The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Basketball Blog with Donnie Marsch
12/16/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 15, 2008
It's hard to believe that Christmas is just 10 days away. What's not hard to believe is that I am in no way ready. Thank goodness my role in the holiday at our house is minimal at best. My wife does the majority of the planning, shopping & work to get the house ready for family and friends who will be visiting. My days leading up to the holiday aren't much different than any week during the season. We've been practicing, scouting, recruiting, blogging, etc. Since my last blog we have won the only home game we've had this season and we have lost a game at Cincinnati. We are on the back end of an 11 day "break" that has allowed our players to study for and take final exams and it has allowed us to have some much needed practice time. Traveling as much as we did the first few weeks of the season meant we have very little time on the practice floor. After giving the guys a few days off to prepare for their exams, we have been able to get some great work done to clean up several areas that needed work. Our defense has not been nearly as effective or efficient as we needed it to be over the last 4 games. I take that personally and we have really spent a great deal of time going back to basics, watching and breaking down film, and making some changes or adjustments to what we are doing on the defensive end. I feel better about where we are at this point and believe it will show in our performance on the floor in our upcoming games. We have a really important 3 game home stand starting this Wednesday night against a 6-1 Jacksonville State team that has won 6 games in a row. Their new coach James Green has done a terrific job getting that team to buy into his style of play. That record includes a very impressive win at UMass, the same team that upset Kansas this weekend. We will have our hands full and we need another big time environment similar to the USF game. Saturday's rematch with Troy starts at 1PM & Next Monday FAU comes calling under new coach Mike Jarvis at 7PM. Here's hoping to SEE & HEAR you all in full force.
GO BLAZERS!
