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We have a lot of talent with endless possibilities for our starting five. I have a feeling Haase will probably switch it up early in the year, and go with different looks every now and again. I'm having a hard time trying to figure out who will be the starters. We are very talented from top to bottom and we are going to be very deep.

Based on last year I would say
1- Norton
2- Baxter
3- Brown
4- Lee
5- Mehinti

I know dirk Williams is a stud and I do believe he will find his way into the starting 5 by conference play if not before. But I just don't know who he would replace. With Norton being a liability defensively I wonder if we would ever go to a lineup of:

Baxter
Brown
Williams
Lee
Mehinti

With cokely, norton, madison, watts, sullivan/Smallwood coming off the bench

According to coach, Williams is lacking on defense.

(10-08-2015 10:15 AM)blazed247 Wrote:  We have a lot of talent with endless possibilities for our starting five. I have a feeling Haase will probably switch it up early in the year, and go with different looks every now and again. I'm having a hard time trying to figure out who will be the starters. We are very talented from top to bottom and we are going to be very deep.

Based on last year I would say
1- Norton
2- Baxter
3- Brown
4- Lee
5- Mehinti

I know dirk Williams is a stud and I do believe he will find his way into the starting 5 by conference play if not before. But I just don't know who he would replace. With Norton being a liability defensively I wonder if we would ever go to a lineup of:

Baxter
Brown
Williams
Lee
Mehinti

With cokely, norton, madison, watts, sullivan/Smallwood coming off the bench

This is what I think as well. For the first time in a long time, we have a 2nd 5 that could beat half the teams on our schedule.

(10-08-2015 10:53 AM)BlazeNBham Wrote:  According to coach, Williams is lacking on defense.

Well that settles it. He will have to really hunker-down if he expects to get major minutes this season.

My guess was always that Dirk would take baxters spot over, but if his defense is an issue, that won't happen. This team really started to play some good defense last year, and that helped us when our offense was frequently struggling.

(10-08-2015 11:41 AM)blazers9911 Wrote:  My guess was always that Dirk would take baxters spot over, but if his defense is an issue, that won't happen. This team really started to play some good defense last year, and that helped us when our offense was frequently struggling.

Our defense got better because our bench players really took pride in their roles. Take the UTSA game for an example. We lose that game in the 2nd half if it's not for Watts and Madison. I think this team is really going to buy in and be solid 1-10. I'm really really excited.

Baxter is a great defender, probably the best on the team. I hope his shot improves this year.

Mehenti, Lee, Brown & two more depending on the opponent

I feel bad for Cokley. He had a hell of a freshman year and should be starting. Just see a starting lot available. Nice problem to have though.

(10-08-2015 10:07 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  I feel bad for Cokley. He had a hell of a freshman year and should be starting. Just see a starting lot available. Nice problem to have though.

I thought the same thing. He should be the first one off the bench and receive a lot of minutes. Looking foward to seeing how much he has improved. He really impressed me last year.

I think it stays the same, but it wouldn't surprise me if Haase changes it (would be a huge mistake IMHO).

My starting 5 is

Mehinti
Cokley
Lee (Because he's undersized for me at PF)
Brown
Norton

Brown and Lee on the perimeter would help make Norton, who doesn't seem to like to shoot it at times the all-time leader in assist at UAB upon graduation.

Norton
Baxter
Brown
Lee
Mehinti

Same as last year. With Watts stealing more of Norton's minutes and Williams stealing more of Brown's

(10-09-2015 07:47 AM)Big Dee Wrote:  I think it stays the same, but it wouldn't surprise me if Haase changes it (would be a huge mistake IMHO).

My starting 5 is

Mehinti
Cokley
Lee (Because he's undersized for me at PF)
Brown
Norton

Brown and Lee on the perimeter would help make Norton, who doesn't seem to like to shoot it at times the all-time leader in assist at UAB upon graduation.

I think this line-up puts our most talented five on the floor, but it won't be the starting five due to substitution patterns.

Also, I like having Lee as a stretch four, and as a team, pushing the pace even more than last year. In theory, we've added better shooters in Smallwood and Williams, so we should have more opportunities for open threes in transition.

Here's my starting five:
Mehinti
Lee
Williams
Brown
Norton

Baxter played well at times last year, but statistically, took a step back from his freshman year (which was against lesser talent, but whatever). Baxter might be a plus on defense, but if Williams can be just an 'okay' defender and a knock-down shooter, the overall scoring net (pts scored - pts allowed) will be in Williams favor.

Anyways, top to bottom, this is probably the most talented team we've had at UAB in a while.

(10-09-2015 09:08 AM)jthrashr Wrote:  

(10-09-2015 07:47 AM)Big Dee Wrote:  I think it stays the same, but it wouldn't surprise me if Haase changes it (would be a huge mistake IMHO).

My starting 5 is

Mehinti
Cokley
Lee (Because he's undersized for me at PF)
Brown
Norton

Brown and Lee on the perimeter would help make Norton, who doesn't seem to like to shoot it at times the all-time leader in assist at UAB upon graduation.

I think this line-up puts our most talented five on the floor, but it won't be the starting five due to substitution patterns.

Also, I like having Lee as a stretch four, and as a team, pushing the pace even more than last year. In theory, we've added better shooters in Smallwood and Williams, so we should have more opportunities for open threes in transition.

Here's my starting five:
Mehinti
Lee
Williams
Brown
Norton

Baxter played well at times last year, but statistically, took a step back from his freshman year (which was against lesser talent, but whatever). Baxter might be a plus on defense, but if Williams can be just an 'okay' defender and a knock-down shooter, the overall scoring net (pts scored - pts allowed) will be in Williams favor.

Anyways, top to bottom, this is probably the most talented team we've had at UAB in a while.

That's the 5 I had til Haase talked about Dirk defense problems. So now I think Dirk get CJ's old minutes and will probably be a better fit in the nine man rotation. I also think Lewis and Thomas possibly fight for ten man minutes which is maybe 10-12 mins. I've based this on the number of minutes Tosin averaged as a freshman behind Foz.

What a glorious problem to have. Never knew who might step up down the stretch lady year. For example, We never beat Iowa St without the clutch lay of Denzell Watts. This is a small difference from the Davis years....

(10-09-2015 03:11 PM)stc Wrote:  What a glorious problem to have. Never knew who might step up down the stretch lady year. For example, We never beat Iowa St without the clutch lay of Denzell Watts. This is a small difference from the Davis years....

A solid starting 5 will win you a lot of games but a great 6-10 will win you championships.

We have about 8 starters and 5 starting spots. We are not used to such problems.


I think I could get used to this.

Yeah, it's a beautiful thing and the skill sets are so different. The team is looking very flexible in how they can force mismatches, and the chemistry established between the starters can really only get better.

I just hope Cokley doesn't feel some kind of way about coming off the bench instead of being a starter. It's not that he's not good enough to be one or anything like that at all. It's just a matter of putting the team's interest first.

Cokley has given no indication that he is going to be a cancer. He goes out and does his thing and he plays hard. I'm not worried about him.

(10-09-2015 05:37 PM)blazers9911 Wrote:  Cokley has given no indication that he is going to be a cancer. He goes out and does his thing and he plays hard. I'm not worried about him.

I think he loves his role. He comes in fresh and inforces. We have a ton of high character players. The only one I've seen get sort of butt hurt was Sullivan. I think he grasped the fact that he was not going to be the man like he was in high school later in the season. Hopefully I'm wrong and he'll push for more minutes this year.

Imagine how demoralizing it would be for the other team if all our starters came out and Cokley, Watts, Madison, Sullivan, and Williams come in. That's a solid 5 right there.