A game of troubled teams: UAB at Louisville

UAB was supposed to be having its big year. Mike Davis had backloaded the roster with "BCS" transfers. Yet when the Blazers took the co(ur)t (Pitino-speak) yesterday, they had exactly six scholarship players left. Two were just recently lost to academic ineligibility (AI). The coaches's own son just came back from AI. His own frakking son! Lenny Elmore tried to defend Mike Davis, but it looks like perhaps the Knights were right after all. Yikes!

And the remaining UAB players played as hard as they could, considering their numbers, the numbers of the opponent and the PitinoVille-friendly crowd. They should still be able to out-gun most of the C-USA teams, but it looks like their big chance to dethrone a struggling Memphis team has gone bye-bye.

Louisville on the other hand made a good step in the right direction. On a very related note Edgar Sosa made only a brief guest appearance. Pitino over-reacted to getting burned by Sebastian Telfair (as if he would ever go to college), and decided to stick with Sosa, who is turning out to be a net-negative, and would probably do better running and gunning for a NEC/MEAC team.

Samardo Samuels on the other hand has been EXPOSED. He can't jump over a wet towel when stand-still. This means that the eight-figure NBA salaries are not coming any time soon, but he could make a good back-to-the-basket traditional Euroleague center. Of course he's only a freshman, and it's only late December, so let's not rush to conclusions just yet ;-) Still that does not mean he can't be a very effective college player assuming he learns, adjusts, adapts and develops his game physically and mentally. He is still a space-eater after all!

Nevertheless, without consistent guard play and without reliable shooters that can play defense (eg crack the rotation), this team certainly does not look like a top 20 team, even though it has top 10 to top 15 talent. But if Pitino works his magic as usual, this could be a very dangerous team by February. Or not?

Game recap: UAB at Arizona

A series of very unfortunate events can easily describe the last two season at Arizona. And this unfortunate situation is quite possibly what is going to return Arizona back to the amorphous pool of BCS college basketball programs hoping for an NCAA bid on a good year.

If you needed any further evidence of the confusion and disarray, two different Wildcats fouled a player when they didn't have to in the last minute of the game. Both fouls were completely unnecessarily and quite likely had cost the team a very unlikely victory. Ouch for Kyle Fogg.

Two years of uncertainty also have a way of derailing your recruiting pipeline and planning. Who is going to commit to Arizona for 2009-2010 and beyond when no one knows who the next coach is going to be? And considering the current roster, the next coach is going to have at least a couple of years of struggles. Unless of course he can convince Budinger and Jordan Hill to stay put for their senior years and convince the remaining players not to transfer out.

UAB on the other hand, may be getting ready to have their best season since their epic NCAA tournament run against Washington and Kentucky. Despite the academic troubles, including the coaches "daughter" (Jim Rome speak), they have plenty of talent, and as long as Darth Vader(n) can make comfy three-pointers from the half-court, they can come back to just about anyone. But just like their coach, the team looks to be erratic, and that cuts both ways.

UAB vs Kentucky

While Jimmy "dog and pony show" Dykes sounded like he was rehearsing for the "UAB defensive co-ordinator" job, Darth Vaden showed up in the second half and spoiled Kentucky's three point parade. 33 points were just too much as he led the Blazers to a second half comeback. The offensive drought ended at Freedom Hall, Kentucky's "home" for the day, as Bradley, Crawford and Porter were hitting three like crazy. But so was Darth Vaden (Robert Vaden).

This was the first end-to-end UAB Blazers game I watched this season. The team is missing the injured veteran Paul Delaney so they have two newcomers in the back court. But certainly mighty mouse Aaron Johnson was better than I expected for an unheralded freshman. Ditto backup Ed Berrios. Obviously Darth Vaden is not going to score 33 every game, so a combination of Frank Holmes, Walter Sharpe and the like have to deliver. One thing that may work in Mike Davis's favor is #51, Reggie Huffman, who is four years older than his class because of military service, so even without Delaney they have someone more mature and disciplined than the average player.

What does this mean for UAB's future? That is a good question! They are a work in progress, they do have a high ceiling but they can also hit rock bottom.

For Kentucky this game started great, as they had a comfy lead on the home court of bitter rival PitinoVille. The threes finally started falling, and Mark Coury started the game as if he was a top 100 player. To a certain extend you can't blame the defense when someone has a wild second half like Darth Vaden did. But you can certainly blame the defense for not containing him more.

What does this mean for Billy Gillispie? In a way he is a victim of his own early recruiting success. The expectations with Tubby players were not high, but "Clyde" brought in Patrick Patterson and Alex Legion and started filling up the pipeline and got everyone excited.

And this perhaps raises a big question: When Billy Gillispie took over UTEP and Texas A&M they were in total mess. A&M was coming off zero (0) conference wins. Anything more than zero was a success. But unlike UTEP and Texas A&M, this won't cut it at Kentucky. A NIT bid in year one may have put Billy G in contention for coach of the year at UTEP or A&M, but at Kentucky it's a really bad season. So he has his work cut out for him this season. Even though he is dealing with the after-effects of the Tubby Smith era, there is no "get out of jail card" like UTEP or A&M.

More on this game at A Sea of Blue, John Clay's Sidelines report, Rick Bozich, and Wildcats Thunder.

During the game the announcers mentioned the four possible transfer destinations for Alex Legion, one of them being Notre Dame.

Be sure to check the upcoming December 2007 college hoops games on TV.