The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB BASKETBALL BLOG
2/22/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 22, 2010
We accomplished a short term goal last week going 2-0 and improving our RPI in the process. That included a good road win against Southern Miss. We had a quaint but vocal group of Blazer fans make the trip and we truly appreciated that. Hopefully your ride home was a pleasant as ours. The game against Houston brought some different challenges and our kids answered them. We wanted to come out throwing the first punch - something we hadn't done in quite some time in Bartow Arena. We accomplished that jumping out to a 22-7 lead. But we stopped punching for a long stretch and Houston got back into the game. We wobbled a bit but regained our legs and finished the game off with another strong run. We're getting closer to punching all 12 rounds. This week brings new challenges and we must continue getting better. First at UCF on Wednesday we have to maintain our focus and bring the fight against a team that plays hard and well especially at home. They will be without a very important piece in AJ Rompza. In my eyes that just makes them more dangerous, kind of like a wounded animal. We expect to get their best shot and we know their crowd will be vocal in trying to help make up for their leader being out. Many of you probably didn't see the play that cost Rompza a game suspension. I watched it on tape. It happened very late in their game at Southern Miss - I think only about 7 or 8 seconds remained. I'm sure if he had that decision to make again he would think 3 times about fouling that way in that situation. We've expressed to our guys to play physically but make sure it stays under control. To lose a key member at this stage of the season can really hurt the team. I think they got the message.
Coming home for one of the final two (2) games in Bartow will finish off the week. That will be an afternoon game on Saturday so make sure you triple check the time. Our women's team plays the same day so make plans to come out and support both teams. We want to have another 2-0 week but we know you can't go 2-0 without going 1-0 first. The UCF game will be a homecoming for Dexter Fields and I am sure he's excited. Hmmm, perhaps that's why he broke out of a tough shooting slump against Houston. He knew what was on the horizon. Whatever the reason it was really nice to see him contribute. If he can continue to progress he will allow us to rest Jamarr, AJ, and Eli more down the stretch of the season and help our depth. We already have a solid rotation of 8 and this would give us 9 and allow even better distribution of minutes to keep our guys fresh. That would be key to us being physically and mentally alert to be able to throw the first punch, keep punching in the middle rounds and get back to knocking some teams out in the later rounds. It all starts Wednesday and that's as far as this team is looking. GO BLAZERS!!!
