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

Not that anyone needs more proof, but every year we have won at least 18 games, we have gone either to the NIT or the NCAA.

17 wins or less - stay home
18 wins or more - go to NIT or NCAA

1980-81 - 18-12 NIT
1990-91 - 18-13 NIT
1996-97 - 18-14 NIT
2000-02 - 17-14 stay home

I think this is largely due to schools playing more games. 20 win seasons are simply not as impressive as they used to be.

(03-07-2014 09:13 PM)BandGrad Wrote:  I think this is largely due to schools playing more games. 20 win seasons are simply not as impressive as they used to be.

In UAB's history, we have generally played the same number of regular season games, give or take a few. It's more about the separation of conferences. Today 18 wins in one of the big six conferences gets you a postseason bid. We are just on the wrong side of the divide.

True. Unfortunately, I don't see it getting better anytime soon.

I dont think the college landscape has changed as much as you opine, rather, It's because we played a crappy schedule and lost to a ton of even crappier teams.
If we balance our weaker CUSA schedule with a very strong OOC schedule in the future, we won't have this problem. I think that number you showed above is more because we played such a weak schedule overall and lost to crappy teams to boot. 15 of our wins are essentially cupcakes. 3 good wins, 15 crappy wins, and a bunch of crappy losses, even if it equals out to 18 wins, won't get you into the postseason.

We can't lose to any more 200+ teams going forward, and if we do, we better have some damn strong wins to balance it out. We might have been able to overcome ONE 200 loss this year with our unc win, but we couldn't have lost all of the other games we did.

Next year I think we will be in much better position. We have 5 games that have strong possibility to be top 50 RPI games, maybe top 100 - 3 in Atlantis, @unc, and LSU at home. We have to have more strong games in addition to these, and with the top teams in our conference being top 100, our schedule will be much better. WE CAN'T LOSE TO SUB 200 TEAMS ANYMORE. Sorry had to get that off my chest

(03-08-2014 10:45 AM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  I dont think the college landscape has changed as much as you opine, rather, It's because we played a crappy schedule and lost to a ton of even crappier teams.
If we balance our weaker CUSA schedule with a very strong OOC schedule in the future, we won't have this problem. I think that number you showed above is more because we played such a weak schedule overall and lost to crappy teams to boot. 15 of our wins are essentially cupcakes. 3 good wins, 15 crappy wins, and a bunch of crappy losses, even if it equals out to 18 wins, won't get you into the postseason.

We can't lose to any more 200+ teams going forward, and if we do, we better have some damn strong wins to balance it out. We might have been able to overcome ONE 200 loss this year with our unc win, but we couldn't have lost all of the other games we did.

News for you - in some of those previous NIT years, we played crappy OOC schedules too. You really believe the landscape hasn't changed? Unbelievable.

It comes down to conference. SMU is ranked 18th. No way are they that good.


Posted from my mobile device using the CSNbbs App

(03-08-2014 11:10 AM)uab278 Wrote:  It comes down to conference. SMU is ranked 18th. No way are they that good.


Posted from my mobile device using the CSNbbs App

Yes they are. Larry Brown has done the best coaching job in the country this year.

The landscape has definitely changed in college basketball. My question is which has changed more, the landscape or UAB's place in it?

We don't deserve to play in the post-season. We've got the 8th best team in Conference-freakin-Mega Lite USA, for crying out loud.

No one saying we do this year. I am just pointing out that we would have deserved to in years past

(03-08-2014 11:17 AM)stc Wrote:  

(03-08-2014 11:10 AM)uab278 Wrote:  It comes down to conference. SMU is ranked 18th. No way are they that good.


Posted from my mobile device using the CSNbbs App

Yes they are. Larry Brown has done the best coaching job in the country this year.

and they have one of tip 3 players coming next year.

(03-08-2014 10:57 AM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  

(03-08-2014 10:45 AM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  I dont think the college landscape has changed as much as you opine, rather, It's because we played a crappy schedule and lost to a ton of even crappier teams.
If we balance our weaker CUSA schedule with a very strong OOC schedule in the future, we won't have this problem. I think that number you showed above is more because we played such a weak schedule overall and lost to crappy teams to boot. 15 of our wins are essentially cupcakes. 3 good wins, 15 crappy wins, and a bunch of crappy losses, even if it equals out to 18 wins, won't get you into the postseason.

We can't lose to any more 200+ teams going forward, and if we do, we better have some damn strong wins to balance it out. We might have been able to overcome ONE 200 loss this year with our unc win, but we couldn't have lost all of the other games we did.

News for you - in some of those previous NIT years, we played crappy OOC schedules too. You really believe the landscape hasn't changed? Unbelievable.

Tone it down a bit.

The landscape has changed, and yes, UAB is on the wrong side of it.

Does that preclude us from playing a stronger schedule? Hell no. Play a big boy OOC schedule, win some of those games, take care of business in our crappy conference, and things will take care of themselves.

The change in landscape hasn't stopped SDSU, SLU, Gonzaga, and WSU from doing big things this year. I really doubt our schedule was as crappy in those past years when we made it in with 18 wins as it was this year. Even if it was as crappy, I can guarantee you we didn't lose to the same number of crappy teams as we did this year. We didn't deserve any postseason play this year, and it's our own fault. It's not the fault of the changed landscape.

(03-08-2014 10:45 AM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  I dont think the college landscape has changed as much as you opine, rather, It's because we played a crappy schedule and lost to a ton of even crappier teams.
If we balance our weaker CUSA schedule with a very strong OOC schedule in the future, we won't have this problem. I think that number you showed above is more because we played such a weak schedule overall and lost to crappy teams to boot. 15 of our wins are essentially cupcakes. 3 good wins, 15 crappy wins, and a bunch of crappy losses, even if it equals out to 18 wins, won't get you into the postseason.

We can't lose to any more 200+ teams going forward, and if we do, we better have some damn strong wins to balance it out. We might have been able to overcome ONE 200 loss this year with our unc win, but we couldn't have lost all of the other games we did.

Bingo! Just erasing those four losses moves our RPI all the way up to 87. Not enough to overcome the craptastic schedule, but a better looking year overall. I couldn't find a year where we had four of these super-WTF losses. Just one of them is enough to put you in serious danger of missing the tournament, even with a stellar profile. It happened to St. Mary's when they lost to San Diego (the ECU of the West Coast Conference) a couple of years ago.

(03-08-2014 10:45 AM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  I dont think the college landscape has changed as much as you opine, rather, It's because we played a crappy schedule and lost to a ton of even crappier teams.
If we balance our weaker CUSA schedule with a very strong OOC schedule in the future, we won't have this problem. I think that number you showed above is more because we played such a weak schedule overall and lost to crappy teams to boot. 15 of our wins are essentially cupcakes. 3 good wins, 15 crappy wins, and a bunch of crappy losses, even if it equals out to 18 wins, won't get you into the postseason.

We can't lose to any more 200+ teams going forward, and if we do, we better have some damn strong wins to balance it out. We might have been able to overcome ONE 200 loss this year with our unc win, but we couldn't have lost all of the other games we did.

Bingo! Just erasing those four losses moves our RPI all the way up to 87. Not enough to overcome the craptastic schedule, but a better looking year overall. I couldn't find a year where we had four of these super-WTF losses. Just one of them is enough to put you in serious danger of missing the tournament, even with a stellar profile. It happened to St. Mary's when they lost to San Diego (the ECU of the West Coast Conference) a couple of years ago.

(03-08-2014 12:23 PM)FNblazer Wrote:  

(03-08-2014 10:45 AM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  I dont think the college landscape has changed as much as you opine, rather, It's because we played a crappy schedule and lost to a ton of even crappier teams.
If we balance our weaker CUSA schedule with a very strong OOC schedule in the future, we won't have this problem. I think that number you showed above is more because we played such a weak schedule overall and lost to crappy teams to boot. 15 of our wins are essentially cupcakes. 3 good wins, 15 crappy wins, and a bunch of crappy losses, even if it equals out to 18 wins, won't get you into the postseason.

We can't lose to any more 200+ teams going forward, and if we do, we better have some damn strong wins to balance it out. We might have been able to overcome ONE 200 loss this year with our unc win, but we couldn't have lost all of the other games we did.

Bingo! Just erasing those four losses moves our RPI all the way up to 87. Not enough to overcome the craptastic schedule, but a better looking year overall. I couldn't find a year where we had four of these super-WTF losses. Just one of them is enough to put you in serious danger of missing the tournament, even with a stellar profile. It happened to St. Mary's when they lost to San Diego (the ECU of the West Coast Conference) a couple of years ago.

Exactly. If you take out losses to FIU, FAU, North Texas, and ECU we finish 22-8 which would the nice step in the right direction we were looking for this year. Wouldn't be good enough to get us in the NCAA, but I'd think we'd definitely get an NIT bid with that record.

(03-08-2014 12:14 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  

(03-08-2014 10:57 AM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  

(03-08-2014 10:45 AM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  I dont think the college landscape has changed as much as you opine, rather, It's because we played a crappy schedule and lost to a ton of even crappier teams.
If we balance our weaker CUSA schedule with a very strong OOC schedule in the future, we won't have this problem. I think that number you showed above is more because we played such a weak schedule overall and lost to crappy teams to boot. 15 of our wins are essentially cupcakes. 3 good wins, 15 crappy wins, and a bunch of crappy losses, even if it equals out to 18 wins, won't get you into the postseason.

We can't lose to any more 200+ teams going forward, and if we do, we better have some damn strong wins to balance it out. We might have been able to overcome ONE 200 loss this year with our unc win, but we couldn't have lost all of the other games we did.

News for you - in some of those previous NIT years, we played crappy OOC schedules too. You really believe the landscape hasn't changed? Unbelievable.

Tone it down a bit.

The landscape has changed, and yes, UAB is on the wrong side of it.

Does that preclude us from playing a stronger schedule? Hell no. Play a big boy OOC schedule, win some of those games, take care of business in our crappy conference, and things will take care of themselves.

The change in landscape hasn't stopped SDSU, SLU, Gonzaga, and WSU from doing big things this year. I really doubt our schedule was as crappy in those past years when we made it in with 18 wins as it was this year. Even if it was as crappy, I can guarantee you we didn't lose to the same number of crappy teams as we did this year. We didn't deserve any postseason play this year, and it's our own fault. It's not the fault of the changed landscape.

In 1996-1997, we finished the regular season 18-12, had a loss in the conference tournament and in the NIT. During that season, we had losses to St Bonaventure, Ball State and Chattanooga.

We had bad losses. However, we were in a stronger conference to overcome them.

How bad were those losses compared to the teams we lost to this year? How good were our wins to balance them out? Also that's three bad losses vs. four this year.

No one will disagree with u that UAB was on the wrong side of the conference realignment stuff and that we are now stuck in a crappy conference. However, in order to make up for our weaker conference schedule, we now have to flip the script and schedule a very strong OOC schedule.

We had enough good teams on our schedule to get the wins necessary to make the NIT, if we had just avoided bad losses. Good, postseason-worthy teams, avoid those losses. If not, at a minimum they have the wins to balance them out. We scheduled a crappy OOC schedule and lost to very bad teams. Being on the wrong side of the college landscape may have given us more of these bad teams on our schedule by virtue of our conference affiliation. However, it's as simple as good teams do not lose to that caliber of opponent.

With the talent upgrade we have next year, if we continue to lose to those terrible teams, we may have a major problem.

Why does everyone assume we'll be better next year? We'll be playing mostly freshmen.