The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Basketball Blog - Donnie Marsh
12/8/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 8, 2011
That "thud" you just heard was a baby gorilla falling off of our shoulders after a really good win against a very good Middle Tennessee team last night. I think we all felt we were seeing signs of improvement, but I also know that sometimes those things come at a snail's pace. Everyone wants things to change "right now", to get better "right now". No one wants that more than our players and staff, trust me on that. But the reality is that learning to win; doing all the necessary things you need to do to win; developing the players into individual roles that mesh together in order to win; and then getting it done when the popcorn is popping - in the heat of battle - all take time. We saw some guys flying around and playing with some desperation last night. We saw guys giving up their bodies drawing charges. We saw guys sharing the ball, making that extra pass to get a teammate a better look than perhaps the one he might have had. We saw guys challenging shots, playing physical, and embracing the challenge of taking and making big shots when we had to have them. That's a winning formula and our goal over these next 13 days is to continue perfecting that formula. We don't play again until December 20th at VCU. We have some tired guys, some bruised guys, some banged up guys. So physically we can use a few days in the training room and in the cold tub under the very capable supervision of Bryan Koch, our athletic trainer. But a stretch like the one we've had can also be mentally taxing on the players (and staff), so this time will help in a lot of ways. It's finals week and our guys are in really good shape going in. Now it's a matter of finishing strong. Sound familiar? I guess you can never completely get away from references to on the court issues. "Finishing strong" is something we did well last night. It's something we must do over the next week in the classroom. And it's something we must do from now into and through March if we want to have a chance to accomplish our goals as a team. I guess I just adopted that as one of our themes for the season. I know this much, If we "Bring the Fight" every night we'll give ourselves a chance to "Finish Strong".
