N. Alabama

[ohcolonel6]

Up 52-38.

14 min to go.

Flagrant 1 on Cooper, not a smart play….

Need to hold on to this one. 4-0 in conference play and 3 straight home would be huge.

[ohcolonel6]

Awful late game offense strikes again. Up 18, 68-50.

Have allowed a 16-4 run to let them back within 6 with 1:47 to go. Hold the ball…

[ekugrad1970]

Played to win worked…..playing not to lose not so good

[Maroon Forever]

Exactly. Thank goodness we had enough cushion.

[Colonel12]

Yeah there was no reason to have to be nervous at the end but yet I was. Best conference start in 10 years

[RollKerns]

I’m not really a basketball guy so I was wondering for the people to know. Has the team just started improving and finding a stride? (Which I feel like is odd for a veteran team) or is the ASUN just really bad at basketball? Or I guess it could be potentially a 3rd option where they’ve just played bottom members of the conference and KSU & FLGC are coming. I just don’t really know if I should be excited and expect a little March madness in our future or not.

[ohcolonel6]

I’m not really a basketball guy so I was wondering for the people to know. Has the team just started improving and finding a stride? (Which I feel like is odd for a veteran team) or is the ASUN just really bad at basketball? Or I guess it could be potentially a 3rd option where they’ve just played bottom members of the conference and KSU & FLGC are coming. I just don’t really know if I should be excited and expect a little March madness in our future or not.

To answer your question, I will point to some things you said in your question.

First, while UNA and Peay are 1-2 in conference and are not “good teams” they are near .500 and North Alabama has some dudes that can fill it up. Peay is a OVC foe who gives us trouble no matter how good/bad they are. Wins in conference are great no matter how you get them. UNA is a weird team, they have two really good scorers but are a mess as a team. They’re 2-1, but 6-13 overall. Crazy as it sounds I wouldn’t want to play them round one of the ASUN Touney. Next, Lipscomb, a very solid team that has a chance to win the conference if things fan their way. Easily our best win of the season.

Second, are we feasting on lesser opponents? Probably? Maybe? But, who cares. We were in a horrible slump. We were 4-9 heading into conference but really, we were 1-9. Getting 4 straight wins to open up conference play was enormous. Imagine if we had to go against 4 good conference title contending teams and went 1-3, would have finished the season. Sometimes you need a slump buster. And we, thankfully, got one.

Third, we’ve DOMINATED the conference opponents we’ve played. That tells me it’s not a fluke. Look at these numbers. For each game this the total amount of time we’ve trailed in the game at any point.

Lipscomb: 37 seconds total, after 18:11 in first half we never trailed again.

APSU: 0 seconds. Write to wire win.

Central Arkansas: 3 min 16 seconds, after 15:31 in first half we never trailed again.

No. Bama: 11 seconds, after 18:57 in the first half we never trailed again.

Collectively, we’ve trailed out in our four conference games for a total of 4 minutes and 4 seconds. The latest we’ve trailed in a game, in conference is, 15:31. No matter the opponent, that’s amazing, and it is such a jolt to the team’s confidence.

Fourth, we have the conference player of the year. And it’s not Blanton, it’s Cozart. The dude has taken a monumental step this season. Currently, in conference, he is 8th in scoring at 17ppg, first in rebounding at 11rpg, and first in blocks at 2.3bpg. The dude legit might win, Conf. POTY & Conf. DPOYT.

Last, yes, we’ve hit shots. Especially Moreno. He is 14/23 from 3 in the 4 conference games. That’s an insane percentage of 60% from 3. He’s not going to do that the rest of the way. I’ve said several times, I think this team goes as far as his shooting goes. Because sometimes he’s good for 15 points, other times we are lucky if he gets 6. If we wanna have a legit chance of sustaining this, he, more than Blanton even, has to keep making shots. Because if he’s not making 3s he’s a blank on the scoresheet for us. (This statement doesn’t account towards his leadership and off court contributions.)

My two big causes for concern:

The lack of depth, I’ve been saying it all year. We rely way too heavily on our starting 5. Eventually that’ll take a toll come in the dog days of February on a two game road swing where you just don’t have it and you have no one really off the bench to propel you to victory. We run an 8 man rotation, mainly. We have only one “big” (Ukomadu) to sub in for Cozart/Moreno/Blanton. Cooper has been okay as a sub/transfer. Need more for him. Buttry is hit or miss. If he hits shots, he’s a nice little microwave scorer. If he’s not, this will be brutally honest, he’s probably the worst player on the court.

Blanton, I don’t know what has happened to him. His game is all over the place. He’s 20/48 from the field in conference play alone. That’s barely over 40%. For a guy who’s only shot six (6), 3 pointers in 4 conference games… that’s not great. He needs to attack the rim and get to the line. Which he is making his free throws… but he’s only been to the line 13 times in 4 conference games. That number needs to be tripled. He should be getting to the line 4-5 times a game for 8-10 free throws a game. The problem is, he’s shooting at such a poor percentage no one is buying his shot fake to drive move. Guys are playing off him 2-3 feet and daring him to shoot. It’s working. If they want any shot of being real down the way. Blanton needs to get to the line 8-10 times a game, and raise his shooting percentage to around 46-48%.

[ohcolonel6]

Big home game, they’re all important now. Up 8. Little under 8 left in first half.

Common theme: Blanton struggling again.

[ohcolonel6]

10 seconds ish left. UNA ball, we are up 3.

Ran same play to Blanton on last possession. Didn’t work this time around. Blanton did finish strong. 3/4 after 1/8 start and 2/2 from from FT line.

I’d foul here. Don’t let them tie.

[ohcolonel6]

Thank God… he missed that 3 at the end. That’s why you foul. A win is a win is a win. Only fault to Cozart’s game is his FT shooting.

Also, QUEEEEEEENNNNNSSS!!!!! Just took down Stetson for us. Monumental. Absolutely monumental us to win the conference. We now have a 2 game lead.