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

We go on the road tomorrow night against an opponent very familiar to our program. This will be the 3rd time we've played Illinois State during Coach Haase's tenure. We are 0-2 against the Red Birds during his time.

Our first loss was in Haase's first year at the South Padre Island Tournament. We dropped that match 77-65. We went on to lose the next day to TCU and continued to poop the bed many more times that season.

Last season, the Red Birds came to Bartow Arena and escaped with a 78-74 win. The Redbirds return 3/5 of their starters from that team. However, it wasn't a starter from that team that led them in scoring in our game. MiKyle McIntosh came off the bench and scored 18 points. Most recently, McIntosh (who is a starter this season) scored 14 points at Kentucky.

In my opinion, their best offensive player is DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell. He's averaging 16.6 PPG with his season high of 22 coming against Kentucky. Akoon-Purcell is a 6'5 F who has accumulated 133 points this year (only 9 points coming from 3's). Compare that to Cokley's 101 and you can see he is a volume scorer. He's averaging 27 minutes per game compared to Cokley's 24.

Illinois State does not bring a lot size. In fact, they only have one player listed over 6'8 and he is averaging 5 minutes per game. They average 34 RPG versus our 38.

If we can get easy buckets in the paint and hit some timely 3's, we should win this game. Norton/Watts/Brown must take care of the ball. Illinois State likes to press and plays a very physical guard oriented man defense.

I'm not going to say this is a must win because barring a 1-2 loss run in conference, I think our at large chances are a pipe dream. However, this would be a solid top 150 RPI win that could give us some confidence going in to an easier home game stretch.

The game can be viewed on ESPN 3. GO BLAZERS!

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Just got word that Iron City will be streaming the game in the grill!! They are showing the SEC Champ game at 3 then will stream our game immediately after at 7. If you get the chance, thank them on Twitter and or Facebook. They are the best!

http://goredbirds.com/news/2015/12/3/MBB...52919.aspx

Illinois State is a pretty good team, in spite of their record. I think this is an important game because it is probably our final opportunity this season to get a road win against a quality OOC opponent. This is something we've yet to accomplish since Haase arrived in 2012. Looking at it the only decent road or neutral site early season OOC win we've had since Haase's arrival was our win over Nebraska in the Charleston Classic during the 13-14 season. Illinois State has also beaten us twice in the last three years. It'd be nice to change both of those trends. According to the game preview on their site, Illinois State is 19-5 all time against current CUSA members, which I found to be somewhat surprising since they're basically middle of the pack in the MVC.

UAB a 3 point dog.

I watched them play Kentucky a darn good ball game the other night. This game could be a double digit loss if we're not careful.

(12-04-2015 05:36 PM)BlazerGold09 Wrote:  UAB a 3 point dog.

that # will go up

(12-04-2015 06:27 PM)UABFRENCHY Wrote:  

(12-04-2015 05:36 PM)BlazerGold09 Wrote:  UAB a 3 point dog.

that # will go up

Disagree. Think it'll go to 2.

People would be crazy to bet on us based on how we've played on the road, how we've played in the OOC in general, and the quality of the opponent. That being said, I pray we change those trends!!

(12-04-2015 08:23 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  People would be crazy to bet on us based on how we've played on the road, how we've played in the OOC in general, and the quality of the opponent. That being said, I pray we change those trends!!

We are 1-1 on the road with a differential of 1 point. They don't look at last season. Destin was a neutral court.

Pomeroy has it 70-67 Illinois State.

Regarding their game at Kentucky, it was tied 31 all at halftime. IL St. lost the game during the first 8 minutes of the second half as KY went off to a 16-pt lead. Final score was 75-63.

Free throw discrepancy: IL St. 8-10; KY 29-46.

IL St. had two players foul out, and five players with 4 fouls.

Hope to see some of y'all at Iron City tonight!

drove past the arena and thought "man, they get into their bball tailgating." turns out, theres a nice football tailgate going on

(12-04-2015 09:08 PM)KevMo4UAB Wrote:  Pomeroy has it 70-67 Illinois State.

Regarding their game at Kentucky, it was tied 31 all at halftime. IL St. lost the game during the first 8 minutes of the second half as KY went off to a 16-pt lead. Final score was 75-63.

Free throw discrepancy: IL St. 8-10; KY 29-46.

IL St. had two players foul out, and five players with 4 fouls.

Kentucky was missing their pg too. I'm not saying it made a difference, but it's something to consider

Game time!

Sound issues with the ESPN3 feed

watching the game on espn 3
dont forget the time is east coast on the menu

are u gonna win a game away from home against a decent opponent

So far they taking it to us.

lee is sleep walking

they seem like us ,,,not too good of an shooting team ,,,,

i was wrong about it