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I was hoping for a split. That said man we should have beaten them. Turnovers and I counted three balls that were off in SMU that they said UAB. Frustrating.

We lost by three. Yax missed a wide open 2 handed dunk and butta missed a ft. Should’ve gone to OT at least. Another really bad loss after being up big on the road

Someone needs to have therapy sessions with the team and AK about playing with leads. Been an issue from day one this season and prior seasons.

These last two games showed me a lot though. We are a tough team and turning the corner at the right time.

If you’re the opponent you probably want us to get up 10+ bc we will just proceed to barf all over ourselves.

Another chance to set up another huge crowd and play for number one in the conference. Another chance blown by UAB.

We will be a tough out in the tourney. Or we could lose to temple. Wouldn’t be surprised by either.

(02-04-2024 08:14 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  Someone needs to have therapy sessions with the team and AK about playing with leads. Been an issue from day one this season and prior seasons.

These last two games showed me a lot though. We are a tough team and turning the corner at the right time.

If you’re the opponent you probably want us to get up 10+ bc we will just proceed to barf all over ourselves.

Another chance to set up another huge crowd and play for number one in the conference. Another chance blown by UAB.

We will be a tough out in the tourney. Or we could lose to temple. Wouldn’t be surprised by either.

I don’t wanna think about the number of double digit leads we’ve blown this year. We need to figure out how to play with a lead this year. I don’t wanna be figuring that out next season.

We played better than I expected but what a devastating loss afrer really taking control of the game the second half. Hopefully we can put it all together Thursday night and get a big win in front of a good crowd. This season has just seemed to be full of so many missed opportunities. Really frustrating.

(02-04-2024 08:19 PM)Frank Grimes Wrote:  

(02-04-2024 08:14 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  Someone needs to have therapy sessions with the team and AK about playing with leads. Been an issue from day one this season and prior seasons.

These last two games showed me a lot though. We are a tough team and turning the corner at the right time.

If you’re the opponent you probably want us to get up 10+ bc we will just proceed to barf all over ourselves.

Another chance to set up another huge crowd and play for number one in the conference. Another chance blown by UAB.

We will be a tough out in the tourney. Or we could lose to temple. Wouldn’t be surprised by either.

I don’t wanna think about the number of double digit leads we’ve blown this year. We need to figure out how to play with a lead this year. I don’t wanna be figuring that out next season.

Losing leads and WTF losses out of nowhere are hallmarks of AKs coaching tenure here. I have no doubt we will have the same issue next year.

(02-04-2024 08:07 PM)1BLZR1 Wrote:  Heck of a game. SMU’s off-balance, double-pump 3 at the end of that shot clock was a killer. I doubt he makes that kind of shot more than once out of 30 tries.

Yep

Someone enlighten me please:

Twice, SMU coach Rob Lanier is upset with a player's positioning on the court. He does not call time-out, instead he rushes onto the court, while play continues, and physically yanks the player into the desired spot. While play continues.

How is this allowed?

I really hope we can win 2 of the next 3, at least. Our schedule eases up a bit after that and as long as we protect home court and avoid any bad losses I think we will be able to get a top 4 finish.

(02-04-2024 08:28 PM)58-56 Wrote:  Someone enlighten me please:

Twice, SMU coach Rob Lanier is upset with a player's positioning on the court. He does not call time-out, instead he rushes onto the court, while play continues, and physically yanks the player into the desired spot. While play continues.

How is this allowed?

The same way Bruce Pearl is allowed to go on the court and guard players.

We were basically playing with house money and no one expected us to do anything this year, especially after that clusterf*ck 3 game run in November- December.

That being said this season will be marred by missed chances. We could’ve done so much more and been so much better. Kind of how the last 2 seasons were disappointing… I would call this season disappointing too at this point, we are just kind of giving AK a pass bc the team supposedly wasn’t as talented and for sure wasn’t as experienced.

I haven’t seen one team outside of FAU that is significantly better than us in conference. I really don’t think Charlotte or SMU are better than us. There’s a ton of parity in the league, sure, but we are two big blown leads on the road away from playing FAU for likely what would’ve been sole possession of first place in the conference. Another year of woulda shoulda coulda.

Despite the disappointment I was overall very impressed with the team in these two games. Pulling off two tough wins on the road would’ve been a lot more impressive than beating a flailing Memphis team at home. Oh well. What could’ve been! The UAB motto.

(02-04-2024 09:11 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  We were basically playing with house money and no one expected us to do anything this year, especially after that clusterf*ck 3 game run in November- December.

That being said this season will be marred by missed chances. We could’ve done so much more and been so much better. Kind of how the last 2 seasons were disappointing… I would call this season disappointing too at this point, we are just kind of giving AK a pass bc the team supposedly wasn’t as talented and for sure wasn’t as experienced.

I haven’t seen one team outside of FAU that is significantly better than us in conference. I really don’t think Charlotte or SMU are better than us. There’s a ton of parity in the league, sure, but we are two big blown leads on the road away from playing FAU for likely what would’ve been sole possession of first place in the conference. Another year of woulda shoulda coulda.

Despite the disappointment I was overall very impressed with the team in these two games. Pulling off two tough wins on the road would’ve been a lot more impressive than beating a flailing Memphis team at home. Oh well. What could’ve been! The UAB motto.

Waiting for next season....that's the life of a UAB fan.

We are doing a really poor job of getting JD good shot attempts and good numbers of shots.

Gaines, Vasquez, and Ortiz were 6-21, while JD is sitting there chilling with 5 shot attempts in 34 minutes. 1 shot attempt per 6.8 minutes. 1 shot per 3.48 minutes for the aforementioned trio.

He was 6-7 against UNT and was only tied for third on the team in shot attempts.

He’s also a good free throw shooter.

His shot attempts are way more efficient, he draws fouls on the other team, and he makes free throws.

Why do we do such a subpar job setting him up for success and getting him shots? His shot attempts are probably the most efficient on the roster. I don’t get it.

Yax had a pretty down game. His missed dunk killed us late.

He is a really good player, and I enjoy his game. He is still too timid. He holds the ball at or below his waist everytime he catches a pass or gets a rebound, and there is a nearly undetectable hesitation with nearly every shot he takes. I saw it with the dunk attempt. He wasn’t sure if he should go up authoritatively and dunk it or lay it in. In reality, he really didn’t do either, and he missed a wide open dunk. A 99.99% shot. That was absolutely devastating. Add to the missed two points just the sheer let down and huge momentum shift of a big dunk to go up 3 vs going down on the other end and letting them Cut the lead to 1.

We’re better than we were last year in close games, but our team just seems to screw up little things too many times that lead to an L.

We should be atop the conference with FAU. Don’t give AK a pass bc coaching errors cost us two games early and the team quit for 3 games, causing people to lower their expectations. We have a good roster and a good set of players. We should be playing to win the conference, not just settling for a 4th or 5th place finish.

I don’t see one team in the AAC that is better than us than FAU. Even there, the gap isn’t very big if we’re playing well.

I must warn you that this is an Expectation-free, criticism-free safe space. One must rationalize why we lost rather than why we shouldn’t have lost. Also, we shame fans for no-showing games we make out to be our Super Bowl after dropping games in which we just did. See you Thursday. At least the drinks will be somewhat cheaper.

This one really hurt.

(02-04-2024 10:48 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  Yax had a pretty down game. His missed dunk killed us late.

He is a really good player, and I enjoy his game. He is still too timid. He holds the ball at or below his waist everytime he catches a pass or gets a rebound, and there is a nearly undetectable hesitation with nearly every shot he takes. I saw it with the dunk attempt. He wasn’t sure if he should go up authoritatively and dunk it or lay it in. In reality, he really didn’t do either, and he missed a wide open dunk. A 99.99% shot. That was absolutely devastating. Add to the missed two points just the sheer let down and huge momentum shift of a big dunk to go up 3 vs going down on the other end and letting them Cut the lead to 1.

We’re better than we were last year in close games, but our team just seems to screw up little things too many times that lead to an L.

We should be atop the conference with FAU. Don’t give AK a pass bc coaching errors cost us two games early and the team quit for 3 games, causing people to lower their expectations. We have a good roster and a good set of players. We should be playing to win the conference, not just settling for a 4th or 5th place finish.

I don’t see one team in the AAC that is better than us than FAU. Even there, the gap isn’t very big if we’re playing well.

It’s been a weird year. On one hand, I think it’s been successful, as my expectations this year weren’t all that high with having such a new team, and the guys we had returning weren’t starters (outside of EG). I wanted to see the potential of what this team can be and see them improve. There have been flashes of what this team can do, and there’s no doubt the team is better now than it was in November imo.

On the other hand, it’s not impossible to imagine this team on the NCAA bubble if a couple games go the other way. I’m glad to see turnovers go down, but we seem to really have poor timing with those turnovers. And man, we’ve blown some leads. Bradley (11 points with 6 mins left), Charlotte (20 point lead), SMU (12 point lead with 9 mins left), and Clemson (9 points with 7 mins left) come to mind. I believe that’s two Quad 1 opportunities, and two Quad 2 opportunities.

(02-04-2024 11:01 PM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  This one really hurt.

I think the 20 point lead that we lost against Charlotte was worse.

They were ahead of us in the standings, we really had one shot to knock them off and gain ground in the standings, we could've (yet again) basically been playing for sole or shared possession of first place in the standings, and we were flat out better than them IMO.

SMU is better than Charlotte IMO, we were ahead of them in the standings, we have another chance to knock them off later in the conference season, and we were only up 12 (still a very substantial lead you should not lose that late in a game).

That being said, both losses sucked, and are ones we shouldn't be happy with. Both are wins that could've left us basically playing for first in the standings. Both were huge missed chances. Both just add to the lore of AK teams not being able to hold leads. Both are games where I felt like we were the better team (same for Bradley and Clemson, too BTW).

blah blah blah... it plain sucks.

(02-04-2024 11:16 PM)Frank Grimes Wrote:  

(02-04-2024 10:48 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  Yax had a pretty down game. His missed dunk killed us late.

He is a really good player, and I enjoy his game. He is still too timid. He holds the ball at or below his waist everytime he catches a pass or gets a rebound, and there is a nearly undetectable hesitation with nearly every shot he takes. I saw it with the dunk attempt. He wasn’t sure if he should go up authoritatively and dunk it or lay it in. In reality, he really didn’t do either, and he missed a wide open dunk. A 99.99% shot. That was absolutely devastating. Add to the missed two points just the sheer let down and huge momentum shift of a big dunk to go up 3 vs going down on the other end and letting them Cut the lead to 1.

We’re better than we were last year in close games, but our team just seems to screw up little things too many times that lead to an L.

We should be atop the conference with FAU. Don’t give AK a pass bc coaching errors cost us two games early and the team quit for 3 games, causing people to lower their expectations. We have a good roster and a good set of players. We should be playing to win the conference, not just settling for a 4th or 5th place finish.

I don’t see one team in the AAC that is better than us than FAU. Even there, the gap isn’t very big if we’re playing well.

It’s been a weird year. On one hand, I think it’s been successful, as my expectations this year weren’t all that high with having such a new team, and the guys we had returning weren’t starters (outside of EG). I wanted to see the potential of what this team can be and see them improve. There have been flashes of what this team can do, and there’s no doubt the team is better now than it was in November imo.

On the other hand, it’s not impossible to imagine this team on the NCAA bubble if a couple games go the other way. I’m glad to see turnovers go down, but we seem to really have poor timing with those turnovers. And man, we’ve blown some leads. Bradley (11 points with 6 mins left), Charlotte (20 point lead), SMU (12 point lead with 9 mins left), and Clemson (9 points with 7 mins left) come to mind. I believe that’s two Quad 1 opportunities, and two Quad 2 opportunities.

We have no toes left from how many times we've shot ourselves in both feet the last 3 years.

We're still undefeated if Gaines takes less than 10 shots. I believe we are now 3 games under .500 if he takes 10 or more.