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Troy comes into tonight's basketball game with a 1-2 record. They only lost by 5 points at Texas Tech (3-0), and by 10 points at East Tennessee State (2-1). Troy's lone win was by 53 points over La Grange.

Pomeroy projects Troy winning only 10 games this season, and going 7-9 in the Sun Belt.

Pomeroy gives UAB a 91% probability of winning this home game.

At this point, Pomeroy has UAB finishing at 15-14, and 9-7 in C-USA.

By the way, Creighton is now ranked 55 and Murray State 84 by Pomeroy. He has UAB at 102 and Troy at 275.

(11-22-2011 03:38 PM)Pence Wrote:  Troy comes into tonight's basketball game with a 1-2 record. They only lost by 5 points at Texas Tech (3-0), and by 10 points at East Tennessee State (2-1). Troy's lone win was by 53 points over La Grange.

Pomeroy projects Troy as winning only 10 games this season, and going 7-9 in the Sun Belt.

Pomeroy gives UAB a 91% probability of winning this home game.

At this point, Pomeroy has UAB finishing at 15-14, and 9-7 in C-USA.

Based on Sunday's game, that win projection for UAB is generous.

(11-22-2011 03:39 PM)Grammar-Nazi Wrote:  

(11-22-2011 03:38 PM)Pence Wrote:  Troy comes into tonight's basketball game with a 1-2 record. They only lost by 5 points at Texas Tech (3-0), and by 10 points at East Tennessee State (2-1). Troy's lone win was by 53 points over La Grange.

Pomeroy projects Troy as winning only 10 games this season, and going 7-9 in the Sun Belt.

Pomeroy gives UAB a 91% probability of winning this home game.

At this point, Pomeroy has UAB finishing at 15-14, and 9-7 in C-USA.

Based on Sunday's game, that win projection for UAB is generous.

We can make predictions for the future based only off what we have seen in two games.
What we have seen so far: We are not very fast, not very athletic, not very tough, and make up for all of that by not being able to shoot.

So yeah, 15-14 seems about right. Hopefully the guys on the team will show us something different.

Winning tonight won't be a victory.

It'll be a victory if our longest scoring drought is less than 10 minutes.

(11-22-2011 03:59 PM)BlazerMatt Wrote:  We can make predictions for the future based only off what we have seen in two games.
What we have seen so far: We are not very fast, not very athletic, not very tough, and make up for all of that by not being able to shoot.

So yeah, 15-14 seems about right. Hopefully the guys on the team will show us something different.

Completely agree.

Davis has got to substitute better. In the first game he gave big time minutes to QT and KC, who were basically no shows, and probably had a negative +/- ratio during their minutes on the floor. In the 2nd game, he played Swing huge minutes, when he was a complete no show. We have 8-10 guys who can contribute on any given night, he has to play who is contributing that night. RW can't shoot, but he damn sure will bring some toughness and rebounding at his position, which is one of the things we desperately need. ASW and HH may not score, but they are big bodies who can spell Ovie and Cam for a few minutes here and there. Give Purifoy some confidence and the green light to shoot like Davis has seemingly given KC (which is crazy to me - the guy is a freshman. he's putting too much on him too soon. work him in off the bench as a role player.) Speed the game up. Play with some damn passion and heart. Cam needs to grow some balls, live up to the preseason hype, and contribute on offense (where was he all of game 1 and down the stretch in game 2??). Disclaimer - Cam has played great on D and on the boards - kudos to him there, but we absolutely need him on offense. He's the closest thing we have to a go to guy - we will need him when we go on these cold streaks while we are working in our two new point guards. And to the whole team - hold on the the dang ball and quit turning it over so much!!

If we can improve on two or three of those things tonight, I'll be happy. However, we have to quickly get better in most of those facets of the game, or we will have a VERY disappointing season.

You guys think I don't like Davis now, wait until we have a CBI, first round NIT exit, or no post season at all. I will be driving the fire MD bandwagon to Bham in late Feb/early March.

Bottom line - this team has too much talent and is too deep to be underperforming like this - get it the freak together. Unless MD turns it around quick, he is living up to another one of his trend while coaching at UAB - vastly underperforming with talented teams with expectations.

I don't understand why Rob isn't playing either. He's athletic, hustles, rebounds well, and plays good defense.

(11-22-2011 03:59 PM)BlazerMatt Wrote:  We can make predictions for the future based only off what we have seen in two games.
What we have seen so far: We are not very fast, not very athletic, not very tough, and make up for all of that by not being able to shoot.

So yeah, 15-14 seems about right. Hopefully the guys on the team will show us something different.

You left out that we don't rebound, pass or dribble very well, either.

(11-22-2011 05:45 PM)BlazerFan11 Wrote:  I don't understand why Rob isn't playing either. He's athletic, hustles, rebounds well, and plays good defense.

I'm proud that everyone on our roster is a blazer, but if Swing and KC don't have it one night, you have to go more to Purifoy and RW. Go to the guys that are producing and that will play some d and rebound. It seems that MD has already decided on his favorites.

The Answer UAB ' Wrote:  I'm proud that everyone on our roster is a blazer, but if Swing and KC don't have it one night, you have to go more to Purifoy and RW. Go to the guys that are producing and that will play some d and rebound. It seems that MD has already decided on his favorites.

Robert vaden 0-17

We all knew before the season that PG play was going to dictate this season. Say what you will about any- and everything else, buy PG play is the problem.

It's one of our many problems. You could give us A good point guard, but if we continued to play poorly in all the other facets of the games, we'd still suck.

Quote:I will be driving the fire MD bandwagon to Bham in late Feb/early March.

Claude N. Callaway's lone achievement this year has been to make Mike Davis utterly fireproof.

What if the 5 we saw to close out the game tonight (Tyler, Williams, Purifoy, Soko, Moore) were the starters in Wichita? That's what I'm hoping for.

(11-23-2011 01:27 AM)FNblazer Wrote:  What if the 5 we saw to close out the game tonight (Tyler, Williams, Purifoy, Soko, Moore) were the starters in Wichita? That's what I'm hoping for.

I'm fine with this lineup.

Swing doesn't look 100%. Whitaker needs to calm the F down. His only made 3 pointers are when he sets his feet, squares his shoulders to the basket and jumps up and down. His fade away 3s are not cutting it.

I really like Rob's defensive skills. Purifoy can shoot and play defense. I just wish we had a game plan for resting Moore and Soko at times.

(11-23-2011 01:27 AM)FNblazer Wrote:  What if the 5 we saw to close out the game tonight (Tyler, Williams, Purifoy, Soko, Moore) were the starters in Wichita? That's what I'm hoping for.

Bingo! Those are the five guys I would be starting.

(11-23-2011 11:09 AM)Blazing Saddles Wrote:  

(11-23-2011 01:27 AM)FNblazer Wrote:  What if the 5 we saw to close out the game tonight (Tyler, Williams, Purifoy, Soko, Moore) were the starters in Wichita? That's what I'm hoping for.

I'm fine with this lineup.

Swing doesn't look 100%. Whitaker needs to calm the F down. His only made 3 pointers are when he sets his feet, squares his shoulders to the basket and jumps up and down. His fade away 3s are not cutting it.

I really like Rob's defensive skills. Purifoy can shoot and play defense. I just wish we had a game plan for resting Moore and Soko at times.

I like everyone on this list except for Williams. He cannot shoot at all. He has more air balls than baskets. His defense is pretty good.

(11-23-2011 11:46 AM)uab blazer 01 Wrote:  

(11-23-2011 11:09 AM)Blazing Saddles Wrote:  

(11-23-2011 01:27 AM)FNblazer Wrote:  What if the 5 we saw to close out the game tonight (Tyler, Williams, Purifoy, Soko, Moore) were the starters in Wichita? That's what I'm hoping for.

I'm fine with this lineup.

Swing doesn't look 100%. Whitaker needs to calm the F down. His only made 3 pointers are when he sets his feet, squares his shoulders to the basket and jumps up and down. His fade away 3s are not cutting it.

I really like Rob's defensive skills. Purifoy can shoot and play defense. I just wish we had a game plan for resting Moore and Soko at times.

I like everyone on this list except for Williams. He cannot shoot at all. He has more air balls than baskets. His defense is pretty good.

He defended the 3 point line better than any other player last night. It won't show up in the box score though.

(11-23-2011 12:14 PM)Blazing Saddles Wrote:  

(11-23-2011 11:46 AM)uab blazer 01 Wrote:  

(11-23-2011 11:09 AM)Blazing Saddles Wrote:  

(11-23-2011 01:27 AM)FNblazer Wrote:  What if the 5 we saw to close out the game tonight (Tyler, Williams, Purifoy, Soko, Moore) were the starters in Wichita? That's what I'm hoping for.

I'm fine with this lineup.

Swing doesn't look 100%. Whitaker needs to calm the F down. His only made 3 pointers are when he sets his feet, squares his shoulders to the basket and jumps up and down. His fade away 3s are not cutting it.

I really like Rob's defensive skills. Purifoy can shoot and play defense. I just wish we had a game plan for resting Moore and Soko at times.

I like everyone on this list except for Williams. He cannot shoot at all. He has more air balls than baskets. His defense is pretty good.

He defended the 3 point line better than any other player last night. It won't show up in the box score though.

Yet, it was the most important factor in beating Troy.

(11-22-2011 06:31 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  It's one of our many problems. You could give us A good point guard, but if we continued to play poorly in all the other facets of the games, we'd still suck.

Point guard play isn't the only problem, but it's the biggest. The offense has never been incredibly smooth in CMD's half court sets. In years past, we've had guys who can set others up for a good look or get their own shot (AJ and Jamarr last season).

Right now, we don't have that sort of playmaking ability. Jekore is close, but he doesn't have the point guard mentality yet. QT is a true point guard, but he hasn't found the confidence in his abilities to be a playmaker. Both will get better, but it's really been our Achilles's heel to this point.

All that said, our offensive sets are doing a great job in exploiting our point guard weaknesses. With all the standing around, we make it extremely easy for the defenders to overplay. Also, we run several different plays out of the same sets, but they all start with the same initial pass, which allows the defender to cheat since they know the pass is coming.

Still, it's somewhat encouraging that we've been in position to win all our games even with the poor play. Once we get those issues ironed out, we'll be okay.