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This is easily the worst year to be a UAB fan since the Shutdown. So much potential between the football and MBB teams, so many close losses, so much disappointment.

on bracketmatrix, all 73 brackets have FAU in, anywhere from a 5 to a 13 (average 9.42)

(01-17-2023 04:57 PM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  This is easily the worst year to be a UAB fan since the Shutdown. So much potential between the football and MBB teams, so many close losses, so much disappointment.

I don't think I've ever seen a UAB team, football or basketball, perform well when they have real expectations.

We've always done well as the underdog, the team that gets no love or press.

Once we have any kind of positive press or expectations, we sh!t ourselves.

This basketball season has been the worst example of that. Awful.

Current Bart Torvik forecast:

FAU: 9 seed
UNT: NIT 3 seed
UAB: NIT 6 seed

I try to think back to the last time we turned things around for big success and I go to the 2014-2015 Haase team. This was our head coach's 3rd season. We knew we had talent on the roster, but we weren't clicking and the chemistry seemed all over the place. We finished the regular season one game over .500 but somehow managed to squeak out a bye in the C-USA tournament.

Two BIG situational differences though in that season ending surge vs our situation this year:

1. We hosted the Conference USA Tournament (and only a single game was played on the court at any given time).
2. We played 4 Top 25 teams in our out-of-conference schedule. Of those opponents, 3 of them went on to be Sweet Sixteen teams and one of those made the National Championship game. We lost all 4 of those OOC games, but the point was that it gave us early experience to be able to handle the adversity of the C-USA Tournament and NCAA 2nd round. No way we would've won the C-USA tournament or knocked out Iowa State without that early season experience to learn from.

Good points. The 20-game league schedule took away at least two opportunities for us to go on the road. I think moving forward, it's imperative to schedule 1 or 2 more true road games--even if it's a P5 school that won't return the favor.

I am interested to see what happens when Jelly returns. Will he play less minutes? Have more or less FG attempts? Will we stick with running the offense through the post? Who knows--maybe this can help us for the stretch run. Or we'll just keep getting technicals.

Don’t care what the bracketologies spit out, if FAU gives any margin for being screwed, they are gonna get screwed. They are also going to be carrying a narrative that will be shifted to the American next year — “they are really a one-bid league.” Remind yourself I told you so when this drumbeat starts next season.

(01-17-2023 05:26 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  

(01-17-2023 04:57 PM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  This is easily the worst year to be a UAB fan since the Shutdown. So much potential between the football and MBB teams, so many close losses, so much disappointment.

I don't think I've ever seen a UAB team, football or basketball, perform well when they have real expectations.

We've always done well as the underdog, the team that gets no love or press.

Once we have any kind of positive press or expectations, we sh!t ourselves.

This basketball season has been the worst example of that. Awful.

I’d say the team after the sweet sixteen team had high expectations and they made it to the second round.

(01-17-2023 06:51 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  Don’t care what the bracketologies spit out, if FAU gives any margin for being screwed, they are gonna get screwed. They are also going to be carrying a narrative that will be shifted to the American next year — “they are really a one-bid league.” Remind yourself I told you so when this drumbeat starts next season.

I think the magic number is 4. If they stay at or below that, they shouldn’t get screwed. Hit 5+, an you are risking a lot. It is far too early to be talking about at large bids anyway, there is a ton of conference play remaining.

(01-17-2023 06:11 PM)FNblazer Wrote:  Good points. The 20-game league schedule took away at least two opportunities for us to go on the road. I think moving forward, it's imperative to schedule 1 or 2 more true road games--even if it's a P5 school that won't return the favor.

I am interested to see what happens when Jelly returns. Will he play less minutes? Have more or less FG attempts? Will we stick with running the offense through the post? Who knows--maybe this can help us for the stretch run. Or we'll just keep getting technicals.

We should be playing at minimum, one neutral site tournament(2-3 games) and 3 true road games. It would’ve been much better to take these lumps on the road OOC and hopefully have learned from them.

(01-17-2023 08:00 PM)blazers9911 Wrote:  

(01-17-2023 05:26 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  

(01-17-2023 04:57 PM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  This is easily the worst year to be a UAB fan since the Shutdown. So much potential between the football and MBB teams, so many close losses, so much disappointment.

I don't think I've ever seen a UAB team, football or basketball, perform well when they have real expectations.

We've always done well as the underdog, the team that gets no love or press.

Once we have any kind of positive press or expectations, we sh!t ourselves.

This basketball season has been the worst example of that. Awful.

I’d say the team after the sweet sixteen team had high expectations and they made it to the second round.

That's true. The team after that, Mike Anderson's last year, also had high expectations and got an at large to the tournament.

That 2014-2015 season came as a big surprise to me, with a lot of luck. Our last regular season games ended in South Florida, where once again we lost by 3 to FAU and by 4 at FIU, to finish 12-6 in C-USA.

In the conference tournament at the BJCC, we squeaked by WKU 53-52 scoring the last five points. Then UAB beat LA Tech in OT, after LA Tech went on an 11-0 run to tie the game at the end of regulation. UAB took care of business against MTSU in the championship game.

Against Iowa State, Robert Brown and freshman William Lee scored 21 and 14 points respectively. Norton and Mehinti didn’t score. Tyler Madison picked up the slack with 9 points.

UCLA was just too good in the next round, just as they had been in an early season matchup in Atlantis. Wisconsin destroyed us in the first round in Atlantis, but we actually led late against Florida.

It was a hell of an OOC schedule with the three games in Atlantis, a home game with LSU and an away game at North Carolina.

After the first 13 games, UAB stood at 4-9 with one of those wins over Young Harris. The conference games and post season were very much a success. The momentum carried over to the next season, landing Haase in Stanford shortly thereafter.

(01-17-2023 09:36 PM)KevMo4UAB Wrote:  That 2014-2015 season came as a big surprise to me, with a lot of luck. Our last regular season games ended in South Florida, where once again we lost by 3 to FAU and by 4 at FIU, to finish 12-6 in C-USA.

In the conference tournament at the BJCC, we squeaked by WKU 53-52 scoring the last five points. Then UAB beat LA Tech in OT, after LA Tech went on an 11-0 run to tie the game at the end of regulation. UAB took care of business against MTSU in the championship game.

Against Iowa State, Robert Brown and freshman William Lee scored 21 and 14 points respectively. Norton and Mehinti didn’t score. Tyler Madison picked up the slack with 9 points.

UCLA was just too good in the next round, just as they had been in an early season matchup in Atlantis. Wisconsin destroyed us in the first round in Atlantis, but we actually led late against Florida.

It was a hell of an OOC schedule with the three games in Atlantis, a home game with LSU and an away game at North Carolina.

After the first 13 games, UAB stood at 4-9 with one of those wins over Young Harris. The conference games and post season were very much a success. The momentum carried over to the next season, landing Haase in Stanford shortly thereafter.

I kind of disagree with that. We feasted the next season on a cupcake schedule and choke in our first game in the conference tournament. That season was a big disappointment - just as the ensuing Ehsan seasons were.

Ya'll make a good point though. This year's team was not tested nearly enough in our OOC schedule. That's also on AK. Terrible schedule for a team that should've been as good as this year's team was supposed to be.

(01-17-2023 06:51 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  Don’t care what the bracketologies spit out, if FAU gives any margin for being screwed, they are gonna get screwed. They are also going to be carrying a narrative that will be shifted to the American next year — “they are really a one-bid league.” Remind yourself I told you so when this drumbeat starts next season.

Yes. It's the Eye Test. As in, "Eye Want More .500 Cartel Teams in the Tournament."

Some observations:

1. Gaines was standing next to AK when he got his T. Whatever he said, AK did not try to silence him. (The T for a bad-acting flop I can excuse - Empty Sue got TWO four-point plays out of worse acting jobs.)

2. Buffen was still jawing after his T. Only the chubby walk-on tried to calm him before he got another. Do we not have any leadership within this team of seniors? Or only within cliques?

3. As for what would Gene do, Gene lost control of his last team. This team has just played poor basketball. That one . . . we are very fortunate that all we lost were basketball games with that group. And that's all I should say about that.

4. As for being unfit to wear the uniform, that's ridiculous. UAT has players murdering women for rejecting them at a bar (the SEC . . . it just means more). Marshall Henderson did jail time (and got released in time for AK to start him in 52 games post-Big-House). These guys just screw up on the court - they have represented UAB well off of it.

(01-17-2023 10:37 PM)58-56 Wrote:  

(01-17-2023 06:51 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  Don’t care what the bracketologies spit out, if FAU gives any margin for being screwed, they are gonna get screwed. They are also going to be carrying a narrative that will be shifted to the American next year — “they are really a one-bid league.” Remind yourself I told you so when this drumbeat starts next season.

Yes. It's the Eye Test. As in, "Eye Want More .500 Cartel Teams in the Tournament."

Some observations:

1. Gaines was standing next to AK when he got his T. Whatever he said, AK did not try to silence him. (The T for a bad-acting flop I can excuse - Empty Sue got TWO four-point plays out of worse acting jobs.)

2. Buffen was still jawing after his T. Only the chubby walk-on tried to calm him before he got another. Do we not have any leadership within this team of seniors? Or only within cliques?

3. As for what would Gene do, Gene lost control of his last team. This team has just played poor basketball. That one . . . we are very fortunate that all we lost were basketball games with that group. And that's all I should say about that.

4. As for being unfit to wear the uniform, that's ridiculous. UAT has players murdering women for rejecting them at a bar (the SEC . . . it just means more). Marshall Henderson did jail time (and got released in time for AK to start him in 52 games post-Big-House). These guys just screw up on the court - they have represented UAB well off of it.

What did you mean by #1? I sometimes have trouble following your rants… I mean sermons

(01-17-2023 11:29 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  

(01-17-2023 10:37 PM)58-56 Wrote:  

(01-17-2023 06:51 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  Don’t care what the bracketologies spit out, if FAU gives any margin for being screwed, they are gonna get screwed. They are also going to be carrying a narrative that will be shifted to the American next year — “they are really a one-bid league.” Remind yourself I told you so when this drumbeat starts next season.

Yes. It's the Eye Test. As in, "Eye Want More .500 Cartel Teams in the Tournament."

Some observations:

1. Gaines was standing next to AK when he got his T. Whatever he said, AK did not try to silence him. (The T for a bad-acting flop I can excuse - Empty Sue got TWO four-point plays out of worse acting jobs.)

2. Buffen was still jawing after his T. Only the chubby walk-on tried to calm him before he got another. Do we not have any leadership within this team of seniors? Or only within cliques?

3. As for what would Gene do, Gene lost control of his last team. This team has just played poor basketball. That one . . . we are very fortunate that all we lost were basketball games with that group. And that's all I should say about that.

4. As for being unfit to wear the uniform, that's ridiculous. UAT has players murdering women for rejecting them at a bar (the SEC . . . it just means more). Marshall Henderson did jail time (and got released in time for AK to start him in 52 games post-Big-House). These guys just screw up on the court - they have represented UAB well off of it.

What did you mean by #1? I sometimes have trouble following your rants… I mean sermons

That's okay. So do I. And I never post when I've been drinking.

I wasn't there, only watching the CBS feed. It showed Gaines standing 2 or 3 feet from AK when he was given the T. At no point in the brief sequence shown did AK try to stop Gaines saying whatever he was saying to the referee.

Gaines received a T in the previous game for flopping, with no warning given. It was only a quasi-flop; there was contact, but Gaines gave a soccer-style collapse. MTSU did worse last night and got away with it.

I begin to suspect that Gaines is earning the dislike of CUSA refs.

Technicals can be great at the right time. I remember Coach Bartow ripping his jacket off and flinging it to get a T. We caught fire. Players and the crowd.

(01-28-2023 06:34 AM)notnow Wrote:  Technicals can be great at the right time. I remember Coach Bartow ripping his jacket off and flinging it to get a T. We caught fire. Players and the crowd.

By the coach, yes. Players, never.

(01-28-2023 09:48 AM)BlazerFromMD Wrote:  

(01-28-2023 06:34 AM)notnow Wrote:  Technicals can be great at the right time. I remember Coach Bartow ripping his jacket off and flinging it to get a T. We caught fire. Players and the crowd.

By the coach, yes. Players, never.

And ESPECIALLY not in a super close, razor thin margin game, where literally every point counted and we were struggling mightily to score.

Lost by one. Four points gifted to MTSU off of techs. Awful.