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

(11-17-2023 01:55 PM)UABFAN23 Wrote:  

(11-17-2023 01:25 PM)umbluegray Wrote:  

(11-16-2023 10:24 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  

(11-16-2023 10:23 PM)umbluegray Wrote:  A win is a win. Congrats, Blazers!

I liked what Kennedy had to say during his interview. He sees the lackadaisical and undisciplined play. They'll work on it.

Have you watched our games the last 2 years? This type of stuff is nothing new.

I haven't. I lost touch when we split to the AAC. I do tend to follow teams in our conference so I've started keeping up with the Blazers again. The last Blazer coach I recall from back in the days when Memphis and UAB were going at it was Mike Davis.

I looked it up and I see Kennedy is the 3rd coach since Davis. I also see that Kennedy has the best winning percentage of all Blazer coaches, which surprised me.

Code:

Andy Kennedy    2020–present    78-25 (.757)

That's pretty darn impressive.

So just curious... are Blazer fans happy with Kennedy or frustrated? Or both? What's the take?

Frustrated. He only scheduled 4 noncon road games over his first 3 seasons.
When conference play comes around, we drop games to grenades, because the team is untested.

He’s committed to building the team out of the portal because it’s the easiest route. Because of this, we are in year 4 with no true big or PG. He’ll shove 3-6 players in the portal every offseason, because they didn’t fit what we wanted to do, yet he’s the one who brought them in.

After missing an at-large bid due to his scared scheduling, he scheduled up but probably signed his least skilled and physical class yet.

Expectations have fallen to simply finishing top 4 in conference with 20 wins. We celebrate the NIT run last year, but don’t assess why we ended up there in the first place. Particularly when you know you don’t have shooting and you have a PG that will turn it over 4-7 times. Also, your 4th best big from last year is now your starter, when you probably could have committed to developing Rongie Gordon years ago.

We don’t go dancing without Jelly or win a conference tournament. Will we retire his number? No.

If you want to know about expectations around here, you are now not allowed to be upset about one possession games against Swac teams

Agree with the road games.

I’m not sure the portal is the easiest route. It’s not easy to develop freshen and win in the current climate. It’s also very difficult to keep them if you do develop them. The portal players can’t just up and leave like a freshman.

Agreed. Wish this year and last year’s schedules were flipped. It would have helped both teams.

How many people are happy with top 4 and 20 wins? Top 4 in the AAC is a bit different than it was in CUSA too. I don’t think any of us were happy finishing below 2 in CUSA.

We are allowed to celebrate the NIT run… should we not support the team at all? It’s what we got based on our entire body of work, and none of us could argue we belonged in the big dance. That shouldn’t have been the case with that team, but it was.

Agreed it would be nice to have some more shooters and a true pg at some point. Also agree about Rongie. He was always effective enough when I saw him play.

I don’t know the rules on retiring jerseys, but Jelly is as deserving as anybody in recent memory.

Nobody should be happy about the Alcorn State game. I’m glad we won, but I’m not at all pleased with how it went down.

I like the schedule AK put together this year but it sure would have been nice to have a couple of tune up games prior to Bradley and Clemson. I'm not going to fault him for putting together a quality schedule, though. Last years team under achieved. We should have been in the Big Dance. I still enjoyed the NIT run and knocking off 3 SEC teams. I'm pretty sure UNT fans feel their team under achieved also. Jellys number deserves to be retired. He was one of the most dynamic players I've ever seen at UAB.

(11-17-2023 07:47 PM)blazers9911 Wrote:  

(11-17-2023 01:55 PM)UABFAN23 Wrote:  

(11-17-2023 01:25 PM)umbluegray Wrote:  

(11-16-2023 10:24 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  

(11-16-2023 10:23 PM)umbluegray Wrote:  A win is a win. Congrats, Blazers!

I liked what Kennedy had to say during his interview. He sees the lackadaisical and undisciplined play. They'll work on it.

Have you watched our games the last 2 years? This type of stuff is nothing new.

I haven't. I lost touch when we split to the AAC. I do tend to follow teams in our conference so I've started keeping up with the Blazers again. The last Blazer coach I recall from back in the days when Memphis and UAB were going at it was Mike Davis.

I looked it up and I see Kennedy is the 3rd coach since Davis. I also see that Kennedy has the best winning percentage of all Blazer coaches, which surprised me.

Code:

Andy Kennedy    2020–present    78-25 (.757)

That's pretty darn impressive.

So just curious... are Blazer fans happy with Kennedy or frustrated? Or both? What's the take?

Frustrated. He only scheduled 4 noncon road games over his first 3 seasons.
When conference play comes around, we drop games to grenades, because the team is untested.

He’s committed to building the team out of the portal because it’s the easiest route. Because of this, we are in year 4 with no true big or PG. He’ll shove 3-6 players in the portal every offseason, because they didn’t fit what we wanted to do, yet he’s the one who brought them in.

After missing an at-large bid due to his scared scheduling, he scheduled up but probably signed his least skilled and physical class yet.

Expectations have fallen to simply finishing top 4 in conference with 20 wins. We celebrate the NIT run last year, but don’t assess why we ended up there in the first place. Particularly when you know you don’t have shooting and you have a PG that will turn it over 4-7 times. Also, your 4th best big from last year is now your starter, when you probably could have committed to developing Rongie Gordon years ago.

We don’t go dancing without Jelly or win a conference tournament. Will we retire his number? No.

If you want to know about expectations around here, you are now not allowed to be upset about one possession games against Swac teams

Agree with the road games.

I’m not sure the portal is the easiest route. It’s not easy to develop freshen and win in the current climate. It’s also very difficult to keep them if you do develop them. The portal players can’t just up and leave like a freshman.

Agreed. Wish this year and last year’s schedules were flipped. It would have helped both teams.

How many people are happy with top 4 and 20 wins? Top 4 in the AAC is a bit different than it was in CUSA too. I don’t think any of us were happy finishing below 2 in CUSA.

We are allowed to celebrate the NIT run… should we not support the team at all? It’s what we got based on our entire body of work, and none of us could argue we belonged in the big dance. That shouldn’t have been the case with that team, but it was.

Agreed it would be nice to have some more shooters and a true pg at some point. Also agree about Rongie. He was always effective enough when I saw him play.

I don’t know the rules on retiring jerseys, but Jelly is as deserving as anybody in recent memory.

Nobody should be happy about the Alcorn State game. I’m glad we won, but I’m not at all pleased with how it went down.

don't remember who told me this but apparently if you were a transfer from another school you cant get jersey retired? hope that's not true

(11-18-2023 04:37 AM)Nickj345 Wrote:  

(11-17-2023 07:47 PM)blazers9911 Wrote:  

(11-17-2023 01:55 PM)UABFAN23 Wrote:  

(11-17-2023 01:25 PM)umbluegray Wrote:  

(11-16-2023 10:24 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  Have you watched our games the last 2 years? This type of stuff is nothing new.

I haven't. I lost touch when we split to the AAC. I do tend to follow teams in our conference so I've started keeping up with the Blazers again. The last Blazer coach I recall from back in the days when Memphis and UAB were going at it was Mike Davis.

I looked it up and I see Kennedy is the 3rd coach since Davis. I also see that Kennedy has the best winning percentage of all Blazer coaches, which surprised me.

Code:

Andy Kennedy    2020–present    78-25 (.757)

That's pretty darn impressive.

So just curious... are Blazer fans happy with Kennedy or frustrated? Or both? What's the take?

Frustrated. He only scheduled 4 noncon road games over his first 3 seasons.
When conference play comes around, we drop games to grenades, because the team is untested.

He’s committed to building the team out of the portal because it’s the easiest route. Because of this, we are in year 4 with no true big or PG. He’ll shove 3-6 players in the portal every offseason, because they didn’t fit what we wanted to do, yet he’s the one who brought them in.

After missing an at-large bid due to his scared scheduling, he scheduled up but probably signed his least skilled and physical class yet.

Expectations have fallen to simply finishing top 4 in conference with 20 wins. We celebrate the NIT run last year, but don’t assess why we ended up there in the first place. Particularly when you know you don’t have shooting and you have a PG that will turn it over 4-7 times. Also, your 4th best big from last year is now your starter, when you probably could have committed to developing Rongie Gordon years ago.

We don’t go dancing without Jelly or win a conference tournament. Will we retire his number? No.

If you want to know about expectations around here, you are now not allowed to be upset about one possession games against Swac teams

Agree with the road games.

I’m not sure the portal is the easiest route. It’s not easy to develop freshen and win in the current climate. It’s also very difficult to keep them if you do develop them. The portal players can’t just up and leave like a freshman.

Agreed. Wish this year and last year’s schedules were flipped. It would have helped both teams.

How many people are happy with top 4 and 20 wins? Top 4 in the AAC is a bit different than it was in CUSA too. I don’t think any of us were happy finishing below 2 in CUSA.

We are allowed to celebrate the NIT run… should we not support the team at all? It’s what we got based on our entire body of work, and none of us could argue we belonged in the big dance. That shouldn’t have been the case with that team, but it was.

Agreed it would be nice to have some more shooters and a true pg at some point. Also agree about Rongie. He was always effective enough when I saw him play.

I don’t know the rules on retiring jerseys, but Jelly is as deserving as anybody in recent memory.

Nobody should be happy about the Alcorn State game. I’m glad we won, but I’m not at all pleased with how it went down.

don't remember who told me this but apparently if you were a transfer from another school you cant get jersey retired? hope that's not true

My understanding is that the player has to be named to an “All American” team.

(11-18-2023 04:37 AM)Nickj345 Wrote:  

(11-17-2023 07:47 PM)blazers9911 Wrote:  

(11-17-2023 01:55 PM)UABFAN23 Wrote:  

(11-17-2023 01:25 PM)umbluegray Wrote:  

(11-16-2023 10:24 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  Have you watched our games the last 2 years? This type of stuff is nothing new.

I haven't. I lost touch when we split to the AAC. I do tend to follow teams in our conference so I've started keeping up with the Blazers again. The last Blazer coach I recall from back in the days when Memphis and UAB were going at it was Mike Davis.

I looked it up and I see Kennedy is the 3rd coach since Davis. I also see that Kennedy has the best winning percentage of all Blazer coaches, which surprised me.

Code:

Andy Kennedy    2020–present    78-25 (.757)

That's pretty darn impressive.

So just curious... are Blazer fans happy with Kennedy or frustrated? Or both? What's the take?

Frustrated. He only scheduled 4 noncon road games over his first 3 seasons.
When conference play comes around, we drop games to grenades, because the team is untested.

He’s committed to building the team out of the portal because it’s the easiest route. Because of this, we are in year 4 with no true big or PG. He’ll shove 3-6 players in the portal every offseason, because they didn’t fit what we wanted to do, yet he’s the one who brought them in.

After missing an at-large bid due to his scared scheduling, he scheduled up but probably signed his least skilled and physical class yet.

Expectations have fallen to simply finishing top 4 in conference with 20 wins. We celebrate the NIT run last year, but don’t assess why we ended up there in the first place. Particularly when you know you don’t have shooting and you have a PG that will turn it over 4-7 times. Also, your 4th best big from last year is now your starter, when you probably could have committed to developing Rongie Gordon years ago.

We don’t go dancing without Jelly or win a conference tournament. Will we retire his number? No.

If you want to know about expectations around here, you are now not allowed to be upset about one possession games against Swac teams

Agree with the road games.

I’m not sure the portal is the easiest route. It’s not easy to develop freshen and win in the current climate. It’s also very difficult to keep them if you do develop them. The portal players can’t just up and leave like a freshman.

Agreed. Wish this year and last year’s schedules were flipped. It would have helped both teams.

How many people are happy with top 4 and 20 wins? Top 4 in the AAC is a bit different than it was in CUSA too. I don’t think any of us were happy finishing below 2 in CUSA.

We are allowed to celebrate the NIT run… should we not support the team at all? It’s what we got based on our entire body of work, and none of us could argue we belonged in the big dance. That shouldn’t have been the case with that team, but it was.

Agreed it would be nice to have some more shooters and a true pg at some point. Also agree about Rongie. He was always effective enough when I saw him play.

I don’t know the rules on retiring jerseys, but Jelly is as deserving as anybody in recent memory.

Nobody should be happy about the Alcorn State game. I’m glad we won, but I’m not at all pleased with how it went down.

don't remember who told me this but apparently if you were a transfer from another school you cant get jersey retired? hope that's not true

sounds like somebody was making stuff up

UAB was down 23-7 early in this game, or a deficit of 16 points. KenPom keeps track of biggest comebacks during the season. Right now, the UAB-Alcorn State game is tied for 10th.

The largest comeback so far was the Syracuse-Colgate game, when Syracuse was behind 54-30 early in the second half. Syracuse won 79-75.

Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe Gene’s rule about having your jersey retired was that you had to have been named an all-American and you had to have graduated.

Sounds right.

Retire Jelly's number because.... he was a dynamic player? Yeah, i guess we could display it next to the NCAA tournament sweet sixteen banner he helped us get. Oh wait, make that the round of 32 we advanced to while he was here. Oops, forget that too.
This is not taking a shot at Jelly. A fine young man capable of electrifying basketball fans with his unique scoring abilities. He did what he was asked to do often while the rest of the team stood and watched. I guess Kennedy felt that was the best way to win. He was also known to put of some bad shots and was abused defensively many times. We weren't a basketball team the last two years as much as were Jelly and friends. If you controlled him, and most big-name schools could, we were lost as a team. I like this year's team much more going forward. Again, Jelly could be fun to watch and explosive offensively, but he also wasn't opposed to shooting it 25 times in a game to get his points. Mo Findley would be much more deserving to have his jersey retired.

Conference player of the year, Conference tournament MVP.

If we go by the all American qualifications, it won’t be possible to achieve in our lifetime again. Anyhow, we can put it to rest.

Will say that some of the guys who have retired numbers had much more talented teams in & for their era than what Jelly played on in his career.

(11-22-2023 03:25 PM)randy22263 Wrote:  Retire Jelly's number because.... he was a dynamic player? Yeah, i guess we could display it next to the NCAA tournament sweet sixteen banner he helped us get. Oh wait, make that the round of 32 we advanced to while he was here. Oops, forget that too.
This is not taking a shot at Jelly. A fine young man capable of electrifying basketball fans with his unique scoring abilities. He did what he was asked to do often while the rest of the team stood and watched. I guess Kennedy felt that was the best way to win. He was also known to put of some bad shots and was abused defensively many times. We weren't a basketball team the last two years as much as were Jelly and friends. If you controlled him, and most big-name schools could, we were lost as a team. I like this year's team much more going forward. Again, Jelly could be fun to watch and explosive offensively, but he also wasn't opposed to shooting it 25 times in a game to get his points. Mo Findley would be much more deserving to have his jersey retired.

Jelly(and Trey) are probably two of the best ambassadors of UAB basketball in the past 25 years. I can name about every UAB great from the last 20 years and rattle off bad shots that were taken, it happens. Jelly did a lot of good/great things while he was here.

And the irony of Finley’s last name not being spelled correctly isn’t lost on me here.