UABinBHM

Then comes Duke, UConn, North Carolina, and UAB. : You just don't get it do you... ;D

uab is excellent? yeah  i get them confused with ucla and usf sucks for the umpteeth year UAB is no UCLA, but there is not a program in the Big East that can rival UCLA. Few in the nation really can. In fact, I'd say only one really can... Kentucky.

There it goes again... alright... say what you will, but don't be expecting to be beating UAB on a regular basis ANY time soon.

What crack pipe? If you care to point out any inaccuracies in what I said, please do so. But don't just sit and be bitter with no better comeback than that. UAB is one of the Top 25 all-time winningest programs... even as a fan of UAB, I don't simply *expect* to beat teams of the Top 25 all-time winningest programs. Sorry, but when UAB has beaten USF the last 8 times in the series and has won 63% of our games in history and I see a USF fan lumping UAB in a category with Richmond and Texas A&M CC... I'm going to say something.

I didn't say you were horrible. I said that you weren't good. Old Dominion beat UAB and held them to something like 42 points. ODU is not that good a team. How did all that great recruiting turn out for Davis once Bobby Knight's recruits left IU? Something tells me it's a bit more difficult to recruit in C-USA and in Birmingham over Indiana and the Big Ten. Old Dominion IS good and is traditionally good. We only scored 42pts and they only scored like 56pts or so. Yes, we lost, but it was a low scoring game period... and it was on the road. Let's see... since Davis arrived, we have gotten: Robert Vaden (a transfer from Indiana & Top 50 recruit out of high school) Jeremy Mayfield (freshman this year & Top 50 recruit out of high school) Walter Sharpe (a transfer from Miss. State & Top 50 recruit out of high school) Keenan Ellis (upcoming freshman next year & Top 50 recruit out of high school) Aaron Johnson (one of Illinois' top high school players and a Rivals 3-star recruit) Channing Toney (a transfer from Georgia & Top 100 recruit out of high school) UAB's team next year will have more talent than ever in the history of the program.

And you shouldn't feel bad for letting down the Big East. Cincinnati and DePaul both lost to UAB this year as well.

"The UAB's of the world"???? Maybe you should re-read my sig. You *expect* to beat one of the 25 winningest programs in NCAA history?? Yeah, ok.... :

Did you really expect to win this game? Yes, I did. UAB is not that good this season and Mike Davis is not that good of a coach. UAB is not horrible... in 28 years of basketball, UAB has only had 2 or 3 that were not winning seasons. UAB has tradition and a lot of skill on this team. UAB has played a VERY tough schedule with this being only our 3rd home game out of the 13 games we've played so far. UAB is also on an 18-game home winning streak. I can understand *hoping* for a win or expecting a closer game, but *expecting* to win... well... you can think what you want. And Mike Davis BTW is a pretty good coach and a heck of a recruiter for sure.

Why on EARTH would you think would move to St. Pete or Tampa? You again don't seem to realize that the entire reason these particular bowl officials made this game in Birmingham was out of their love for Birmingham and for UAB... not strictly about the bottom dollar. 32,000+ for two teams that frankly don't bring a whole lot of street credibility is pretty darn good. 32,000+ is better than many of the other bowls will do and this is just its first year with limited organization. Again, if it were UAB, Memphis, or Southern Miss as opposed to ECU, there would have been about 40,000 there. Also, had it been Louisville or West Virginia or something vs. USF, again, there'd be alot more than that. So again, if you're lobbying for a bowl, you'll have better luck going after another one. There's no reason they'd move this one when the reason was to support THIS community and the fact that it was more successful than a number of other long-standing bowl games.

UAB was "nothing in basketball for years" because basketball didn't exist at UAB period. UAB's first coach ever was Gene Bartow. UAB began in 1978 playing basketball. About 3 years into the program, UAB was in the Elite 8. As much as people want to dog on Murray Bartow, he still wasnt a horrible coach... just not a good coach by UAB standards. Murray still won 55% of the games he coached in. He's now at East Tennessee State where he led them to the NCAA tournament either last year or the year before.

Your recruiting hasn't improved since the move to the BE? That's surprising if true. Hard to believe, actually.

I'm sorry, but UAB's basketball program is considered to be a pretty big name in the basketball world. UAB and Memphis may play in a mid-major conference, but that doesn't make them "mid-major programs." Having said all that, this year will be a little painful with such little depth, a new coach/system, and an extremely unfavorable schedule. Next year should be much improved. We only have 2 seniors and have 3 big transfers waiting in the wings (Robert Vaden from Indiana, Walter Sharpe from Mississippi State, and Channing Toney from UGA). BTW, we had a coach before Mike Anderson, so he didn't make us the basketball program we are... a guy by the name of Gene Bartow did. This could still be a fairly close game. USF generally seems to give UAB pretty good fights even when we have better teams than the one we have this year.

I figured that may have been what you intended to say, but even that is not necessarily accurate. We averaged 22,000+ this last year with a 3-9 record. That's the worst record in UAB history along with the highest per game attendance average in UAB history. UAB is at the point now where we're still going to gain some fans pretty slowly no matter how we do on the field. Hopefully the new coach will at least lead UAB to a bowl game every other year or so. As far as the idea by Apis, I'd say that's not likely. The bowl game is operated by ESPN Regional. One of the higher ups in ESPN Regional administration is a former UAB athletic department official. He's a big supporter of Birmingham and UAB. That's not to say Tampa might not get a bowl game some day, but it won't likely be this one. I think the lack of interest shown by some of the locals that you speak of speaks to UAB's entire problem in terms of generating alot of fan interest. This is the very reason professional sports aren't likely to be terribly successful in this state. If it's not Alabama and it's not Auburn, it's not important... or so most of this state seems to think.

USF alone brings in $3.2 BILLION annually into the Tampa Bay Area Economy. UCF, and its Research Park bring in $3.3 Billion annually in the Central Florida Economy. No need to even show what huge research institutions bring in. Bottom line...UAB is a very good school...and a very important part to the Birmingham economy...as is any University in this country is to their areas as well. No doubt... USF and UCF are both about 2-2.5 times larger than UAB in student population.

A few things... downtown Birmingham is struggling quite a bit, but in actuality, the downtown area has done nothing but IMPROVE in 2 years.  Believe me... this is my expertise.  Birmingham in 1996 had nearly 300 abandoned buildings in the city center.  Today, that number is down to around 80.  There are also thousands of new hotel units and condominiums under construction or planned over the next few years.  The city leadership in Birmingham sucks... you've got no argument there.  They've allowed Legion Field and the area around it to become a total dump.  There are certainly very many nice areas around metro Birmingham.  The downtown core of MANY older cities is deteriorating, however.  Birmingham's metro area is just like Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville, and others.  In fact, America's 2nd wealthiest city lies in metro Birmingham... some of you may have heard of it-- Mountain Brook.  Again, if you want to judge a city based upon some of the downtown areas you visited, then be my guest, but it's an ignorant assumption. The bowl was somewhat disorganized and the coordination with the city left a great deal to be desired, but what you don't maybe know is how quickly this bowl came from out of nowhere.  The bowl was announced less than a year ago (I think around June).  Then for months, there was no title sponsor.  Finally, about a month or so ago, Papa John's was announced as the title sponsor.  They need only average 25,000 per game over like 5 years or something to keep the bowl.  For this game, there were 32,000+.  The organizers were VERY pleased with the turnout.  Had this been UAB vs USF, Southern Miss vs. USF, or Memphis vs USF, the turnout could have even been greater.  ECU travels pretty well, but nowhere near Memphis or Southern Miss levels.  And this is UAB's hometown where we averaged 22,000+ this past year (and that's with a 3-9 record).  The bowl's future is bright. I don't even want to go into that statement that UAB is crumbling, but clearly you need some educating... I mean really... what on earth are you talking about?  We're only about the 2nd most important research institution in the South.  We're building several multi-million dollar facilities EVERY year.  In fact, UAB creates an estimated $2 billion impact on the local economy each and every year.  Few institutions in the nation could boast such numbers.  So again, saying that about UAB really shows how much you actually know about the situation in Birmingham.