Niners (9-2) begin their swan song tour in C-USA with a matchup vs preseason favorite UAB (9-2) in Birmingham.
Marks the 52nd meeting between the schools. Although Blazers lead the series 32-19, Niners won most recent game 70-55 in January 2021. Teams did not meet last year.
One common opponent during OOC play this season:
Presbyterian 61
UAB 92
Nov 16th
Presbyterian 42
Charlotte 69
Nov 26th
clt likes the niners and the points
Also apparently they have a “Butta” Johnson…
The OG.
Big, Big game!! Could be a tone-setter for conference play.
I cannot wait
I think we can beat them but I’m not gonna lose my crap if we lose. This should in theory be the hardest remaining game on our schedule.
I will be glued to the TV Thursday rooting for the upset.
A lots going to depend on how they call the game. If they let their bruisers beat up on Aly he could have a long night. If he’s allowed to show his skill he can eat their bigs up with great passing and skilled play.
I can see Milicic giving their bigs some issues cause they don’t seem that mobile.
Again our guards have to slow down the game and work through their pressure. I think we have the guards to do that.
Come on man. They are 9-2!
Obviously we are a dog in this game but I’m gonna have some positivity. We are off to a good start. If we go 50% in conference we can end the heat at 19-12. I think we can do much better than that.
If we go .500 in conference they will be a massively let down. I don’t expect to go undefeated in conf but this team should not drop more than maybe 2 or 3 conf games.
I think 16-4 is aspirational.
12-8 would be my floor.
Anything in between is varying degrees of acceptable.
That projects to a final record between 21-10 and 25-6.
Of course, all of this is subject to reconsideration after the first pass through the league. Remember, we have to play every team home and away.
Sanchez is only 8 games away from .500 editor
I would be happy with a 12-8 record in the conference.
Always tough to win on the road so I take that into account. If you can go 9-1 at home and 5-5 on the road 14-6 is reasonable. It starts Thursday and a win would be huge start, but with that even a hard fought game with a loss wouldn’t be a letdown to me.
I’m interested to see if Folks can slow down Walker. He’s been a beast on D this year.
We have not won 12 conference games since the last time we made the NCAA tournament. Now that was when we only played 16 conference games. We only had 2 winning conference records since Lutz was let go. Both were by Ron Sanchez. These are the reasons why I would be happy with winning 12 conference games.
Twelve C-USA wins is definitely doable. I figure the toughest road games will be UAB, FAU, Middle Tennessee, WKU, and North Texas. Of course, those are probably the toughest home games too!
Top 2 in CUSA or bust. 3rd mayyyyy be a number 100 team, no idea, but I still think we should be in the mix to winning the league as the expectation here.
UAB fans certainly don’t think this is a guaranteed win for them.
They have one of the fastest tempos in college basketball and we are literally dead last in tempo (and I think UNT is second to last).
One of their fans said they have had difficulty controlling tempo in games this season, so hopefully our defense really takes them out of their element.
