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He also asked if Jelly ever made an uncontested three. His shot to get us to six points was wide open last night.

AK said the exact same thing I did but worded it a little differently, and Memphis blazer got his depends in a wad over it LOL.

“Andy Kennedy talked about overcoming those 21 turnovers on his postgame talk on the radio with David Crane: “We end up with 21 turnovers man it is mind numbing…10 out of our starting backcourt, 21 turnovers. but in order to overcome that you gotta shoot 53 percent from the floor (check), you gotta shoot 84 percent from the free throw line (check), you got to make 53 percent of your three pointers (check). ”

AKA, if you shoot really well you’ll mask a lot of bad mistakes.

Yeah, I don’t understand how that doesn’t make sense. We turned the ball over way too many times, but our shooting allowed us to overcome those turnovers. It’s not complicated.

We need our turnovers to be around 12 on an ordinary night, and need to do everything we can to not exceed 15 at any point. The one other thing about the turnover battle last night is it felt like we scored off of a lot of theirs, and we weren’t necessarily punished on most of ours. I’m not sure where the stat is kept up, but I’d be willing to bet we had more points off of turnovers last night, even committing 6 or so more.

We were punished pretty bad by those TOs in the first half because UTEP had 17 points off turnovers. It wasn’t just that they scored, it was also that we *did not* when we had a chance to blow them away in the first half. Had a chance to maybe be up 15-20 instead we were up 2.

Well that’s the story of the season. We get up around ten and I expect the other team to close it to 2 in a matter of a minute or two. When we really need to clamp down and play smart, it appears that’s the time for us to turn reckless.

(02-17-2023 11:27 AM)blazers9911 Wrote:  Yeah, I don’t understand how that doesn’t make sense. We turned the ball over way too many times, but our shooting allowed us to overcome those turnovers. It’s not complicated.

We need our turnovers to be around 12 on an ordinary night, and need to do everything we can to not exceed 15 at any point. The one other thing about the turnover battle last night is it felt like we scored off of a lot of theirs, and we weren’t necessarily punished on most of ours. I’m not sure where the stat is kept up, but I’d be willing to bet we had more points off of turnovers last night, even committing 6 or so more.

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sidea...195608.PDF

UAB gave up 34 points from turnovers. UTEP’s turnovers only led to 14 UAB points. At least that is what the stats point out.

(02-17-2023 01:53 PM)KevMo4UAB Wrote:  

(02-17-2023 11:27 AM)blazers9911 Wrote:  Yeah, I don’t understand how that doesn’t make sense. We turned the ball over way too many times, but our shooting allowed us to overcome those turnovers. It’s not complicated.

We need our turnovers to be around 12 on an ordinary night, and need to do everything we can to not exceed 15 at any point. The one other thing about the turnover battle last night is it felt like we scored off of a lot of theirs, and we weren’t necessarily punished on most of ours. I’m not sure where the stat is kept up, but I’d be willing to bet we had more points off of turnovers last night, even committing 6 or so more.

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sidea...195608.PDF

UAB gave up 34 points from turnovers. UTEP’s turnovers only led to 14 UAB points. At least that is what the stats point out.

There were at least 3 times I can recall off of the top of my head that a terrible turnover led directly to a basket by UTEP in the first half alone.

(02-17-2023 01:53 PM)KevMo4UAB Wrote:  

(02-17-2023 11:27 AM)blazers9911 Wrote:  Yeah, I don’t understand how that doesn’t make sense. We turned the ball over way too many times, but our shooting allowed us to overcome those turnovers. It’s not complicated.

We need our turnovers to be around 12 on an ordinary night, and need to do everything we can to not exceed 15 at any point. The one other thing about the turnover battle last night is it felt like we scored off of a lot of theirs, and we weren’t necessarily punished on most of ours. I’m not sure where the stat is kept up, but I’d be willing to bet we had more points off of turnovers last night, even committing 6 or so more.

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sidea...195608.PDF

UAB gave up 34 points from turnovers. UTEP’s turnovers only led to 14 UAB points. At least that is what the stats point out.

Well damn, I was way off there. Appreciate that.

Always good to win on the road, but that was one of the more frustrating road wins to watch. Luckily we shot it very well and were more talented, but can't continue to play that sloppy against better competition.

Watched it from a hotel room and enjoyed it. Good road win over a scrappy team that causes problems.

That could have easily turned into a frustrating L. With only two refs, UTEP was riding Jelly and Eric like they were pack mules and totally getting away with it. Don’t blame them for that, I would have too. They did it in Bham also.

Yes we did a lot of our usual dumb things but we also did a lot right and sometimes that is overlooked by the things that frustrate us all.

I admitted I did see quite a bit that I liked from the team.

The turnovers will bite us in the ass and send us home early (or at an appropriate time if you consider how this team has played all year), if we can't shoot >50%/>50%/>80%.

I can't wait to see Gaines whip a behind the back pass to an undefended jelly when he is 2 feet from him, causing Jelly to lose the ball out of bounds when he could've literally reached out and handed Jelly the ball - in the conference tournament. That literally happened against UTEP. You can't make this stuff up. That is one possession wasted. How many one possession games has this team been in, and lost, this year? Crap like that costs. us. games.

I don't question the effort on this team most of the time. Maybe some individual situtions, but not on the whole. I think most of the time even when they make mistakes, they had good intentions and were trying their best. It's just the lack of situational and court awareness that is just maddening! AK must be losing his mind on the inside. He's controlling his emotions a lot better than I would, lol.

But he has recently acknowledged the problem: When our players are faced with a decision on the court, they will more often than not choose the hardest or worst option with the ball. And no matter how many times these things are pointed out to them in practice or games, our guys repeat the mistakes often. I will give Eric some credit that he has somewhat improved in this area but he still makes a ton of poor decisions. Honestly, he makes 10-15 bad decisions with the ball that don't necessarily even show up on the stats. Things like going 1 on 3 and then backing it out may not show up as a turnover or missed shot but it also might end up in a dead possession anyway. Dribble, dribble, dribble freaking dribble instead of pass, pass, cut for an open look. Getting the guy the ball but a second too late and a foot off his spot because you tried to be Kyrie and then the shot is not in rhythm. Stuff like THAT all over the place! And yes, I am harsh. Because I expect a D1 point guard to make better decisions with the ball and to understand offensive flow, spacing and what a defense is trying to do against you better than youth league players.

Also, you watch this, there is more than enough film on Eric now to know his go-to passing move (the lean in, twist and throw one-handed to his right. He does this anytime he picks up his dribble in traffic on the wing. Crucial time in a big game, defense is going to set him up to jump that. Also, if he is thinks he's going to play in the NBA, I can tell you right now, that pass is a dunk on the other end almost every time and a one-way ticket to the G-League or Slovakia.

I would agree with all of that.

I don’t think you’re overly harsh. Any Criticism u have is very valid. This team hasn’t met expectations by a mile, point blank. They deserve the criticism.

Gaines started the year as the sloppiest player I’ve ever seen play in college and I am not exaggerating or bloviating when I say that. To his credit, he has improved a good bit in that area over the course of the season. However, he still makes bone headed head scratching decisions many, many times a game, a lot of which don’t show up in the box score as you said.

At least he has shown he is coachable, improved his body language, and shown some objective improvements in his decision making through the year. He looked like a train wreck to start the season.

If he keeps improving like he has, he could be a really good player.

I don’t see him ever making the NBA. Outside of his Raw athleticism, what does he do on the basketball court that is anywhere near NBA level?

Also; to be fair to Gaines, we have many players on this roster who make weird, boneheaded decisions on the court. It’s not just him. I think it’s the type of player that AK likes to recruit and the style of play he likes - fast, athletic, reckless, loose, put the ball in the hoop and mostly try to put score people rather than play disciplined, hard nosed defensive type of basketball…