Sunday, February 14, 2010

What Happened to UAB?

In our January 26 edition of the PHSports NCAA Tournament projections, we left UAB out of the field. One reader took exception, using favorable statistics and insults to support his argument, such as beating "ranked" teams Butler (still ranked because they play in a weak conference) and Cincinnati (has not sniffed the rankings in 2010). To his credit, UAB was 18-2 (6-0) at the time and they had come off a big home win against Tulsa.

In my arguments, I shared that UAB had a low margin for error, because they had eked out wins against weaker competition, had a tendency to waste offensive possessions, and that they would lose to UTEP, to Memphis (twice), and to one another team before succumbing to defeat in the C-USA Tournament. After the discussion had exhausted itself, we agreed to let the basketball play out.
UAB has lost 3 of 4
Credit: blog.al.com

And believe me, it has. After suffering a heartbreaker at home in double OT to UTEP, the Blazers lost at Memphis. Following a comeback win at basketball giants Rice, UAB faltered at home to Marshall, which dropped the Blazers to a record that we expected.

In short, PHSports did its research, spotted the trend before other sites and national columnists, and UAB fan is somewhere hiding with his tail between his legs.

Now, it's time to write about tournament teams ...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So what do you think about Louisville's chances now? HUGE win at the Carrier Dome today!

Paymon said...

Well, there's still plenty of basketball to be played.

In our 2/5/10 post (http://phsports.blogspot.com/2010/02/big-east-bubble-you-make-call.html), we predicted the Cardinals to go 10-8 and make the big dance, and they remain on course for that mark. They now have a signature win to boot.

Time will tell whether the Cardinals stay consistent.