Alcorn State @ UAB, Sunday 22 December 2024 at 2 PM
The Braves are 0-12 on the season with a 350 KenPom ranking. Their OOC schedule is ranked 9th. They have played all 12 games on the road. They aren’t sure where home is located (Lorman, Mississippi). Alcorn State has been blown out by Utah, Utah State, Tulane, TCU, Maryland, and Wichita State. I arbitrarily used 20 points or more as a blowout. In the other six games, they lost to Xavier by 6, Washington by 17, UC Riverside by 17, South Alabama by 9 in OT, Oklahoma by 16, and Rice by 2. The Rice game was this past Monday, where Alcorn State actually led by 5 points with 3 minutes left. Rice won the last 3 minutes 9-2.
KenPom projects them to be better than Alabama A&M, with Alcorn going 9-9 in the SWAC and Alabama State 6-12.
Last season on November 16th, UAB trailed Alcorn State 42-41 at halftime. We still trailed 74-72 with 3 minutes left. The Braves hit a 3 to tie the game with 40 seconds to go. Butta hit the winner from the corner, but the Braves still had several more opportunities.
KenPom has it UAB 85 - Alcorn State 68
Barttorvik has it UAB 87 - Alcorn State 67
Massey has it UAB 84 - Alcorn State 65
Little #2, Keionte Cornelius, was 6-10 from three this afternoon. He is 35-87 from three on the season (40.2%). Earlier in the season, at South Alabama, he went 8-21.
Positives:
It was good to see Tony convert 3 threes on 8 attempts, which tied a career best (3). He had never attempted more than 5 threes before today. His 3-pt percentage of 34% (12-35) is a nice improvement over his 29% last season and 28% before that. A couple threes per game from Toney are desperately needed.
After a below average game against Arkansas State, Coleman has strung two nice games together. Over the past two games, he had 40 points, 8-10 from the foul line, 15 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 block, and 4 assists. He had zero fouls today and only 1 last Wednesday. He has been on a rollercoaster, and foul trouble has been the common denominator in his bad games.
Yax had another double-double, and also had 6 assists. He is very capable of a triple-double, but time is running out.
Bradley Ezewiro was perfect shooting today, 5-5 from the field and 9-9 from the charity stripe. His free throws look like Yaxel’s from last season - perfection. Two years ago at Georgetown, he was only 59% from the foul line. He improved to 71% last season at Saint Louis. He is currently at 77% (41-53). He and Yax are tied for most free throws made with 41.
Vasquez also contributed 3 threes today.
Butta is an outstanding free throw shooter, and always seems to be above 80%. He currently sits at 88%.
Butta, Toney, and Moore have only missed 6 free throws combined so far!
Negatives:
Yax was an outstanding free-throw shooter last season at 80%. He has slipped to 66% this season.
Vasquez is only at 25% from three this season (13-53). He was 39% last season (41-104).
Butta was only 1-5 from three today. His percentage is only 30% on the season, compared to 36% the previous two seasons.
McGhee only has 5 threes all season.
Moore had 22 points against Arkansas State but only a combined 5 points in the following two games.
I'm not posting to pile on. I'm posting because I believe in the power and beauty we saw late last season. For conference play, we need the deadeye Butta Johnson that broke hearts and made opponents cry last season. For conference play, we need the bulldog AJ who cut, flexed and slammed last season. For conference play, we need the Yax that outclassed everyone in the paint — elusive but nasty tough — seen last season.
I expected — and still expect — so much from this team. Let's build, build, build until we are an unstoppable, blood-thirsty killdozer when the Memphis Tigers make the mistake of once again returning to Bartow Arena. Give us a reason to once again throw the golden gallons and hold Memphis fans hostage in the bowels of Birmingham's rowdiest basketball venue!
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Alcorn State Braves
Alcorn State Braves 
