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

Made the trip today and really enjoyed the game. Even got to grab a beer and BBQ at Moe's in Lakeview. The 1 pm start time gave me plenty of time to make the drive this morning. We'll be back for 2 of the remaining 3 Saturday games. Also keeping the conference tourney weekend open just in case.

first 3 CUSA games this year (4,091)
............................last year (2,740)
Bartow should be packed for this team.
Go Blazers!

8 turnovers for the game, 8 blocked shots, won the battle of the boards, hit a bunch of free throws.

(01-09-2016 05:33 PM)iam4uab Wrote:  

(01-09-2016 05:12 PM)BamaScorpio69 Wrote:  

(01-09-2016 05:03 PM)stc Wrote:  

(01-09-2016 05:01 PM)BeliefBlazer Wrote:  Winning is the best marketing. If that doesn't do it not much else will.

We've had better crowds during mike davis era with less talented teams.

Mike Davis had talented teams but his style coaching was boring. Mike also played against better competition. That said, I think the 1:00 start affected attendance. UAB also hasn't beaten anyone that would stir the city's interest. There are plenty of excuses to make for attendance.

If Saturday at 1pm is bad for attendance, then I can't think of a scenario that is good for attendance.

Maybe it's time to accept the fact that UAB Basketball isn't a draw in the city anymore and a 8500 seat arena is too big for the program needs. Or maybe UAB just need some significant high profile wins in the NCAA Tournament or early season tournaments. Which btw, UAB has blown two great opportunities the last two years to accomplish the latter.

alabama is a football state and you need to be very special to bring people to see bb
maybe next year after we start winning game at the beginning of the season

It seems I've heard that they might be changing the seating configuration by adding suites and, thus, reducing capacity by 1,000+. I could be wrong, though.

(01-09-2016 06:09 PM)mobileblazer Wrote:  It seems I've heard that they might be changing the seating configuration by adding suites and, thus, reducing capacity by 1,000+. I could be wrong, though.

I have heard this and I hope that this doesn't happen. UAB will bring back the crowds when our football gets back.

I feel like our basketball still draws. We have a quality program, but, lately, it just hasn't really made the same noise it used to in the past. Happens to everyone all the time.

But yeah, Birmingham is a college football city that is familiar with having particularly strong basketball. To get people to turn out, we have to be at or surpass that level of play. We're just not there yet, that's all.

Count me among those concerned Haase will take the first decent job offered out of frustration. He's built us back to a good program, is successfully recruiting at a high level in the state, and has an NCAA win. No excuse for the crowds we've been drawing. I'm sure our crowd size is used against us in recruiting all the time.

(01-09-2016 06:09 PM)UABFRENCHY Wrote:  alabama is a football state and you need to be very special to bring people to see bb
maybe next year after we start winning game at the beginning of the season

That theory would hold more water if not for the fact that teams with less tradition in smaller towns are doubling or tripling our attendance

(01-09-2016 06:17 PM)whisperdeer3 Wrote:  

(01-09-2016 06:09 PM)mobileblazer Wrote:  It seems I've heard that they might be changing the seating configuration by adding suites and, thus, reducing capacity by 1,000+. I could be wrong, though.

I have heard this and I hope that this doesn't happen. UAB will bring back the crowds when our football gets back.

What basis could you possibly have for that? Basketball attendance has sucked for many years, with or without a football team

Yes and our football sucked during that time. Back when our football was half-decent we had good crowds. With Birmingham being a football city people hear names through football. The common dumb fan thinks that if football is good then everything is good and if football is bad then everything is bad. When we get football back not only will this put us back in the local limelight but they will play off each other.

Numbers do not support your argument

Yeah I don't see attendance getting much better. Maybe a packed house like the ecu game when Davis was here to win the regular season. Haase needs another raise probably after this year

I thought it was a pretty good day myself. I had fun, watched my team win, and ate a roast-beef sandwich.

(01-09-2016 06:51 PM)LairDweller Wrote:  Numbers do not support your argument

Some of the newer fans have no idea of what the concept of a "good crowd" is.

From my perspective, we haven't had "good crowds" since Gene Bartow was coach.

(01-09-2016 02:26 PM)BandGrad Wrote:  

(01-09-2016 02:25 PM)blazers9911 Wrote:  

(01-09-2016 02:23 PM)BandGrad Wrote:  

(01-09-2016 02:22 PM)mixduptransistor Wrote:  

(01-09-2016 02:11 PM)KevMo4UAB Wrote:  Not many students here.

Classes don't start until Monday

That's a pitiful excuse.

Yes, they should leave their families a day early to go see a basketball game.

There are plenty of students that live in town.

And even more alumni. Geez, lay off the students.

Our attendance is what happens when a program regresses and UAB has regressed dramatically in the past 10 years. CUSA 1.0 to 2.0 to 3.0 in a decade is a huge slide downwards. The only thing to do now is to dominate the league and try to advance again. People in the state of Alabama are very fair weather and want to see basketball teams play good opponents, not the 336th SOS (to date) according to KenPom. They also want to see you beat name teams, not lose to Illinois, Virginia Tech, and Auburn. If our schedule is going to be this bad then we have to basically dominate it for years before the average person will notice it.

Personally, I'm really glad we're 13-3 at this point, but your average person living in Alabama doesn't care if you're beating UTSA, etc. We're predicted to go 2-2 against 51-100 RPI teams and 6-5 against 101-200 RPI teams. We likely won't have even played a top 50 team the entire year while those other 2 teams in the state will have played 7-9 top 50 teams a piece. Half our games are against teams over 200 in the RPI. Auburn plays 2. Alabama plays 5.

People in Alabama think Auburn is a name team.

The conference is what kills us. I was a student from 2000-04 when we played Louisville, Cincy, Memphis, Marquette, etc regularly. Those were good teams with good traditions. Only the dedicate fans want to go to see the crappy teams we have to play in conference these days.