73.
(01-04-2023 09:54 PM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote: Perspective..........
Ocean Bank Convocation Center (FIU) 5,000
Devlin Field House Tulane 4,100
UTSA Convocation Center 4,080
Pete Mathews Coliseum 3,500 (Capacity was reduced from 5,500)
Tuscaloosa County HS 3,000
Baldwin Arena (FAU) is 2,900.
Hoover HS is 2,800
Huntsville HS 2,500
HT HS 2,400
James Clemons 2,210 C
Oak Mount an HS 2,000
Thompson HS 2,000
Bob Jones HS 1,600
This is wild.
A seating capacity of 2,900 would place Baldwin Arena as the 321st largest arena out of 363 in D-1.
As I recall, the gym in Storrs, CT was a 2,500 seat crackerbox when the Blazers beat UConn there in the NIT.
/
FAU Owls
