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Post by northalaspectator on Mar 30, 2019 6:19:19 GMT -6
Great accomplishment, exciting and fun season to watch. My only negative point is that our SOS was very very weak. We played 17 different D1 schools and out of those 17 only 5 had winning seasons and only 1 had a better winning percentage than North Alabama.
Looking forward to next season hopefully a better winning percentage and better SOS and just as exciting and fun as this season.
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Post by unafied on Mar 30, 2019 11:30:09 GMT -6
It’s interesting. You look at what the men did, and obviously it was a totally different philosophy. The funny thing is that with all the roster turnover the men had, it would have probably made more sense for the men to have had the kind of schedule the women did - though I certainly understand why Coach Pujol did what he did. If the women had had the SOS the men did, what might have been different? Maybe an additional 4-5 losses but a better RPI? Could it have gotten us into the WNIT? I guess we’ll never know.
We return every starter, and almost all the points scored from this season. Though our seniors were important. We’ll need someone to provide a spark off the bench like Stults did, and someone to spell Panetti like Nunley did. Are those two players already on the team? Maybe so. Another important factor will be keeping Ivy healthy next year. I believe she’s about to have surgery for a torn meniscus but is expected to be back at full strength for next year. But, she obviously has a history now of being less than 100%. If I had one wish, it would be for a transfer that could play immediately and give us another scoring threat inside. Too often this year, if our 3s didn’t fall, we had Panetti and nothing else.
I hope we can schedule another SEC team or two next year, and hopefully more of the Conference USA/Sun Belt types of teams that can provide us some solid competition. Meanwhile, I see that FGCU only loses 2 of their 5 starters. I assume they’ll be pretty tough in the conference again next year. If they’re the standard to work towards right now, we have some work to do.
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Post by lions09 on Mar 30, 2019 11:54:15 GMT -6
We definitely need a bigger inside player.
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Post by lions09 on Mar 30, 2019 13:39:54 GMT -6
It’s interesting. You look at what the men did, and obviously it was a totally different philosophy. The funny thing is that with all the roster turnover the men had, it would have probably made more sense for the men to have had the kind of schedule the women did - though I certainly understand why Coach Pujol did what he did. If the women had had the SOS the men did, what might have been different? Maybe an additional 4-5 losses but a better RPI? Could it have gotten us into the WNIT? I guess we’ll never know. We return every starter, and almost all the points scored from this season. Though our seniors were important. We’ll need someone to provide a spark off the bench like Stults did, and someone to spell Panetti like Nunley did. Are those two players already on the team? Maybe so. Another important factor will be keeping Ivy healthy next year. I believe she’s about to have surgery for a torn meniscus but is expected to be back at full strength for next year. But, she obviously has a history now of being less than 100%. If I had one wish, it would be for a transfer that could play immediately and give us another scoring threat inside. Too often this year, if our 3s didn’t fall, we had Panetti and nothing else. I hope we can schedule another SEC team or two next year, and hopefully more of the Conference USA/Sun Belt types of teams that can provide us some solid competition. Meanwhile, I see that FGCU only loses 2 of their 5 starters. I assume they’ll be pretty tough in the conference again next year. If they’re the standard to work towards right now, we have some work to do. I second-guess a lot of Pujol's choices this season, namely tossing all those guys with height and not choosing a more-friendly early season schedule. All that travel with a slew of freshmen wasn't the best choice, in my opinion. We needed a few in-state HBCU opponents (like A&M, Bama State, etc.) in the mix to take some of that travel burden off those young guys. It may pay off in the long run but that was rough to watch. He's a new head coach in a new situation, I'm still optimistic about next year.
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Post by unafied on Mar 30, 2019 16:27:42 GMT -6
It’s interesting. You look at what the men did, and obviously it was a totally different philosophy. The funny thing is that with all the roster turnover the men had, it would have probably made more sense for the men to have had the kind of schedule the women did - though I certainly understand why Coach Pujol did what he did. If the women had had the SOS the men did, what might have been different? Maybe an additional 4-5 losses but a better RPI? Could it have gotten us into the WNIT? I guess we’ll never know. We return every starter, and almost all the points scored from this season. Though our seniors were important. We’ll need someone to provide a spark off the bench like Stults did, and someone to spell Panetti like Nunley did. Are those two players already on the team? Maybe so. Another important factor will be keeping Ivy healthy next year. I believe she’s about to have surgery for a torn meniscus but is expected to be back at full strength for next year. But, she obviously has a history now of being less than 100%. If I had one wish, it would be for a transfer that could play immediately and give us another scoring threat inside. Too often this year, if our 3s didn’t fall, we had Panetti and nothing else. I hope we can schedule another SEC team or two next year, and hopefully more of the Conference USA/Sun Belt types of teams that can provide us some solid competition. Meanwhile, I see that FGCU only loses 2 of their 5 starters. I assume they’ll be pretty tough in the conference again next year. If they’re the standard to work towards right now, we have some work to do. I second-guess a lot of Pujol's choices this season, namely tossing all those guys with height and not choosing a more-friendly early season schedule. All that travel with a slew of freshmen wasn't the best choice, in my opinion. We needed a few in-state HBCU opponents (like A&M, Bama State, etc.) in the mix to take some of that travel burden off those young guys. It may pay off in the long run but that was rough to watch. He's a new head coach in a new situation, I'm still optimistic about next year. I understand feeling that way. I just don’t know if an additional 2 or 3, maybe even 5 wins would’ve made that much of a difference. Maybe it could have boosted some of the guys’ confidence, but honestly, for a bunch of mostly freshmen I didn’t think they ever seemed to lack confidence. We just were either outmanned or outplayed. We need a few bigger guys, and we need a few of our best players to get better. I think the tough rough schedule may been a combination of several things. I think Coach used his contacts to get some games. I bet a lot of schools don’t want to schedule a first-year team due to the hit in RPI (or NET), so that could’ve been a factor. He may have accepted a few that he wouldn’t have otherwise wanted. And finally, I think some of those big names were to get the fan base excited. We haven’t had a lot to be excited about in a while. If we had managed to win one of those big non-conference games, there would’ve been a lot of talk about UNA nationally. Obviously it didn’t happen, but I can appreciate him trying if that’s what it was. Anyway, I guess it’s all a moot point now. But like the women, it’ll be interesting to see what direction they go next year.
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Post by roaringsince96 on Mar 30, 2019 19:38:40 GMT -6
Suttle and Austin need to some provide some spark off the bench. Good size for both, Suttle looked fast and athletic in the little time she played. Graham and Madden need to take the next step, both showed flashes, need some consistency.
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Post by unalions on Mar 30, 2019 21:02:03 GMT -6
I think both teams now see what D1 size inside is all about and need to address those deficiencies. We were often a team of guards on the court for both squads.
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Post by catscratchfever4 on Mar 31, 2019 1:53:46 GMT -6
Just wanted to remind everyone that the men's team probably cleared more money than every UNA athletic event and fundraiser put together. That was imperative.
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Post by unafied on Mar 31, 2019 5:01:14 GMT -6
Just wanted to remind everyone that the men's team probably cleared more money than every UNA athletic event and fundraiser put together. That was imperative. Thats a great point, and one I should have mentioned in my post above. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the Flowers renovations was dependent on money some of those schools paid to beat us up. Can we play Kentucky, Duke, and Kansas back-to-back-to-back next year, if it lets us have a pep band again?
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Post by lions09 on Mar 31, 2019 7:58:32 GMT -6
Just wanted to remind everyone that the men's team probably cleared more money than every UNA athletic event and fundraiser put together. That was imperative. I assume that money barely allowed the department to break even on travel.
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Post by brandon on Mar 31, 2019 12:44:37 GMT -6
Just wanted to remind everyone that the men's team probably cleared more money than every UNA athletic event and fundraiser put together. That was imperative. I assume that money barely allowed the department to break even on travel. They cleared a good amount from what I have been told.
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Post by roaringsince96 on Mar 31, 2019 12:50:12 GMT -6
$95,000 for one game, quite a bit. Basketball team doesn’t eat up too much space on small jet. We definitely played some big money games in year one.
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Post by lions09 on Mar 31, 2019 14:26:47 GMT -6
I'm talking all teams travel. Football went all over. That's thousands per game for plane and hotels.
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Post by willsfc on Mar 31, 2019 15:22:24 GMT -6
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Post by lions09 on Mar 31, 2019 17:21:54 GMT -6
Yeah. Was are of that. I'm sure those checks are paying for soccer, volleyball, softball, baseball travel too. Not to discount the money. Just saying were not making bank on the situation when you realize how much we're traveling to South FL and NJ.
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