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(11-12-2023 04:03 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  Doesn’t help that Ortiz has looked awful so far.

Undersized, not good on defense, not a good play maker for others, and taking horrible shots out of rhythm.

He was supposed to be our shooter.

Yeah, disappointing start for him. I wonder if the step up in competition is too much for him. I'd like to see Dunning get more minutes at the 3.

(11-12-2023 02:52 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  

(11-12-2023 02:49 PM)Frank Grimes Wrote:  Really wish we could've beat Bradley. I actually think this weekend played out about as well as it could. I wanted to play Clemson and Maryland, since those would probably be the two highest ranked teams in the NET. I would've preferred it have been done by going 2-0, but that wasn't possible with Maryland losing to Davidson Friday. A one point loss to an ACC team and beating a B1G team is not a bad weekend.

Nope it's not a bad weekend at all.

And if we are on the bubble, hopefully we can weave the narrative of "UAB was a team with 9 new players losing to two quality teams by 3 combined points in their first two games of the season."

I still have hope for an at large. This team has looked a lot better than I thought they would to this point. I expected us to be good later in the season, but we look legit good already.

Obviously some kinks to work out, but I am very encouraged. We needed this win bad.

Agreed. We have the talent, it's just a matter of putting it all together. We have great length on defense, athletic guards that can run in transition, and are good at scoring in the paint. If we can just find a little more shooting we'll really be in good shape.

(11-13-2023 12:13 AM)hooverblazer Wrote:  Great win that should look good on the resume in March. I think the AAC is capable of getting 3 bids to the tournament if things break the right way. I think the fact that the two losses were to decent teams by a combined 3 points and that they came early can be explained when people are comparing resumes. As long as we have a good season going forward.

Man, if we could've just held on to beat Bradley at home we'd be sitting in a good position early. They did get a good win over Utah St yesterday.

Your way-too-early FN Bubble™ analysis:

If we can run the table in OOC from here, 5 losses in league will be good enough to have us sitting on the bubble going into the conference tournament. If we can finish second in the league, that will be a huge boost to the odds. Obviously, this has a huge standard deviation with only 3 games played.

(11-13-2023 11:57 AM)FNblazer Wrote:  

(11-13-2023 12:13 AM)hooverblazer Wrote:  Great win that should look good on the resume in March. I think the AAC is capable of getting 3 bids to the tournament if things break the right way. I think the fact that the two losses were to decent teams by a combined 3 points and that they came early can be explained when people are comparing resumes. As long as we have a good season going forward.

Man, if we could've just held on to beat Bradley at home we'd be sitting in a good position early. They did get a good win over Utah St yesterday.

Your way-too-early FN Bubble™ analysis:

If we can run the table in OOC from here, 5 losses in league will be good enough to have us sitting on the bubble going into the conference tournament. If we can finish second in the league, that will be a huge boost to the odds. Obviously, this has a huge standard deviation with only 3 games played.

Getting the win yesterday was big. Obviously need Bradley and Clemson to be as good as possible and root for them going forward.

I am scared about the MTSU game. I've personally seen us get our asses beat there under Haase/Ehsan, and I saw us play maybe the ugliest basketball game I've seen under AK there last year (without Jelly, so partially excusable). We beat the hell out of the same team at home. It's a tough place to play for some reason. It reminds me of an old highschool gym, but something about it makes it a difficult place to play.

Drake will be a big challenge too.

It's good to have a legit chance at an at large resume if we take care of business. We made a solid schedule this year.

I’m curious to see if we are good or bad shooting team. I can’t tell yet if we’ve had off nights or that’s who we are because the Clemson game felt like we shot very well.

(11-13-2023 12:04 PM)Golden-Ticket Wrote:  I’m curious to see if we are good or bad shooting team. I can’t tell yet if we’ve had off nights or that’s who we are because the Clemson game felt like we shot very well.

I think we're somewhere in the middle of the 1st/3rd games and the 2nd game.

We shot FN awful in those two games. It's almost physically impossible to shoot that bad for a talented D1 basketball team. But we also shot really well against Clemson, and I don't think we are a really good shooting team. We will see. If Ortiz can get it together, he can hopefully provide some outside shooting.

Yep. The press and high tempo is going to have to be this team's identity because we don't shoot it well outside. It's ok, ya just gotta own it.

Own it, and quit cranking up threes like we're hitting them. They're great when they fall, but the clank and turnover when they miss killed us in the first two games.

(11-13-2023 12:20 PM)FNblazer Wrote:  Yep. The press and high tempo is going to have to be this team's identity because we don't shoot it well outside. It's ok, ya just gotta own it.

Yep. My biggest gripe with AK so far. We didn't do that against Clemson when JD and Yax fouled out, went big with Shaver, and subsequently lost.

We've all seen how good we've looked playing that away against bradley and clemson for spurts.

Buy into it fully. That is how this team is built to play.

https://x.com/CharmiIIionaire/status/172...26104?s=20

Having watched all four games, you can definitely see improvement. Yax showing signs of life and Coleman was an absolute ball-hawk against Maryland. Our defense was on point for a good section of the game, obviously.

Even when we've struggled, you can see every single player fighting and struggling to contribute. I've loved seeing that, because there were years where that hasn't been the case.

More film breakdown

(11-12-2023 01:55 PM)BlazerMatt Wrote:  I am old, and a bit of a curmudgeon, but someone tell me how that last Gaines fast break layup wasn’t a travel?

Hey now,,,, he only took 5 or 6 steps

(11-12-2023 02:38 PM)BlazerMatt Wrote:  Gaines and FTs at the end of a game are going to give me an ulcer.

You folks who only saw the game on TV probably missed seeing that Maryland fan who had a special seat along the endline: He was wearing a bright yellow shirt and ran out behind the goal post and was yelling and waving his hands as EG was taking his first FT ( a miss). Luckily , he hit the second one with that guy still being allowed to pull that same stunt again. He guy went back to his seat and was high 5ing it with his seat mates. SOB should have been tackled and thrown out of the arena IMHO!

(11-13-2023 03:34 PM)KevMo4UAB Wrote:  More film breakdown

Wow, educational!!!

(11-13-2023 12:04 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  

(11-13-2023 11:57 AM)FNblazer Wrote:  

(11-13-2023 12:13 AM)hooverblazer Wrote:  Great win that should look good on the resume in March. I think the AAC is capable of getting 3 bids to the tournament if things break the right way. I think the fact that the two losses were to decent teams by a combined 3 points and that they came early can be explained when people are comparing resumes. As long as we have a good season going forward.

Man, if we could've just held on to beat Bradley at home we'd be sitting in a good position early. They did get a good win over Utah St yesterday.

Your way-too-early FN Bubble™ analysis:

If we can run the table in OOC from here, 5 losses in league will be good enough to have us sitting on the bubble going into the conference tournament. If we can finish second in the league, that will be a huge boost to the odds. Obviously, this has a huge standard deviation with only 3 games played.

Getting the win yesterday was big. Obviously need Bradley and Clemson to be as good as possible and root for them going forward.

I am scared about the MTSU game. I've personally seen us get our asses beat there under Haase/Ehsan, and I saw us play maybe the ugliest basketball game I've seen under AK there last year (without Jelly, so partially excusable). We beat the hell out of the same team at home. It's a tough place to play for some reason. It reminds me of an old highschool gym, but something about it makes it a difficult place to play.

Drake will be a big challenge too.

It's good to have a legit chance at an at large resume if we take care of business. We made a solid schedule this year.

MTSU lost one of their best players (Cam Weston) to a season ending injury over the weekend. Probably was a factor in them losing to Western Carolina tonight. Although, Western Carolina also won at Notre Dame last week.

Western Carolina has a dude averaging 20/10/5. Anytime you have a guy like that you can find some wins.

MTSU scares me always. It’s a place we’ve always struggled and they always seem to have a lot of long athletic guys that can give you hell on defense. At this point that is definitely a game we need to win.