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

At this point I'm scared to ask for a better non-con schedule.

Worst case scenario it makes you more battle tested. Best case, you actually win some of those games and compete for at larges.

Vermont 59 - Iona 62

The Catamounts are now 1-3.

Vermont drops to 128 in KenPom, while Iona improves to 216.

Vermont - the gift that just keeps giving.


FAU 77 - Liberty 74
ECU 78 - George Mason 77 2OT
Missouri State 111 - Tulsa 106 3OT
Rice 77 - Northwestern State 75 OT
Little Rock 81 - UTSA 64

If we cannot get a better schedule, I would have rather opened with DII, then a SWAC team, and then USM before playing a road game like HPU and D1 team within pulse if we are always coming out of the gate slow. Just back load the ooc with harder games but I realize dates, availability, etc.

It is what it is. Beat AUM but 40

Through Sunday 17 November 2024

Team	KenPom	BartTorvik	Massey	Massey Composite
Memphis	38	34	21	37
N. TX	68	72	49	73
FAU	80	94	76	69
Wichita St.	85	84	71	90
UAB	102	92	138	100
Temple	119	125	111	121
USF	123	114	131	113
Charlotte	135	130	112	114
ECU	138	132	119	141
Tulsa	154	137	150	165
Tulane	160	148	125	143
Rice	227	202	161	200
UTSA	271	240	283	272

McNeese 68 - North Texas 61, big win for McNeese

Wichita State 70 - Monmouth 66


High Point 80 - American University 73

New Point shaving article from incident last year mentions UAB again. The player in question transferred to Virginia Tech but was booted on 10-23 without playing.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basket...ons-temple

Fairfield 67 - Vermont 66

Fairfield is now ranked 293rd, while Vermont drops to 158th and a record of 3-4. Hmm.

the hits keep coming

Our team sucks right now and was completely unprepared by the coaching staff to start the season. No way in hell we should’ve lost to that Vermont team at home.

None of this matters in the slightest anymore. I wish we were at a point where we could worry about the Vermont loss. I’m trying to figure out if there is any way this team can escape without double digit losses now.

(11-24-2024 09:11 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  Our team sucks right now and was completely unprepared by the coaching staff to start the season. No way in hell we should’ve lost to that Vermont team at home.

I agree with you. We have lost three games we were favored to win - Vermont, Longwood, and Illinois State. I was hoping for a perfect record or 6-1 at this point. We were underdogs at High Point.

Something is missing or not clicking right now. AK has been around too long to let this happen. He has never started a season at 3-4, although last season was very close at 4-5. These are his two worst starts to a season ever!

(11-24-2024 09:50 PM)KevMo4UAB Wrote:  

(11-24-2024 09:11 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  Our team sucks right now and was completely unprepared by the coaching staff to start the season. No way in hell we should’ve lost to that Vermont team at home.

I agree with you. We have lost three games we were favored to win - Vermont, Longwood, and Illinois State. I was hoping for a perfect record or 6-1 at this point. We were underdogs at High Point.

Something is missing or not clicking right now. AK has been around too long to let this happen. He has never started a season at 3-4, although last season was very close at 4-5. These are his two worst starts to a season ever!

I think there is something off with the psyche of the core group of these two teams. They are way too lackadaiscal, nice, take opponents for granted, and think they can play half a game well and beat people. AK teams have always lost WTF games out of nowhere, but this core group does it on steroids. I've seen it for close to 40 games now. It's a clearly recurring trend. Groundhog day style.

They lost a TON of WTF games last year, all season long. They got an incredibly easy draw in the conference tournament, coulda/woulda/shoulda beat SDSU in the big dance, and then they all got way too high sniffing their own farts over the offseason.

Yax seems more interested in his instagram reels and how many people repost and tag him in his highlights. He hasn't been a real leader.

All this talk about running it back, and getting back to the big dance, and how happy everyone is to be here. It's nothing but words unless they actually put the work in. The coaching staff, nor the players, have done that.

Poorly constructed, poorly coached, poorly led team right now.

Everyone here and everywhere else loves to praise AK, but they don't hold him accountable when his teams SUCK halfway through each season. We've never sniffed an at large big or a conference regular season championship under his coaching. We've won two conference championships where we got pretty easy draws and didn't have to play the best teams in the conference those years. Why do we have to be in the position of needing miraculous turnarounds every year?

Both of the Jelly teams, and certainly this years teams should've been top 25, conference champs, getting at large bids..

In many ways we have underperformed with AK, and no one wants to talk about it.

Rambling, yes, but I'm pissed off...

(11-24-2024 09:39 PM)blazers9911 Wrote:  None of this matters in the slightest anymore. I wish we were at a point where we could worry about the Vermont loss. I’m trying to figure out if there is any way this team can escape without double digit losses now.

Latest projections for UAB:

KenPom 17-14
Barttorvik 18-13
Massey 19-12


Latest rankings for UAB:

KenPom 125
Barttorvik 107
Massey 177

(11-24-2024 10:02 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  

(11-24-2024 09:50 PM)KevMo4UAB Wrote:  

(11-24-2024 09:11 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  Our team sucks right now and was completely unprepared by the coaching staff to start the season. No way in hell we should’ve lost to that Vermont team at home.

I agree with you. We have lost three games we were favored to win - Vermont, Longwood, and Illinois State. I was hoping for a perfect record or 6-1 at this point. We were underdogs at High Point.

Something is missing or not clicking right now. AK has been around too long to let this happen. He has never started a season at 3-4, although last season was very close at 4-5. These are his two worst starts to a season ever!

I think there is something off with the psyche of the core group of these two teams. They are way too lackadaiscal, nice, take opponents for granted, and think they can play half a game well and beat people. AK teams have always lost WTF games out of nowhere, but this core group does it on steroids. I've seen it for close to 40 games now. It's a clearly recurring trend. Groundhog day style.

They lost a TON of WTF games last year, all season long. They got an incredibly easy draw in the conference tournament, coulda/woulda/shoulda beat SDSU in the big dance, and then they all got way too high sniffing their own farts over the offseason.

Yax seems more interested in his instagram reels and how many people repost and tag him in his highlights. He hasn't been a real leader.

All this talk about running it back, and getting back to the big dance, and how happy everyone is to be here. It's nothing but words unless they actually put the work in. The coaching staff, nor the players, have done that.

Poorly constructed, poorly coached, poorly led team right now.

Everyone here and everywhere else loves to praise AK, but they don't hold him accountable when his teams SUCK halfway through each season. We've never sniffed an at large big or a conference regular season championship under his coaching. We've won two conference championships where we got pretty easy draws and didn't have to play the best teams in the conference those years. Why do we have to be in the position of needing miraculous turnarounds every year?

Both of the Jelly teams, and certainly this years teams should've been top 25, conference champs, getting at large bids..

In many ways we have underperformed with AK, and no one wants to talk about it.

The Conference USA tourney we beat a division winner and one of the top 3 teams in the championship. That was definitely not an easier path like we had last year (we shouldn't apologize for that though, can only play who advances).

You are right though, there is something off with this core. While the Jelly teams didn't contend for an at-large, they didn't really have bad losses, they just couldn't capitalize on their good opportunities. I think this core we currently have would get that fixed after last season, since so many were being introduced to the D1 game and/or getting major mins for the first time, but after scuffling to start this season, this just appears to be in their DNA. Not sure if it's an effort thing, or not practicing well enough, or something else. There's no doubt great talent on this team, but there is just something not clicking. That starts with AK, he needs to know how to get these men to where when they take the court, they're giving it their best. He hasn't done that this year.

AK’s teams (Cincy, Ole Miss, and UAB) have always done relatively well in OOC games except for this season, last season, and his last year at Ole Miss. However, UAB did recover to 8-5 last season before conference play started up. His last year at Ole Miss they went 7-6 in OOC games. That team lost 13 of their last 15 games to end the season.

The only thing that makes me think this team won’t completely implode is that AK has pulled the rabbit out of the hat so many times before.

But again; that begs the question: why do we have to be in the position to pull the rabbit out of the hat every year? Why is the team never ready to go?

(11-24-2024 10:11 PM)Frank Grimes Wrote:  

(11-24-2024 10:02 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  

(11-24-2024 09:50 PM)KevMo4UAB Wrote:  

(11-24-2024 09:11 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  Our team sucks right now and was completely unprepared by the coaching staff to start the season. No way in hell we should’ve lost to that Vermont team at home.

I agree with you. We have lost three games we were favored to win - Vermont, Longwood, and Illinois State. I was hoping for a perfect record or 6-1 at this point. We were underdogs at High Point.

Something is missing or not clicking right now. AK has been around too long to let this happen. He has never started a season at 3-4, although last season was very close at 4-5. These are his two worst starts to a season ever!

I think there is something off with the psyche of the core group of these two teams. They are way too lackadaiscal, nice, take opponents for granted, and think they can play half a game well and beat people. AK teams have always lost WTF games out of nowhere, but this core group does it on steroids. I've seen it for close to 40 games now. It's a clearly recurring trend. Groundhog day style.

They lost a TON of WTF games last year, all season long. They got an incredibly easy draw in the conference tournament, coulda/woulda/shoulda beat SDSU in the big dance, and then they all got way too high sniffing their own farts over the offseason.

Yax seems more interested in his instagram reels and how many people repost and tag him in his highlights. He hasn't been a real leader.

All this talk about running it back, and getting back to the big dance, and how happy everyone is to be here. It's nothing but words unless they actually put the work in. The coaching staff, nor the players, have done that.

Poorly constructed, poorly coached, poorly led team right now.

Everyone here and everywhere else loves to praise AK, but they don't hold him accountable when his teams SUCK halfway through each season. We've never sniffed an at large big or a conference regular season championship under his coaching. We've won two conference championships where we got pretty easy draws and didn't have to play the best teams in the conference those years. Why do we have to be in the position of needing miraculous turnarounds every year?

Both of the Jelly teams, and certainly this years teams should've been top 25, conference champs, getting at large bids..

In many ways we have underperformed with AK, and no one wants to talk about it.

The Conference USA tourney we beat a division winner and one of the top 3 teams in the championship. That was definitely not an easier path like we had last year (we shouldn't apologize for that though, can only play who advances).

You are right though, there is something off with this core. While the Jelly teams didn't contend for an at-large, they didn't really have bad losses, they just couldn't capitalize on their good opportunities. I think this core we currently have would get that fixed after last season, since so many were being introduced to the D1 game and/or getting major mins for the first time, but after scuffling to start this season, this just appears to be in their DNA. Not sure if it's an effort thing, or not practicing well enough, or something else. There's no doubt great talent on this team, but there is just something not clicking. That starts with AK, he needs to know how to get these men to where when they take the court, they're giving it their best. He hasn't done that this year.

Yep. It sucks. Don’t know where they go from here, but they don’t seem to have the mindset or drive to really win anything big, like I thought this group could. And that’s a shame.

And AK’s coaching style just feeds into the vicious cycle of the mindset of this group. He is very much a “figure it out” while I pout dourly on the sideline type of coach.

Woof. I really did not think this group had this in their range of outcomes. Outright sucking ass without major injuries… didn’t see this coming. Gut punch.

Classic example of UAB shooting itself in the foot and never living up to any kind of hype - ever.

The BOT didn’t do this. Ray Watts didn’t do this. Mark Ingram didn’t do this. Trent Dilfer didn’t do this. We suck ass and it’s 100%, entirely all our own fault.

Also, this shouldn’t get swept under the rug…

The fact an important rotation player couldn’t make it to a tournament in a place where all you have to show is a drivers license and birth certificate, and don’t even need a passport, is a major failure of leadership and oversight … again, falls on AK.

Gordon is a monster rebounder and a good defender. We got killed in both of those areas against Ill St. in a game with a razor, thin margin, one could argue that we would have won that game if he was available.