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

(02-04-2024 08:08 PM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote:  I was hoping for a split. That said man we should have beaten them. Turnovers and I counted three balls that were off in SMU that they said UAB. Frustrating.

Yep. I remember two times under the SMU basket they called it out on UAB when a SMU player clearly touched it last. They scored 5 points on the possessions that followed being wrongly given the ball.

Lots of what ifs when you lose like that

Just move on and get ready for FAU

If they didn’t make a <5% type of three point shot and if Yax doesn’t miss a 99.99% dunk shot attempt, then we still probably end up pulling out the win.. that being said, this team and this coach has a horrible track record of playing with leads. It’s always something. Go to a therapy session or something with the whole team, work it out. The mental weakness we display when getting a lead is VERY old.

Credit SMU for lulling us to sleep when we got the big lead. We prioritized clock chewing over good shot selection. Throw in the turnovers and two very timely threes from them and now we're tied in the standings.

Didn't Coleman turn it over with 90secs left and SMU came down and immediately made 3 which was a 5 point swing?

Didn't Butta miss a makeable game tying 3pointer at the buzzer?

Lets don't give all the blame to Yaxel and EG, lets spread around the love.

(02-05-2024 09:46 AM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  If they didn’t make a <5% type of three point shot and if Yax doesn’t miss a 99.99% dunk shot attempt, then we still probably end up pulling out the win.. that being said, this team and this coach has a horrible track record of playing with leads. It’s always something. Go to a therapy session or something with the whole team, work it out. The mental weakness we display when getting a lead is VERY old.

Another reason why the lack for a true point guard hurts you. We need that leader. Not to keep bashing Gaines because he is currently our only option, but we have 9 new players and no field general on the court to settle players down when we start blowing leads late when other teams make their runs. Unlikely we are dancing this year but still lots of big games left. Best thing is keep improving and gaining that necessary experience. Believe me I hate the whole "wait till next year" talk but that is probably all that can be done. If we can get a true point guard and everyone comes back after an offseason in the weight room and gym, we can be very good. We have some quality pieces. Kennedy needs a big year next year. Anything less than advancing past the first round in the NCAA tournament will be a huge disappointment and his future should be in doubt.

(02-05-2024 10:20 AM)THE_LEGEND Wrote:  Didn't Coleman turn it over with 90secs left and SMU came down and immediately made 3 which was a 5 point swing?

Didn't Butta miss a makeable game tying 3pointer at the buzzer?

Lets don't give all the blame to Yaxel and EG, lets spread around the love.

No one, at least not me, is putting the blame squarely on those two players. I haven't even mentioned EG myself for once.

EG had a pretty solid game. He still shot poorly (surprise, surprise), but he limited his total number of shot attempts (the magic number is still less than 10 - AK I hope you will read this message some day), and he had good assist numbers.

Yax had a good day rebounding the ball, but shot poorly. Shooting sub-50% for a post player is REALLY bad.

I put this loss on the entire team and the coaching staff. It's their recurring inability to play with a lead that is so predictable, bothersome, and recurring. We played a pretty good game overall, against a good team on the road no less, we just yet again could not hold a lead.

PS - don't bring up Memphis as a shining example of a time this team held a lead. We tried everything we could in the last 7ish minutes of that game to give it away, but Memphis just happened to outdo us in that regard. I have no doubt if we had that lead against SMU at home, we would've completely bungled it.

(02-05-2024 10:30 AM)randy22263 Wrote:  

(02-05-2024 09:46 AM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  If they didn’t make a <5% type of three point shot and if Yax doesn’t miss a 99.99% dunk shot attempt, then we still probably end up pulling out the win.. that being said, this team and this coach has a horrible track record of playing with leads. It’s always something. Go to a therapy session or something with the whole team, work it out. The mental weakness we display when getting a lead is VERY old.

Another reason why the lack for a true point guard hurts you. We need that leader. Not to keep bashing Gaines because he is currently our only option, but we have 9 new players and no field general on the court to settle players down when we start blowing leads late when other teams make their runs. Unlikely we are dancing this year but still lots of big games left. Best thing is keep improving and gaining that necessary experience. Believe me I hate the whole "wait till next year" talk but that is probably all that can be done. If we can get a true point guard and everyone comes back after an offseason in the weight room and gym, we can be very good. We have some quality pieces. Kennedy needs a big year next year. Anything less than advancing past the first round in the NCAA tournament will be a huge disappointment and his future should be in doubt.

I don't disagree with anything you've said, but he's only done that twice in 17 years of being a head coach (including the year at Cincy). Doesn't bode well for our future, but hey there's always next year as you said

We should expect more and hold him to a higher standard. He is able to assemble the talented rosters, where are the higher level results?

My biggest gripes with Ak are: why does the team never "gel" until mid season at best? Why do we have WTF games seemingly out of nowhere every year? Why is the player effort and product on the court so inconsistent (AKA, I can take losses, but the out of nowhere, inexplicable, brain fart games are what I am referring to)? Why is the team so sloppy and and lacking in fundamentals for long stretches of the year? Why for the love of God can we not play with a lead? Why do you not recruit point guards - instead relying on 2 guards tweener guards to function as ballhandlers - or consistent shooters?

If he could fix those issues, he would be a damn good coach. Since he hasn't, he's still well behind Anderson in terms of best UAB coaches.

(02-05-2024 10:20 AM)THE_LEGEND Wrote:  Didn't Coleman turn it over with 90secs left and SMU came down and immediately made 3 which was a 5 point swing?

Didn't Butta miss a makeable game tying 3pointer at the buzzer?

Lets don't give all the blame to Yaxel and EG, lets spread around the love.

We are really gonna go at Butta? I get that he got a good look there, which was nice, but he was beyond the arc at that point. He also played 36 minutes and shot 8-12 on the day, including that miss. Everybody who played yesterday did something negative, but Butta is the last person on the team I’m ready to blame for the loss yesterday.

(02-05-2024 10:51 AM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  My biggest gripes with Ak are: why does the team never "gel" until mid season at best? Why do we have WTF games seemingly out of nowhere every year? Why is the player effort and product on the court so inconsistent (AKA, I can take losses, but the out of nowhere, inexplicable, brain fart games are what I am referring to)? Why is the team so sloppy and and lacking in fundamentals for long stretches of the year? Why for the love of God can we not play with a lead? Why do you not recruit point guards - instead relying on 2 guards tweener guards to function as ballhandlers - or consistent shooters?

If he could fix those issues, he would be a damn good coach. Since he hasn't, he's still well behind Anderson in terms of best UAB coaches.

I would say you largely answered your own questions. When we thrive running at a higher tempo and playing quick on offense and then try to slow it down, we get exposed. Gaines has become a much better passer this year, but he still doesn’t have a PG mentality. A true PG would slow the game down and run the offense when we are trying to ice a game. Instead, we get a team that’s trying to do that without the proper personnel in place. This team obviously has a lot of talent on it, we’ve been in pretty much every game this year, but it is lacking in discipline.

Also, at the end of the day we are in a good basketball conference that doesn’t get the respect it deserves. It’s likely going to be 2-3 bids most years, and we are going to have to fight for them. We cannot do what we did OOC this year and ever expect to go places. Hopefully this core group sticks around next year, works hard to develop, and becomes what they are capable of being. None of us want to see more of the same next year, but it’s hard to bet on anything else happening.

There were little things all over the place that add up to a 3 point loss on the road. They were largely player mistakes that they don’t need pointed out. They know you should never miss a dunk, you need to hit your free throws, that overpassing in the paint rarely ends well and that it ain’t good ball to foul on an inbounds with 1 second left on the shot clock.

Move on to FAU.

I'll end my 2 cents (x100) on this game discussion by saying that I feel like we played a pretty darn good game. I don't have major gripes with the coaching strategy and I can't point out major, glaring player issues (outside of nearly everyone doing something small here and there that contributed to the loss).

I would've been OK with this loss if we had just lost straight up by 3 points. To me, that would've said we came out and competed and played a pretty darn good game against a good team on the road in the middle of a really tough stretch of games for us. What I have trouble stomaching is the fact that we had absolute control of this game, had a sizeable lead, and yet again barfed all over ourselves. That's a tough pill to swallow for, what, the fourth (?) time this year (not to mention losing leads in other games that didn't lead to a loss)?..

Things don't play out like this in reality, but imagine if we had won those 4 games where we had control of a game and choked our way to an L. We'd be 18-4, probably sitting tied atop the conference standings with FAU, and probably making a real case for the bubble. Instead, yet again, we are thinking woulda, coulda, shoulda, and what should've been another promising season is looking relatively disappointing.

Anyways, get the bad taste out of our mouths and pick up huge win on Thursday, like we did against Memphis coming off a loss to Charlotte.

We are at the midpoint of the season, tied with Smoo (but down the tiebreaker) for 4th. That would've been nice to be a full game clear of everyone below 4th place, but we just have to keep playing. The good news is our gauntlet gets a little easier after the next game. Just need to keep pace and fight for that Top 4 spot before tournament time. At least Charlotte & USF have two games to play against each other, which gives us two Ls to gain games on.