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

The mentality by some of the fans that football is great and basketball sucks is not doing any favors for basketball and will not draw new fans.

(03-09-2018 12:35 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  Who was the other elite coach besides Roy Williams?

My error. I was thinking Kansas and UNC and had a brain fart.

(03-09-2018 02:19 PM)randy22263 Wrote:  With the exception of Dee and Answer, maybe Blazer 9911 and a couple of others, this site is void of rational thought.

If those guys are your benchmark for rational thought, you may need to get your own mental processes checked somehow.

(03-09-2018 03:17 PM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  

(03-09-2018 02:19 PM)randy22263 Wrote:  With the exception of Dee and Answer, maybe Blazer 9911 and a couple of others, this site is void of rational thought.

If those guys are your benchmark for rational thought, you may need to get your own mental processes checked somehow.

Yeah you're an trendsetter yourself pal

Is Memphis Blazer okay, the fighting Stans does it again.

(03-09-2018 12:28 PM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  Haase had twelve or thirteen years as an assistant under two elite coaches. I suspect that made a difference as well.

Right.

(03-09-2018 01:03 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  

(03-09-2018 12:44 PM)demiveeman Wrote:  I hope Ehsan proves me wrong and has a phenomenal third season that can match or even exceed what Haase did, but one thing is for certain:

He's isn't going to have the benefit of a home-city C-USA tournament and a re-energized Blazer family from having their football program cut to help him do it.

I don't know how re energized the fan base was for basketball. Attendance that year was as bad as this year.

Maybe not, but here's some data showing how the seasons were different when you dive into details:

Average attendance before Watts announced a re-evaluation of the UAB Football situation: 2,760
Average attendance after: 3,817

That's 1,057 more people per game after the football anouncement.

This season:

Prior to Jan 9th: 3,402
After: 3,621

Only an increase of 219 people per game after a similar date/timeframe.

Part of this was lack of attendance early on because Blazer fans were frustrated with Haase's 2nd season...I expect the early attendance to be similar or worse next season.

Question is, will there be positive news and hype surrounding Blazer support in January to help boost attendance back up to normal levels?

Success of football over a sustained time will definitely increase fan support in basketball. It doesn’t happen overnight. That’s not to say that they won’t be somewhat “band wagon” fans but winning and success will get them there. But once you get them there, you hope to convert them to devoted fans.

(03-09-2018 01:34 PM)UABslant Wrote:  Here are the 5 things UAB can do to reignite the fanbase/increase attendance:
1. Win the big games/make the NCAA tournament
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2. Sell beer/improve concessions
3. Lower cost of tickets
4. Increase visibility of and access to the arena (parking, signage, arena renovation)
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5. (if #1 doesn't happen in another couple years) Make an interesting hire

Not saying any of this would work (except for #1), but anyone have other ideas?

6. Abandon current scheduling philosophy

Put the ball in Bryant's hand like a Harden/Westbrookish player. Would even consider Darling at point guard too at the moment.

(03-09-2018 02:25 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  The mentality by some of the fans that football is great and basketball sucks is not doing any favors for basketball and will not draw new fans.

Football has for decades in Alabama been the preferred sport of the top athletes in high school and metro leagues before integration of schools and programs. In many schools the basketball coach was the assistant FB coach who "drew the short straw" and got lesser athletes.

Only in recent years have we seen these top athletes beginning to concentrate on basketball, but the cultural lag time is slow to change for fans. I recall an article about a top FB player in Kentucky giving up FB to concentrate on basketball and how weird it seemed to the local author. Yes, there is still a conditioned racial component to the way our fans react to the two revenue sports. Some like you are "ahead of the herd", but "times are achanging". There re still those who believe "White men can't jump".

If we are talking about improvements, I agree with a lot of what has already been said. Improving the schedule is one critically needed item. Heck, even had we been more successful by our own standards, we would be in a similar position to MTSU and looking at a very bad overall resume. I know we can say all day that CUSA is destined to be a 1 bid league. We all collectively contribute to that by not aggressively working on scheduling. I will say we have been fortunate with things like the Battle 4 Atlantis and now the Advocare tournament. But we need to do much better in the rest of the non conference schedule. Even if it means more road and neutral site games. I get that we aren’t going to get home and home with Kentucky. But why not go after teams who are virtually always strong like Nevada, Creighton, Butler, Murray State, etc.

I still believe we need to add railing on the stairs for the upper level. It absolutely is a deterrent to older fans by not having it. Your options of seating are very limited if you feel unsafe walking up the upper level stairs.

(03-09-2018 03:27 PM)Big Dee Wrote:  

(03-09-2018 03:17 PM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  

(03-09-2018 02:19 PM)randy22263 Wrote:  With the exception of Dee and Answer, maybe Blazer 9911 and a couple of others, this site is void of rational thought.

If those guys are your benchmark for rational thought, you may need to get your own mental processes checked somehow.

Yeah you're an trendsetter yourself pal

You're an asset to the board when it comes to recruiting. Elsewhere its .

(03-09-2018 12:34 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  I keep hearing about how talented this team is - with no specifications. So let's break it down among the major contributors.

1. Cokley - No questions. One of the best ever. Talented.
2. Lee - A really good, almost great player. He has had injuries his entire career. Whether it is the injuries or his head, he has been extremely inconsistent. You just couldn't count on him to produce night in and night out.
3. Bryant - A rare instant contributor, and will be a great player, but lacks control sometimes. Ehsan's biggest challenge for Bryant is going to be getting him to not try to do it all by himself.
4. Norton - Plays the point guard role well, but his shooting and scoring are way off what they were pre-injury. He needs to be a more vocal (in your face) floor leader. No one on this team was that. Struggles with defense.
5. Darling - Should not be a starter. Great shooter, but streaky and not good at all on defense.

Bench:
6. Sullivan - Inconsistent. Great one game and disappears the next. Plays with a lot of energy but out of control sometimes.
7. Perry - Same as with Sullivan. Extremely inconsistent. I don't think he and Sullivan had a game where they both played well. Usually one is on and the other is off.

I stand by the statement I made last year at the end of the season that Ehsan's greatest seasons will be after this group of players are gone. I hate it for Cokley and Lee, but I still think it is true. If Ehsan's recruiting class comes in ready to play like Bryant did, then next year could be a good year.

+1

Back to the loss. WKU shot 60% for the game. WKU made 19 out of 22 free throws, WKU had only 6 turnovers for the game(Nate played 40 minutes and had 5 sloppy turnovers). WKU out rebounded UAB 34-27. WKU had 8 steals to UAB's 2 steals. WKU had 14 fast break points to UAB's 7 fast break points. WKU scored 46 points in the paint to UAB's 30. Bryant shot 7-19 from the field and Norton was 2-8 from the field. Those two shot half of UAB's field goals and a averaged a combined 33% for the game.

These particular statistics are why they were beat so badly. It was horrible, down right unbearable. Three of our key players(underclassmen) just did not play well, at all. We did not defend well, at all, in the paint or on the perimeter. Heck, we had only one blocked shot for the game.

As far as Ehsan goes, he did not utilize his time outs well at all during the game. It got completely out of hand and lastly, why did he play Nate 40 minutes. It just doesn't make sense.

Next season could be a complete disaster. Oh gosh! Okay, I have vented, now. Have a great summer, gents.

Nate turning it over on sloppy passes is a definite issue, particularly given his defense.

See some of you again when we lose in football or basketball. Later fellas.

(03-09-2018 04:16 PM)Big Dee Wrote:  Put the ball in Bryant's hand like a Harden/Westbrookish player. Would even consider Darling at point guard too at the moment.

Darling is too slow and very sloppy handling the rock. No way could he break a press or run the offense.

(03-10-2018 11:10 AM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote:  See some of you again when we lose in football or basketball. Later fellas.

At least we get a long break.

(03-10-2018 11:14 AM)BlazrDawg Wrote:  

(03-09-2018 04:16 PM)Big Dee Wrote:  Put the ball in Bryant's hand like a Harden/Westbrookish player. Would even consider Darling at point guard too at the moment.

Darling is too slow and very sloppy handling the rock. No way could he break a press or run the offense.

I disagree.