The unofficial online home for fans of the UAB Blazers. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

(03-14-2022 12:55 PM)tccoog10 Wrote:  Congratulations on your conference championship and return to the NCAA Tournament. Looking forward to Friday night. Thought I'd give y'all some insight from a Coog fan, how we're feeling about the first round matchup, and get some info from the Blazer side.

The Coogs won the AAC regular season and tournament titles in 2022, and this has quite possibly been Kelvin Sampson's best coaching job of his career. Much has been made of the personnel losses we've had, but they are jarring when you look at it as a whole. Lost 4 starters from last year's Final 4 team (Dejon Jarreau and Quentin Grimes to the NBA, Justin Gorham to the Turkish League, and Brison Gresham grad transferred). The only returning starter, 6'3 Jr. PG Marcus Sasser (a likely All-American had he sustained the level of play he started the year with), only played in 12 games before undergoing season-ending foot surgery. Last year's sixth man, 6'5 So. SG Tramon Mark, only appeared in 7 games before going down with a season-ending shoulder injury.

But there is a culture around the Houston program that CKS has spent years building, and that culture kept the Coogs afloat despite the departures and injuries. 3 graduate transfers, 6'4 SG Kyler Edwards (Tx Tech) 6'5 SF Taze Moore (CSU-Bakersfield) and 6'11 C Josh Carlton (UConn) stepped up and became major contributors in their first and only year in Houston. Edwards, the leading scorer at 13.6 PPG, and Carlton, the leading rebounder at 6.4 RPG, both made All-AAC. Moore might possibly be the most explosive leaper in the country, good for one highlight reel dunk per game. Of course, as CKS says, someone's gonna be happy after every play Taze makes, might be us, might be the other team. Maybe the biggest revelation after the injuries has been the emergence of 6'1 So. PG Jamal Shead, who also received all-AAC honors. He led the conference at 6.0 APG, and is a fantastic on-ball defender on the perimeter. And then there's 6'8 Sr. PF Fabian White. The unquestioned leader, heart and soul of this team, he overcame a torn ACL last season to return in early March 2021 and contribute to the Final 4 run. He's followed that up this year by adding deadly three point range to his strong low post offensive game, and became the all-time winningest player in Houston basketball history with a home victory against UCF in February.

The Cougars do not have a very deep bench, and basically run an 8 man rotation. 6'8 Sr. C Reggie Chaney and 6'7 So. PF J'Wan Roberts give us a very deep frontcourt, with Roberts especially providing tenacious offensive rebounding at one of the highest rates in the country. But 6'4 Fr. SG Ramon Walker, Jr. is the only perimeter player to see regular playing time off the bench, so Shead, Edwards, and Moore must play a lot of minutes and be cautious with foul trouble.

The Coogs play a very unique style of basketball, not what anyone would necessarily call "aesthetically pleasing". I can almost guarantee your fans will be frustrated with the officiating in this game, as the Coogs play an extremely physical style defensively that almost requires the officials to somewhat swallow their whistles to avoid a free throw contest. Houston goes after and gets as many offensive rebounds as any team in the country, and doesn't completely mind shooting a low percentage as long as they are rebounding a lot of the misses.

Houston is definitely not a good shooting team, either from the field or at the line. White and Edwards are the two best shooters, but Edwards is prone to stretches where he is downright Arctic. Shead and Moore are capable of making the three ball, but are much more effective slashing to the basket. The offense tries to run through Carlton, a skilled offensive threat, in the low block. The strengths of Houston, without a doubt, are tenacious defense, high level athleticism, and relentless effort.

I am familiar with Jordan Walker and Justin Brown from their time in the AAC, and have always been an Andy Kennedy fan, but outside of that know very little about the Blazers. Happy to answer any other questions you guys have about the Coogs, and looking forward to tournament time!

Lots of salt and biterness on this board, tccoog. Thanks for the insight and hopefully it will be an excellent game.

(03-14-2022 07:59 PM)NTXCoog Wrote:  

(03-14-2022 05:45 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  I was there sitting along with tunnel and can see everything from when he “collapsed” until they wheeled him into the tunnel when he miraculously got up off of the stretcher like nothing happened…

He was being a whiny ass, and faked a heart attack/syncopal episode to try and get out of the technical foul. As I said, they wheeled him into the tunnel on a stretcher, and he miraculously set up like Lazarus as soon as he thought he was out of eyesight Of the arena

Did you see the UAB doctors administer oxygen as the story said or was that made up too? I dont see that in your version.

I'm sure they did lol, but he literally fake fainted to the floor and clutched at his chest. They took him back into the tunnel. As soon as they had him under the tunnel, he sat up immediately without any CPR, drugs administered, etc. Maybe they but some 02 on him, but so what? He was obviously playing possum. Funny his heart attack coincided with a technical foul call right after he threw a hissy fit.

lol nice, an opposing fan comes in with a classy post and we proceed to **** all over his team/program.

No one is crapping on their program.

(03-14-2022 08:57 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  It doesn’t, other than reading your boards, many of your fans think of UAB program as some sort of joke as if UH and the AAC is some sort of whole other level. “Like SMU but not as talented.” L O L.

UAB used to regularly beat all of you and will again. Congrats on the recent run of success, was happy to see you back in the Final Four and invited to the Big 12. it is well earned and I appreciate that it opened the door for UAB to return to the teams we never should have been separated from to begin with (just as UH never should have been kicked to the curb by the SWC schools).

I just happen to remember when UH basketball was not very good not that long ago, along with the football team we used to thump regularly.

I can assure you we're not looking at you guys as a joke or an easy match up. 5-12 match ups are always ripe for upsets which is part of why we were desperately hoping to get moved up to the 4 line. Pesik, the poster you keep quoting, is very knowledgeable and fair with his analysis, but he can also be very blunt with how he words things. His comments weren't meant as a diss. Anyway congrats on yall's season and best of luck Friday.

I have a Houston memory from the old CUSA days. First round of the conference tournament in St. Louis. UAB/Houston. UAB was down two with about a minute to go, Damon Cobb drains a three from the corner to put UAB up one. I was in Blazer Band, and as we go up one, I jump with excitement, only to land my left foot on the edge of the step where the band was seated. All of my weight went on that foot as my ankle rolled to the next step. I tore every ligament in my ankle at that moment. UAB won the game to advance to the quarterfinals to play Tulane. Gene Bartow came by the band section to thank us and realized I had destroyed my ankle and went and got the team doctor. Four loritabs later and a ton of ice on my foot, I remember getting back ti the hotel and Coach Huggins was getting off the elevator as we was getting on. He looks at me and ask, “what the hell happened to you?” I told him I kicked Houston’s a$$. He laughed and said, don’t use your other foot to kick anyone else’s a$$.

(03-15-2022 06:01 AM)BandGrad Wrote:  I have a Houston memory from the old CUSA days. First round of the conference tournament in St. Louis. UAB/Houston. UAB was down two with about a minute to go, Damon Cobb drains a three from the corner to put UAB up one. I was in Blazer Band, and as we go up one, I jump with excitement, only to land my left foot on the edge of the step where the band was seated. All of my weight went on that foot as my ankle rolled to the next step. I tore every ligament in my ankle at that moment. UAB won the game to advance to the quarterfinals to play Tulane. Gene Bartow came by the band section to thank us and realized I had destroyed my ankle and went and got the team doctor. Four loritabs later and a ton of ice on my foot, I remember getting back ti the hotel and Coach Huggins was getting off the elevator as we was getting on. He looks at me and ask, “what the hell happened to you?” I told him I kicked Houston’s a$$. He laughed and said, don’t use your other foot to kick anyone else’s a$$.

Dang!

(03-14-2022 05:35 PM)NTXCoog Wrote:  

(03-14-2022 05:22 PM)LairDweller Wrote:  He got a technical bc he fell to the floor, which was the right call…then he faked a heart attack to try to avoid it.

Hey, I told hold it against him. I thought it was brilliant

Did you not read the article i posted? I guess your recollection is better than ESPN and CUSA

the guy who argue with you is a doc ,aka md ,he know more then those hs graduate or communication graduate from college working for espn

(03-14-2022 04:02 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  I just find it amazing how many coog fans seem to have been spoiled by the last 5 years and have completely forgotten how often UAB used to skull drag UH in the old C-USA that was better than current AAC / top of C-USA combined ?

(03-14-2022 05:00 PM)NTXCoog Wrote:  Are UH fans supposed to be deferential because UAB had better teams 10-25 years ago?

Are we supposed to ignore that UH has the 2nd most wins of any team over the last 5 years and made the Final Four last year because UAB has a winning record vs UH? I mean UH is only 11-33 vs Cincinnati but we've won the last 6 with an avererage margin of victory of 24 points.

BTW for the latter half of CUSA history together, it was Memphis then everyone else, not any better than AAC. They won 64 straight conference games. They won 7 of 8 tournament titles in a row.

(03-14-2022 08:57 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  I just happen to remember when UH basketball was not very good not that long ago, along with the football team we used to thump regularly.

That was over 10 years ago. UH has gone through coaches and players and culture.
Thats like a USM fan constantly going on about how they dominated us but getting smoked.

Nice post NTXCOOG. I don't keep up with basketball outside of UAB but so far all I've heard from reviews are that UH has a size advantage over us and a shallow bench. Our guys have some shooters but UH's height may give trouble. I think our tempo can start to wear down a small bench and we've been a pretty good second half team this season. Our staff knows how to make the right adjustments.

it will be a difficult task because they were rank like a 5 on the new computer ranking and technically they was suppose to have a better seed ,,,but our discussion sound more and more like the BYU game ,,,fyi dont forget for the last 3 or 4 years the cusa team always have an major upset ,....Houston ////we have a problem :)

(03-15-2022 08:10 AM)rook360 Wrote:  

(03-14-2022 04:02 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  I just find it amazing how many coog fans seem to have been spoiled by the last 5 years and have completely forgotten how often UAB used to skull drag UH in the old C-USA that was better than current AAC / top of C-USA combined ?

(03-14-2022 05:00 PM)NTXCoog Wrote:  Are UH fans supposed to be deferential because UAB had better teams 10-25 years ago?

Are we supposed to ignore that UH has the 2nd most wins of any team over the last 5 years and made the Final Four last year because UAB has a winning record vs UH? I mean UH is only 11-33 vs Cincinnati but we've won the last 6 with an avererage margin of victory of 24 points.

BTW for the latter half of CUSA history together, it was Memphis then everyone else, not any better than AAC. They won 64 straight conference games. They won 7 of 8 tournament titles in a row.

(03-14-2022 08:57 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  I just happen to remember when UH basketball was not very good not that long ago, along with the football team we used to thump regularly.

That was over 10 years ago. UH has gone through coaches and players and culture.
Thats like a USM fan constantly going on about how they dominated us but getting smoked.

Nice post NTXCOOG. I don't keep up with basketball outside of UAB but so far all I've heard from reviews are that UH has a size advantage over us and a shallow bench. Our guys have some shooters but UH's height may give trouble. I think our tempo can start to wear down a small bench and we've been a pretty good second half team this season. Our staff knows how to make the right adjustments.

Tempo will indeed be key. There's a stat one of the UH posters has been tracking that yall may find interesting. UH is 23-0 this season when holding opponents to 64 points or less and 6-4 when we don't. Key for UAB is going to be getting the score into the 70's. I realize that may not seem like a difficult feat for yall given that yall average over 80 a game but yall have only played 3 opponents that ranked in the top 50 in defensive efficiency. Those opponents were USC (#32), USF (#19), and UNT (#15) who yall played twice. The scores of those games were:

vs. USC: 66-63 L
vs. USF: 63-61 L
vs. UNT: 69-63 W
vs. UNT: 58-57 L

UH ranks 11th in defensive efficiency and has held our opponent under their season scoring average in all but 4 games this year (@Alabama, @USF, @ Wichita, and @SMU). But... UAB will be the 2nd highest rated offense we've faced this year after Bama (who dropped 83 on us earlier this year). So it'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

(03-15-2022 09:33 AM)WhoseHouse? Wrote:  

(03-15-2022 08:10 AM)rook360 Wrote:  

(03-14-2022 04:02 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  I just find it amazing how many coog fans seem to have been spoiled by the last 5 years and have completely forgotten how often UAB used to skull drag UH in the old C-USA that was better than current AAC / top of C-USA combined ?

(03-14-2022 05:00 PM)NTXCoog Wrote:  Are UH fans supposed to be deferential because UAB had better teams 10-25 years ago?

Are we supposed to ignore that UH has the 2nd most wins of any team over the last 5 years and made the Final Four last year because UAB has a winning record vs UH? I mean UH is only 11-33 vs Cincinnati but we've won the last 6 with an avererage margin of victory of 24 points.

BTW for the latter half of CUSA history together, it was Memphis then everyone else, not any better than AAC. They won 64 straight conference games. They won 7 of 8 tournament titles in a row.

(03-14-2022 08:57 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  I just happen to remember when UH basketball was not very good not that long ago, along with the football team we used to thump regularly.

That was over 10 years ago. UH has gone through coaches and players and culture.
Thats like a USM fan constantly going on about how they dominated us but getting smoked.

Nice post NTXCOOG. I don't keep up with basketball outside of UAB but so far all I've heard from reviews are that UH has a size advantage over us and a shallow bench. Our guys have some shooters but UH's height may give trouble. I think our tempo can start to wear down a small bench and we've been a pretty good second half team this season. Our staff knows how to make the right adjustments.

Tempo will indeed be key. There's a stat one of the UH posters has been tracking that yall may find interesting. UH is 23-0 this season when holding opponents to 64 points or less and 6-4 when we don't. Key for UAB is going to be getting the score into the 70's. I realize that may not seem like a difficult feat for yall given that yall average over 80 a game but yall have only played 3 opponents that ranked in the top 50 in defensive efficiency. Those opponents were USC (#32), USF (#19), and UNT (#15) who yall played twice. The scores of those games were:

vs. USC: 66-63 L
vs. USF: 63-61 L
vs. UNT: 69-63 W
vs. UNT: 58-57 L

UH ranks 11th in defensive efficiency and has held our opponent under their season scoring average in all but 4 games this year (@Alabama, @USF, @ Wichita, and @SMU). But... UAB will be the 2nd highest rated offense we've faced this year after Bama (who dropped 83 on us earlier this year). So it'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

Of UAB’s 7 losses, UAB scored 63 or less points in 4 of them. The other 3 losses are head scratchers for a myriad of other reasons.

KenPom has Houston ranked 4th for good reasons, and the NET ranking is 3rd. The Massey Composite has them 8th. Houston has to be one of the highest ranked 5 seeds ever!

UAB will be lucky to score 65 or more points on Friday, but stranger things have happened.

(03-15-2022 08:10 AM)rook360 Wrote:  

(03-14-2022 04:02 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  I just find it amazing how many coog fans seem to have been spoiled by the last 5 years and have completely forgotten how often UAB used to skull drag UH in the old C-USA that was better than current AAC / top of C-USA combined ?

(03-14-2022 05:00 PM)NTXCoog Wrote:  Are UH fans supposed to be deferential because UAB had better teams 10-25 years ago?

Are we supposed to ignore that UH has the 2nd most wins of any team over the last 5 years and made the Final Four last year because UAB has a winning record vs UH? I mean UH is only 11-33 vs Cincinnati but we've won the last 6 with an avererage margin of victory of 24 points.

BTW for the latter half of CUSA history together, it was Memphis then everyone else, not any better than AAC. They won 64 straight conference games. They won 7 of 8 tournament titles in a row.

(03-14-2022 08:57 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  I just happen to remember when UH basketball was not very good not that long ago, along with the football team we used to thump regularly.

That was over 10 years ago. UH has gone through coaches and players and culture.
Thats like a USM fan constantly going on about how they dominated us but getting smoked.

Nice post NTXCOOG. I don't keep up with basketball outside of UAB but so far all I've heard from reviews are that UH has a size advantage over us and a shallow bench. Our guys have some shooters but UH's height may give trouble. I think our tempo can start to wear down a small bench and we've been a pretty good second half team this season. Our staff knows how to make the right adjustments.

I actually like UH quite a bit as their success is literally the reason UA fought so hard to suppress UAB in the first place.

On paper UH should win and cover, probsbly something like 75-62. Most simulations would favor that outcome about 65 percent of the time.

(03-14-2022 04:28 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  Yes I remember when Tom Penders faked a heart attack to try and stop a technical foul at Bartow we were beating Houston so badly.

We were regularly better than many of the current AAC teams back in the day. Time for us to set the record straight again.

I was sitting about five rows behind Tumbledown Tom Penders when he had that heart attack. It must have been UAB Hospital only being a few blocks away that allowed him to be back on the bench for the second half.

(03-14-2022 06:28 PM)LairDweller Wrote:  For UAB to win…
Jelly needs to do Jelly things
Ertel needs to be in double digits
Someone else needs to score (Lovan, Quan, KJ)
We need to turn them over and not turn it over
We need to stay close on the boards
We need to hit FTs

If any of those things don’t happen, it’ll be an uphill battle

The Coogs get a ton of offensive rebounds. That worries me. So do their tall guards defending Ertel and making it hard for him to get his shot off.

we need to keep it close on the first half and run them off in the second half :)

(03-14-2022 10:19 PM)Blazer4Life14 Wrote:  lol nice, an opposing fan comes in with a classy post and we proceed to **** all over his team/program.

Lol this is what I was thinking. You can pull up any Houston game pre 2013 and what you will see is garbage, a team playing in a run down building in front of a few hundred fans on a good night.

But we have gone through a resurgence, and invested heavily to get where we are to be making our what 4th or 5th consecutive tournament? And in every one Sampson has made he hasn’t been bounced in the first round, but UAB is not Cleveland state or San Diego state as a high seed this is a team that’s just won its tournament and has everything you could want as a team to make upsets.

Great guard play and super star players are what gets people through the rounds in March and the reason the tournament is rarely “chalk”

I’ve seen a lot of people, maybe the majority, pick this 12/5 upset.

Houston has come a long way but to some degree this team is fools gold. Every ranking has us top 10 and some top 5 by metrics, but when you look at who we have on our team we aren’t nearly what we could be if we had not lost Sasser and Mark.

UAB and Houston have history and that’s cool, I followed along when you guys almost lost your football program and have been to the Birmingham bowl twice. So, I don’t see the need for shitting on Houston from 10-20 years ago, we aren’t really direct competitors in anything anymore but I guess good on y’all for not forgetting we used to be trash lol. We haven’t forgotten either which is what makes this run we are on more special to those who pay attention

(03-15-2022 11:07 AM)vcoog Wrote:  

(03-14-2022 10:19 PM)Blazer4Life14 Wrote:  lol nice, an opposing fan comes in with a classy post and we proceed to **** all over his team/program.

Lol this is what I was thinking. You can pull up any Houston game pre 2013 and what you will see is garbage, a team playing in a run down building in front of a few hundred fans on a good night.

But we have gone through a resurgence, and invested heavily to get where we are to be making our what 4th or 5th consecutive tournament? And in every one Sampson has made he hasn’t been bounced in the first round, but UAB is not Cleveland state or San Diego state as a high seed this is a team that’s just won its tournament and has everything you could want as a team to make upsets.

Great guard play and super star players are what gets people through the rounds in March and the reason the tournament is rarely “chalk”

I’ve seen a lot of people, maybe the majority, pick this 12/5 upset.

Houston has come a long way but to some degree this team is fools gold. Every ranking has us top 10 and some top 5 by metrics, but when you look at who we have on our team we aren’t nearly what we could be if we had not lost Sasser and Mark.

UAB and Houston have history and that’s cool, I followed along when you guys almost lost your football program and have been to the Birmingham bowl twice. So, I don’t see the need for shitting on Houston from 10-20 years ago, we aren’t really direct competitors in anything anymore but I guess good on y’all for not forgetting we used to be trash lol. We haven’t forgotten either which is what makes this run we are on more special to those who pay attention

I don't think anyone is shitting on UH. Matter of fact UH had a lot of support/friendlys in Bham for the Birmingham Bowl. It should be a good game
for both teams.

To those interested, the video below does an excellent job in explaining how Houston basketball operates.