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

The thread is about basketball, and you are now talking about football.

Drugs R bad........................M-Kay

(03-17-2014 09:13 AM)BlazerPhil Wrote:  

(03-17-2014 08:56 AM)BlazerGreen Wrote:  

(03-16-2014 08:35 PM)blazers9911 Wrote:  If we won 27 games this year I can guarantee you we would have made the tournament. This has to be one of the dumbest threads I've ever seen.

If the AAC invited us, we instantly would have accepted. If they do so I'm the future, we will instantly accept. Here's to hoping our coaches can help us develop solid programs in the next few years, because I doubt realignment is over.

+1 We have something USM and La Tech don't have in men's basketball and that is tradition. We have a history in the NCAA tournament and committee members remember that when bids are passed out. It's the opposite with football and we will have to overcome that when Coach Clark gets us bowl eligible again.

You mean tradition like having a guy on the NBA all-time team ?

No, I mean like NCAA tournament appearances and wins. LT last made the tournament in 1991 and last won a game there in 1989. USM has never won an NCAA game. Combined LT and USM have eight appearances, so slightly more than half of UAB's total.

I agree that our failure to move up has in effect become a move down.

It's quite disheartening to think that not too long ago UAB season tickets meant you would see games vs Cincinnatti, Louisville, Marquette, Memphis etc....

....and we used to actually WIN those games.

While we may not have been "invited" to move, was there any effort made to get an invite? Did we express a desire? Did we lobby? Did we advocate? DID WE TRY? Those are fair questions.

I've seen our basketball fortunes sink over the years, there is no denying it. Is football responsible? I don't know, but it's a fair question.

In terms of basketball, I'd much rather be in the A-10 right now.

CUSA is essentially invisible in March. It gets more boring every year.

Do you seriously think that our AD did not know that conference realignment was happening, and that he said to himself "Those guys are all trying to go to a bigger league with better TV that pays more money. Screw that, I'll just keep us here in C-USA where we can be the big fish in a small pond. It's just not worth the work and effort."?

I mean, seriously?

Good god.

A-10 would be great for basketball, but we have a football team. It's a package deal.

Shaking my head. Geezus, the entire college athletic business is stood on its ear for months over realignment, and you want to know if UAB "expressed a desire" to move up with everybody else in our freakin' league?

(03-17-2014 11:28 AM)DragonClaw Wrote:  I agree that our failure to move up has in effect become a move down.

It's quite disheartening to think that not too long ago UAB season tickets meant you would see games vs Cincinnatti, Louisville, Marquette, Memphis etc....

....and we used to actually WIN those games.

While we may not have been "invited" to move, was there any effort made to get an invite? Did we express a desire? Did we lobby? Did we advocate? DID WE TRY? Those are fair questions.

I've seen our basketball fortunes sink over the years, there is no denying it. Is football responsible? I don't know, but it's a fair question.

In terms of basketball, I'd much rather be in the A-10 right now.

CUSA is essentially invisible in March. It gets more boring every year.

Maybe your memory is better than my record books, but we only occasionally beat those teams. More times than not, it was a loss.

And go find a team in the A-10 if your bored.

(03-17-2014 11:43 AM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  

(03-17-2014 11:28 AM)DragonClaw Wrote:  I agree that our failure to move up has in effect become a move down.

It's quite disheartening to think that not too long ago UAB season tickets meant you would see games vs Cincinnatti, Louisville, Marquette, Memphis etc....

....and we used to actually WIN those games.

While we may not have been "invited" to move, was there any effort made to get an invite? Did we express a desire? Did we lobby? Did we advocate? DID WE TRY? Those are fair questions.

I've seen our basketball fortunes sink over the years, there is no denying it. Is football responsible? I don't know, but it's a fair question.

In terms of basketball, I'd much rather be in the A-10 right now.

CUSA is essentially invisible in March. It gets more boring every year.

Maybe your memory is better than my record books, but we only occasionally beat those teams. More times than not, it was a loss.

And go find a team in the A-10 if your bored.

It's not like the A-10 has some big name teams that would sell out Bartow. VCU didn't when they came here OOC.

(03-17-2014 11:38 AM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  Do you seriously think that our AD did not know that conference realignment was happening, and that he said to himself "Those guys are all trying to go to a bigger league with better TV that pays more money. Screw that, I'll just keep us here in C-USA where we can be the big fish in a small pond. It's just not worth the work and effort."?

I mean, seriously?

Good god.

A-10 would be great for basketball, but we have a football team. It's a package deal.

Shaking my head. Geezus, the entire college athletic business is stood on its ear for months over realignment, and you want to know if UAB "expressed a desire" to move up with everybody else in our freakin' league?

Me too. This whole damn argument is beyond ridiculous. I'm sure we just said, hey, we'll sit here, and if C-USA folds, we'll just see if we can get in the Sun Belt. Had we gotten the stadium, I find it hard to believe Tulane would have received an invite over us. What's done is done though, and you have to think eventually some of the AAC schools will move elsewhere. I doubt realignment is over, and maybe we can eventually make a move back with some of these teams. For now though, we need to do everything we can to become the best all around program in the conference.

(03-17-2014 08:51 AM)blazers9911 Wrote:  I think much like the AAC, we are going to eventually have a giant gap in our teams. ...

I think for the most part the top 8 will all be top 125 programs most years, and the bottom teams will be 200+. The gap won't be quite like it is in the AAC, but I think it will be similar as we'll have two tiers.

The most important thing for this conference moving forward is scheduling well OOC. The top 8 teams need to have top 100 schedules OOC.

(03-17-2014 11:28 AM)DragonClaw Wrote:  I agree that our failure to move up has in effect become a move down.
...
While we may not have been "invited" to move, was there any effort made to get an invite? Did we express a desire? Did we lobby? Did we advocate? DID WE TRY? Those are fair questions.

I've seen our basketball fortunes sink over the years, there is no denying it. Is football responsible? I don't know, but it's a fair question.

Coach Bartow's goals on starting football was to get basketball in a better league and make money on the "cash cow" of football. IMHO it has backfired on both goals,

But now we can only control certain things for the future. In basketball play only a couple of OOC cupcakes since we will play plenty cupcakes in CUSA games. This will mean 2 for 1s with big guys and home and home with mid-majors.

In football try something different and novel WIN!!! and see if we can as all of us expect then draw a crowd.

(03-17-2014 08:51 AM)blazers9911 Wrote:  

(03-17-2014 08:14 AM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote:  I don't think it will stink for a long time. I think it will continue to get better. I like losing Tulane and replacing them with WKU = UPGRADE. I like losing ECU in basketball. Screw them, I think Charlotte was a better replacement.

I also agree we need to step it up and win some games before we talk ****

I think much like the AAC, we are going to eventually have a giant gap in our teams. Our better programs will be:

USM
LA Tech
MTSU
UAB
Charlotte
ODU
UTEP
WKU

Our terrible programs for the forseeable future will be
FAU
FIU
Rice
UTSA
UNT

Marshall is a question mark depending on the hire. They have gotten a lot of talent to come there, but getting guys to stay there and act like normal citizens has been an issue.

I think for the most part the top 8 will all be top 125 programs most years, and the bottom teams will be 200+. The gap won't be quite like it is in the AAC, but I think it will be similar as we'll have two tiers.

The most important thing for this conference moving forward is scheduling well OOC. The top 8 teams need to have top 100 schedules OOC.

Keep in mind that ALL conferences have that same kind of division within them in a particular period of time. Since all programs are desirous of becoming good programs, the difference is between those who have the financial resources to get better by improved facilities and the hire of better coaches and those who fail on one or the others. Of those on your "terrible programs" list, a guess now is that FAU, UTSA, and UNT will be among those making the greatest improvement over the rest of this decade. I hope UAB is able to afford the resources to keep pace. It is certainly not going to get any less expensive to do so.

Again, this thread had basketball in the title, I'm talking strictly about basketball.

(03-17-2014 11:38 AM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  Do you seriously think that our AD did not know that conference realignment was happening, and that he said to himself "Those guys are all trying to go to a bigger league with better TV that pays more money. Screw that, I'll just keep us here in C-USA where we can be the big fish in a small pond. It's just not worth the work and effort."?

I mean, seriously?

Good god.

A-10 would be great for basketball, but we have a football team. It's a package deal.

Shaking my head. Geezus, the entire college athletic business is stood on its ear for months over realignment, and you want to know if UAB "expressed a desire" to move up with everybody else in our freakin' league?

We didn't (at least I didn't) ever hear about UAB in the discusssion, or UAB's preferences, efforts etc. From a general public standpoint, all appearances were that we were simply sitting on our hands. If UAB was leveraging what we could, it would have reassuring to hear at least a little something about it. I don't think we would have been left with egg on our face too bad if we'd seen a headline or two "UAB Examines Its Options and Advocates for Inclusion" or something like that.
As it stands now, yes it does appear we were just riding the whirlwind and not trying to steer our alignment in the way most advantageous for us.

We're big enough, we're good enough, and by golly we should have at least been mentioned.

...unless the "captain our own ship" thing was the determinant.

Is this a basketball thread? RLMAO

People on this board, better than most, know to what degree we are not allowed to "captain our own ship".

When it is football dollars that drive the bus, and our football is as bad as it has been, and there is little to no movement to upgrade facilities and push for better things, you get left behind. We have gotten a few things improved, but as things stood when the realignment went down, we were dead in the water so far as a stadium and any large meaningful upgrades were concerned. So we were left behind... and our Board of Trustees was not bothered by this in the least.

So we're the left-behind in a watered down C-USA, and I can't really blame the AAC schools for not taking us along when they moved on up.

Some of the people on this board are the stupidest people I interact with on a daily basis.

And that is saying a lot.

(03-17-2014 01:23 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  Some of the people on this board are the stupidest people I interact with on a daily basis.

And that is saying a lot.

Wow, as if you couldn't get any edgier. Impressive.

(03-17-2014 01:23 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  Some of the people on this board are the stupidest people I interact with on a daily basis.

And that is saying a lot.

You work at wal mart?

No wonder rebounder really hated you. Your salary is as low as CUSAs stock in basketball

(03-17-2014 01:23 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  Some of the people on this board are the stupidest people I interact with on a daily basis.

And that is saying a lot.

Nice. You are certainly a winner. Congratulations on your prideful superiority. Why can't we all be as great as you? The world would be such a better place if we could all just act more like MB. Oh well, we'll have to try and cope somehow.

I never said I was superior. As a matter of fact, sometimes I consider myself just as stupid for continuing the interaction.

I try to educate, though...

(03-17-2014 12:51 PM)DragonClaw Wrote:  

(03-17-2014 11:38 AM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  Do you seriously think that our AD did not know that conference realignment was happening, and that he said to himself "Those guys are all trying to go to a bigger league with better TV that pays more money. Screw that, I'll just keep us here in C-USA where we can be the big fish in a small pond. It's just not worth the work and effort."?

I mean, seriously?

Good god.

A-10 would be great for basketball, but we have a football team. It's a package deal.

Shaking my head. Geezus, the entire college athletic business is stood on its ear for months over realignment, and you want to know if UAB "expressed a desire" to move up with everybody else in our freakin' league?

We didn't (at least I didn't) ever hear about UAB in the discusssion, or UAB's preferences, efforts etc. From a general public standpoint, all appearances were that we were simply sitting on our hands. If UAB was leveraging what we could, it would have reassuring to hear at least a little something about it. I don't think we would have been left with egg on our face too bad if we'd seen a headline or two "UAB Examines Its Options and Advocates for Inclusion" or something like that.
As it stands now, yes it does appear we were just riding the whirlwind and not trying to steer our alignment in the way most advantageous for us.

We're big enough, we're good enough, and by golly we should have at least been mentioned.

...unless the "captain our own ship" thing was the determinant.

So you think its best to strive for public humiliation. When you know that the answer is no in advance making a public statement about trying to leave is stupid.