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Edwards with 25 points ties his second best career scoring effort. He was 6-8 behind the arc.

I’ve been watching college basketball for more than 40 years. Among the coaches that came into prominence in the 90s, Kelvin Sampson is among my favorites. I have always liked how he approached things, all the way back to his days at Washington State when he came down to Bham and signed Bennie Seltzer from Parker and Terrence Lewis from Ramsay right under our noses.

Sampson, Leonard Hamilton and Bob Huggins all put good teams on the floor year after year and have a culture that reflects their coach. They have been doing this at a high level for a long time.

I hope we are saying that about AK for a very long time over the next decade.

Looking at the box score, the 3s were literally the difference in the game.
We were 5-19 (26%) while UH was 10-21. That’s 15 points in a game we lost by 14.

We were only outrebounded by 1, but boy UH hurt us there in a critical stretch in the 1st 10 minutes when they built the lead. It wasn’t just offensive rebounds — a few of those 3s came after possession was extended by an OR.

We needed to force turnovers and turn them into offense. UH only had 7 turnovers.

Basically they did what they do just a little better than we did what we do. And then they did something far above their norm by blitzing us with 9 3s in the first half.

If the teams played 10 times, I think UAB would win a couple, but tonight wasn’t our night. UH played a very good game and will be an extremely tough out if they can hit 3s.

Congrats on a really good season UAB! You guys ran into a buzzsaw tonight. When Houston is hitting 3s like that, there arent many teams that would fare much better than the Blazers did tonight.

Overall, a good season from UAB, and a step forward on cultivating the "Bartow Standard."

I was hard on the team all year, but it was only because I knew they were capable of more than what they were showing for much of the year. They should be proud of the way the ended the season on a 7-0 streak, won the conference, and made it into the big Dance.

Houston was longer, taller, and more athletic than us at every position. That is hard to overcome no matter what. Throw in the fact that the shot damn near 100% from three early in the game, and I'm proud of the way we hung around. If you replay the game both teams played from about 10 minutes left in the first half, I think we'd win damn nearly 4/10 or 5/10 of those. Oh well. Most of our guys had a solid game outside of Jelly. He's been bothered ALL YEAR LONG by bigger, more aggressive, and more athletic guards. Tonight bore that out. He was absolutely smothered like a biscuit with jelly.

The core of Jelly, Lovan, Jemison, and Buffen is a damn good core of players for CUSA. We have to pick up taller, longer, more athletic guys to compete on a level with a team like Houston consistently. I think AK will retool the roster and have us back in the dance next year. He knows what we are missing. Tonight made that painfully clear.

Overall, good season, a step in the right direction (like last year), but not where we want to be. I think we will be even better next year. I'm very optimistic about next year.

Thank you Quan and Ertel - you guys played your butts off every game, helped us start to reestablish the Bartow standard, and will be hard to replace.

A few small critiques, I feel like the trap and press we ran tonight (which worked really well most of the season) got absolutely, surgically dissected by Houston tonight. I would've liked to have seen us drop back into more man to man and adjust more, but that is really nitpicking. We also didn't adjust much to their constant pressuring and double teaming of our ball handlers off the screens.

As I said earlier, Houston was just bigger, longer, more athletic, and more aggressive than us at every. single. position. It is really, really hard to overcome that.

If houston can shoot like they did early in this game the rest of the tournament, they could win the whole damn thing.

If they aren't hitting shots, they are just a collection of athletic, long, aggressive goons. We need some of those type of players.

Houston runs much the same defense. What were trying to do, they practice against every day. They did it better than we did.

They're taller, more talented, and they got the OR's just as advertised.

The killer was the nine 3's in the first half. It was just too much. That and Jelly not being able to get a shot to drop to save his life. Some of that was UH, and some of it was Jelly just never catching fire. I think a lot of it was rooted in their D taking him out of his game.

(03-19-2022 12:42 AM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  Houston runs much the same defense. What were trying to do, they practice against every day. They did it better than we did.

They're taller, more talented, and they got the OR's just as advertised.

The killer was the nine 3's in the first half. It was just too much. That and Jelly not being able to get a shot to drop to save his life. Some of that was UH, and some of it was Jelly just never catching fire. I think a lot of it was rooted in their D taking him out of his game.

Yeah they were gunning for him. They pressured, doubled, and trapped off of EVERY screen the entire game, and we had no answer for it.

Jelly also missed some shots he'd usually make.

The rest of the team actually had a pretty good game.

We have to develop the rest of the team so we don't get creamed every time Jelly is overwhelmed by taller, more athletic, more aggressive defenders. As good as he is, he has shown he can't play at his highest level against longer, taller, more athletic, aggressive defenders. It's also why he wont make it in the NBA IMO.

After looking at the threads on last night’s game, I realized a huge difference between the AAC boards and the CUSA boards. The AAC board was pulling for Houston. CUSA teams, other than our thread, didn’t even comment about the game. I know we are leaving for the AAC after next year but Houston is leaving the AAC as well.

Here’s a big to CUSA and the remaining bitter teams. Enjoy what’s left of your one bid basketball league and sorry a— football league.


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we make it to the tournament we play a potential one seed if you use the net ranking and jelly had a terrible shooting night
next year we will advance

Even though we lost last night, I’m still immensely proud of this basketball team. I’m excited for us to be back in the NCAA tournament. I’m excited for the future of this program and where it is headed. I’m excited about our new conference home. I was a sophomore at UAB when CUSA began. That conference was awesome. Ever since the first round of conference realignment, CUSA has been on life support. Now, someone just needs to go ahead and pull the plug. Hospice can’t help this conference.

(03-19-2022 12:29 AM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  A few small critiques, I feel like the trap and press we ran tonight (which worked really well most of the season) got absolutely, surgically dissected by Houston tonight. I would've liked to have seen us drop back into more man to man and adjust more, but that is really nitpicking. We also didn't adjust much to their constant pressuring and double teaming of our ball handlers off the screens.

As I said earlier, Houston was just bigger, longer, more athletic, and more aggressive than us at every. single. position. It is really, really hard to overcome that.

If houston can shoot like they did early in this game the rest of the tournament, they could win the whole damn thing.



If they aren't hitting shots, they are just a collection of athletic, long, aggressive goons. We need some of those type of players.

Agree with you completely. So much of what we do is set up by the press, and Houston just killed it. Several times when we pressed after a bucket, Houston got a great shot within 5 seconds. They are sooooo well coached and make smart decisions with the ball.

I don’t recall seeing us in it much but when we went to the 1-3-1 a couple of times in the 1st half, they sliced it too and buried 3s. Usually we cause people problems with that because of our length but it didn’t bother UH at all.

(03-19-2022 08:25 AM)BandGrad Wrote:  Even though we lost last night, I’m still immensely proud of this basketball team. I’m excited for us to be back in the NCAA tournament. I’m excited for the future of this program and where it is headed. I’m excited about our new conference home. I was a sophomore at UAB when CUSA began. That conference was awesome. Ever since the first round of conference realignment, CUSA has been on life support. Now, someone just needs to go ahead and pull the plug. Hospice can’t help this conference.

CUSA will be just as good in basketball with their new members if not better than this current version of the conference. Football will have some botton feeders but what conference doesn't have them?

CUSA main issue going forward will Judy McLeod. They absolutely need to get rid of her ASAP!

(03-19-2022 07:36 AM)GreenGiant67 Wrote:  After looking at the threads on last night’s game, I realized a huge difference between the AAC boards and the CUSA boards. The AAC board was pulling for Houston. CUSA teams, other than our thread, didn’t even comment about the game. I know we are leaving for the AAC after next year but Houston is leaving the AAC as well.

Here’s a big to CUSA and the remaining bitter teams. Enjoy what’s left of your one bid basketball league and sorry a— football league.

Considering how bad you have been ripping the conference why do you wvwn care that the mainboard wasn't heavily interested in the game? Furthermore, there were several posters on the CUSA board wishing us good luck and hoping we would win the game.

C-USA basketball will have, at least for time being, some solid programs. MTSU, UTEP, WKU, New Mexico State, Liberty are a solid mid-major base. They lose two programs that have been very bad recently (UTSA and USM) and two more with little historic success (Rice and FAU) and another that has underperformed considerably (Charlotte). Nothing is going to change for the league; it was a one-bid league and will remain so but probably has a chance to improve its numbers a bit and perhaps not be locked into 14 and 15 seeds post-realignment.

The AAC will be a good bit better but does need a couple of programs to really step up. Losing UH and UC definitely hurts. Memphis, UAB, SMU, Wichita need to raise their games and the bottom of the league coming over from C-USA must improve more than they did when they jumped to C-USA.

(03-19-2022 12:21 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  C-USA basketball will have, at least for time being, some solid programs. MTSU, UTEP, WKU, New Mexico State, Liberty are a solid mid-major base. They lose two programs that have been very bad recently (UTSA and USM) and two more with little historic success (Rice and FAU) and another that has underperformed considerably (Charlotte). Nothing is going to change for the league; it was a one-bid league and will remain so but probably has a chance to improve its numbers a bit and perhaps not be locked into 14 and 15 seeds post-realignment.

The AAC will be a good bit better but does need a couple of programs to really step up. Losing UH and UC definitely hurts. Memphis, UAB, SMU, Wichita need to raise their games and the bottom of the league coming over from C-USA must improve more than they did when they jumped to C-USA.

ECU(hired Tennessee AHC) and Tulsa will have new coaches coming into next season so that's a good start for the bottom feeders

(03-19-2022 08:23 AM)BlazinBham Wrote:  They really have their work in recruiting cut out for them.

Why do you say that? AK has shown he can get quality players from the portal already. No reason to think that can't continue. Plus we have new advantages we didn't have when he first started:

1) Trip to NCAA tournament
2) Conference championship
3) Proven winning culture (49 wins in 2 years)
4) Confirmed move to AAC after one more season - any new guy with more than 1 will get to play in an improved conference with much better exposure
5) Opening a new practice facility next month

These things should lead to an uptick in recruiting, not a situation where "they really have their work cut out for them".

(03-19-2022 12:51 PM)hooverblazer Wrote:  

(03-19-2022 08:23 AM)BlazinBham Wrote:  They really have their work in recruiting cut out for them.

Why do you say that? AK has shown he can get quality players from the portal already. No reason to think that can't continue. Plus we have new advantages we didn't have when he first started:

1) Trip to NCAA tournament
2) Conference championship
3) Proven winning culture (49 wins in 2 years)
4) Confirmed move to AAC after one more season - any new guy with more than 1 will get to play in an improved conference with much better exposure
5) Opening a new practice facility next month

These things should lead to an uptick in recruiting, not a situation where "they really have their work cut out for them".

Agree!!!

The No. 1 way to exceed this year’s performance is for the returning players to improve an important aspect of their game. Examples:

Jelly — battling through double teams and defenses designed to force him into poor decisions.
Trey — Lower body strength. Top half looks like Dwight Howard, bottom half plays small. He needs to really work his hip flexibility, footwork and establishing a lower center of gravity on both ends of floor. On defense, check those Houston guys. They establish the block like they have tree roots and you aren’t moving them. Trey can be bumped off the block on both ends despite looking like Adonis up top. On offense this will also help him add more power moves to his Arsenal so he doesn’t have to rely on that hook shot so much.
KJ — footwork, footwork, footwork. It will cut down on fouls and also help him improve mid-range game because we need him to be a triple threat at 10 feet.
Tavin — assertiveness. We need the guy who consistently scores double figures and is capable of 20+ when the matchup calls for it.
Jamal — ask your coach what you need to do to earn trust and PT. Then do whatever is asked with no expectation or complaint.
Toney — shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot. 1000x shots a day.
Locure — didn’t see enough to make a suggestion but really learning your teammates and how to set them up should be a focus. Learn where they need the ball, which hand they catch best with, etc.
Rongie — overall strength. Add 10 lbs of muscle. We need a 6-8, 240-lbs guy who can move. We have a guy on the roster who *could* fit that description 8 months from now.