Does anyone here see any positives out of the game Tuesday night against Southern Miss? Look at what UAB did! They over came a 12 point deficit by shooting 62% from the floor after shooting horribly in the first half. They only attempted a meager 6 three-pointers in the first half, making only one (a prayer shot by Channing Toney). Southern Miss did an excellent job of guarding Darth Vaden, not allowing him to get into rhythm. Their first half performance was pitiful. Ed Berrios threw the ball to Southern Miss 2 times in a row early on, both of which resulted in baskets by Southern Miss. They couldn't get Vaden the ball. Everytime UAB made a big shot, Southern Miss answered with a bigger one.
The second half was a different story with Darth Vaden opening up the half with a three-pointer. He ignited something under that team, and with his sheer determination carried UAB to a 1 point lead with 2 minutes left in regulation. Now I ask you.....has UAB done that this year??? Absolutely not, not a deficit that massive.
Now I'm not so blind to realize that UAB has some issues, but I think we should all look at the game the other night in more of a positive light.
We need another proven scorer. Vaden shooting the ball a third of the time can only go so far, especially when he isn't shooting particularly well. It was obvious what the gameplan was: get the ball to Vaden. Southern Miss new the whole time. You shut down Vaden and you shut down UAB. I don't know if that is attributed to coaching or what, but it's not going to work against a team like Memphis. Vaden was 2 of 12 from the arc! He shot 8 more three-pointers than the next closest player on the team. We need some depth! However, they persevered, which isn't something I've seen out of this Mike Davis team.
I will refer you to the Kentucky game... same scenario in a much more hostile environment and against better talent.
The past few games we have had Kinnard and Toney as alternate scoring threats. At the end it was only Vaden because Toney and Kinnard fouled out.
dragondrummer Wrote:The past few games we have had Kinnard and Toney as alternate scoring threats. At the end it was only Vaden because Toney and Kinnard fouled out.
beginning the USM game with the proper mindset (motivation) would have eliminated THAT necessity.
imo, the outcome was dictated more by what we DIDN'T do than what USM did [do].
we have some players who have not developed as far as [imo] they should have [developed] at this point in the season.
We need better ball movement. Many times Lo draws 2 down low or Vaden draws 2 up high. Davis has seen this and allows Vaden to bring the ball up sometimes which throws the D off a bit. With a double team its time to move the ball a step ahead of their D trying to catch up to it and find the open guy. Our bigs have scored their fair share lately but were forgotten in OT. Berrios can hit some shots. Our opponents are shutting certain scenarios of our offense down because they are watching tapes that show Vaden needs to be pulled on when he makes a break and Jr receives no respect on the floor and allows for 5 defenders vs 4 offenders.
Finally, an intelligent post with a legitimate discussion of ways to improve rather than "Jr. sucks" or "Davis needs to earn his money."
ef is right, good post, and Davis and the staff adjusted to it. UAB's offense got stagnant in the first half, in part because they were not answering the physical challenge posed by USM. The moved the ball much better in the second half, the bigs held their ground and moved with better urgency AND ACTUALLY SET THE PICK INSTEAD OF COWERING and they did a better job of running Vaden off double screens and in getting Kinnard the ball on the height mismatch off the switch.
But I guess its sooooo much easier to for some folks to rip away without having a clue what they are watching. Or it couldn't possibly be, you know, that the other team also came up with a good plan because its highly paid coach, you know, actually "earned his money" and drew up a couple of good inbounds plays and got his team to play physical (which UAB adjusted to but that's poor coaching I guess). Naaaah, couldn't be that. Because I forgot, must've missed it, but somewhere in there UAB became the new Duke and is never supposed to lose. And, eeeeewww, is never supposed to lose to Southern Miss (um, for the ELEVENTH time).
efhutton Wrote:We need better ball movement. Many times Lo draws 2 down low or Vaden draws 2 up high. Davis has seen this and allows Vaden to bring the ball up sometimes which throws the D off a bit. With a double team its time to move the ball a step ahead of their D trying to catch up to it and find the open guy. Our bigs have scored their fair share lately but were forgotten in OT. Berrios can hit some shots. Our opponents are shutting certain scenarios of our offense down because they are watching tapes that show Vaden needs to be pulled on when he makes a break and Jr receives no respect on the floor and allows for 5 defenders vs 4 offenders.
Good post ef.
Good response by the mouse as well.
I would like to see JR attack the basket more, while he can't throw it in the ocean outside, he is a descent shooter within 12 feet and has made some very nice assists this season.
BTW JR had two HUGE rebounds that if he does not get we never make it to OT.
I like the adjustments to Kinnard, more attacking and less threes. We seem to be running more plays for him to get him open looks closer to the basket.
Tony is getting better every day.
Toney looked very good. When Vaden was out for breathers and JR was in, Toney would draw 2 and 3 defenders on him and several times, he hit JR standing completely unguarded. And several times, JR didn't take the shot. In that instance, JR needs to drive in and shoot or drive in, draw the D, and pass back out for the open shot.
We are a very potent offensive team. I think the coach needs to find a way to get 2 of the 3 in the game at any one time until crunch time.
And put them at the #2 & #3 spots. So we have 2 bigs setting picks and rebounding. I think this last game really showed how much we miss Huffman since he has been hurt.
Vaden & Toney
Vaden & Lo
Lo & Toney
Crunch Time - All 3
This would keep all 3 of them more rested. And all of us a lot less worried when they can't move with 1 minute to go.
I also want to know if anything could have been done to foul out Jeremy Wise, the Southern Miss guard. He had 4 fouls with 8 minutes left in regulation, and ended up playing until the end of the game (18 minutes including 2 overtimes). His poise was amazing. I believe Mike Davis should have, if he didn't, try to get him to foul in some way. Beasley had fouled out with 4 minutes left. We would have certainly won if they didn't have their 2 best players right?
Don't you guys miss the exciting fast breaks way back when with Anderson's squad? UAB was slowly developing a national reputation with their style of play, and now it seems like they don't even know what a fast break is or how to successfully complete one. I know Johnson and Berrios can't compare to Squeaky Johnson, but it's not a pretty thing when either of them run a fastbreak. I really miss Paul Delaney.
They should have gone harder at wise, but there's one problem with that. the people who would ahve been going at them had foul trouble too, and an offensive foul trying to get wise out of the game would have sent one of uab's best players out, too.
You win basketball games with defense and you have to motivate kids to play defense.
Sounds as if we weren't motivated from the start to play D.
Yep, your right the Lord is good!
They did try to go at Wise to foul him out but as brother Mouse stated the ones that were attempting it were in foul trouble. I will also add that Wise should have been out of the game in regulation but was bailed out by the chubby official. This sent Davis in a rage during a commercial that most of you did not see.
AS far as style of play if we win I could care less. With PDIII they were going to "fast break" & "trap" more. Now we have a freshman and JUCO at point. Everyone seems to forget that and expect Senior play from two first year players. With the loss of Paul, Davis was forced to rush AJ & Ed along instead of bringing them along slowly.
Really some of the complainers (not naming names) need to go watch summer ball and in season practice. It would enlighten some of you.