05-25-2007, 10:49 PM
Here is Today in Blazer History from February 2005
2/2/05 @Marquette
The Date:
UAB has a pretty good record on this date with 8 wins and 2 losses. We are 4-1 on the road on Groundhog day. Unfortunately, the one road loss on this date was today's opponent, Marquette in 1994. More about that game in a bit.
Our first game on this date came in our first season. On February 2, 1979, UAB played the Hawaii Rainbows at the BJCC. Scheduling was strange that first year. This game was played on a Friday night, and the Blazers would return to the Civic Center the next day on Saturday to play a noon game against South Florida. A crowd of 5,196 was treated to the colorful sight of watching the Hawaiian team run onto the floor in Hawaiian floral print warm ups. The game itself was not as close as the score indicated. Darryl Braden scored 8 of the first 12 points and Greg Leet had 8 straight points. The Blazers was ahead by 25 points in the second half when Coach Bartow pulled the starters, to rest them for the next days game. The Rainbows made a comeback, but lost by 10 points, 85-75. Greg Leet led UAB with 22 points on nine of ten shooting from the field. Darryl Braden had 16 and Larry Spicer had 15. George Jones added 14 in the Blazer win.
Also on this date in 1981, the Blazers traveled to Atlanta to play Georgia State, who was a Sun Belt member at the time. Due to a quirk in the schedule, this was the first of back to back games against Georgia State, first in Atlanta, and then three days later in Birmingham. UAB was high flying after defeating a ranked South Alabama team in front of 16,000 at the BJCC, and was in a good position for a letdown, since Georgia State was the cellar dweller in the old Sun Belt. The game was played at the 15,000 seat Omni in front of an announced crowd of 325. And that included the UAB Golden Girls, cheerleaders and Beauregard T. Rooster. UAB did not come out flat and won the game 85-67. It was the 15th straight loss for Georgia State, and Chris Giles and Oliver Robinson led the Blazers with 19 points apiece. The only excitement in the game did not even happen on court. It occurred when someone noticed NBA great Walt Frazier at the game. Apparently the many in the crowd of 325 then ignored the game and tried to get his autograph. The Birmingham News reported that the game was so unexciting that even Beauregard T. Rooster left at the half.
One of our biggest games on this date came in 1985 against our Sun Belt rival South Alabama. Mike Hanks was the new coach of the Jaguars and making his first return to Birmingham since he had coached Samford. The game was a nationally televised game on CBS, but only 6,883 turned out. The rest missed a very exciting game. South Alabama was led by Terry Catledge, who was averaging 26.2 points per game (3rd in the nation) and 11.6 rebounds per game (9th in the nation). Gene Bartow had inserted three new starters in the lineup (James Ponder, Archie Johnson, and Michael Charles) after UAB had lost the last game to Old Dominion. UAB led through most of the game and had a 49-40 lead midway through the second half. However, they could not put the Jags away. South Alabama managed to get the lead, and with three seconds to go and down by one point, Steve Mitchell was fouled while shooting. He missed the first free throw, but made the second to send the game to overtime. In overtime, the Blazers quickly took the lead on James Ponder and Marvin Ray Johnson jumpers, but then missed their first three free throws. Fortunately they then hit their eight free throws in a row to put the game away. UAB won 81-73. James Ponder led with 22 points and Steve Mitchell had 20 points. Ponder had six points in overtime and Mitchell had five. Terry Catledge ended the game with an impressive 24 points and 12 rebounds.
The Place: Milwaukee
One Blazer will be returning home today to play before his hometown for the first time in his UAB career. Marques Lewis is from Milwaukee and was All-City his senior year in high school. Here's hoping for a happy homecoming for Marques.
UAB does not have a good record in Milwaukee. Two wins and eight losses, all to Marquette. Even when the Great Midwest tournament was held in Milwaukee in 1995, the Blazers first draw was the home team Marquette and UAB lost 55-46. Our two wins occured in 1993 and in 1998. About time for another one.
The Opponent:
We are 7-12 against the Golden Eagles of Marquette. Technically, we are 5-9 against the Golden Eagles and 2-3 against the Warriors of Marquette. From January 1994 to February 1997, we lost seven straight to Marquette, but we have won the last two games.
One of our losses came on today's date in 1994, when we traveled to Milwaukee for a Great Midwest Conference showdown. UAB had a great record of 16-2 and Marquette was 13-5. However Marquette had a half game lead in conference play at 5-1 vs. UAB's 4-1. The Blazers entered the game ranked 17th in the AP poll. The Blazers had lost two weeks earlier to Marquette by two points at home and was looking to avenge the loss and take over first place in the conference. Over 13,000 fans showed up and watched Marquette take a three point lead at halftime. With 2:35 to go in the second half, Carter Long hit a three pointer giving the Blazers a 50-49 lead. With 1:22 to go, Roney Eford hit a three pointer with three seconds on the shot clock to give Marquette the lead, and a basket by Jim Mcilvaine and two free throws by Damon Key gave Marquette a 56-50 lead with 17 seconds left. But, UAB still had a shot when Carter Long hit a three pointer to cut the lead in half. With 5.5 seconds to go, Roney Eford missed a free throw and the Blazers got the ball. Carter Long had the hot hand and got the ball, but he was fouled before he could get off another shot. The margin was four. Long hit his first free throw, and tried to intentionally miss the second. But he did not hit the rim and Marquette got the ball out of bounds. Marquette won the game 58-54 in a great game. Carter Long led the Blazers with 19 points on 7 of 12 field goal shooting. Marquette would go on to win the Great Midwest Conference that year. At that point in the season, UAB had only three losses by a total of nine points. Two of those losses were to Marquette.
You can't talk about the Marquette series without mentioning the Conference USA tournament of 2003. UAB entered the Conference USA tournament needing a boost to get into post season play. They were 16-11, but had lost their last three games. After an opening day win against Charlotte, the Blazers were faced with playing the #8 ranked Marquette, with a 23-4 record and led by Dwayne Wade. Mike Anderson was in his first year at UAB and it was in this tournament when his system that we have come to love, really kicked in. UAB led by four points at half time, but Marquette took their first lead of the second half with 2:20 when Travis Diener hit a three pointer to make the score 74-73. The lead changed hands several times. The amazing combo of Eric Bush and Morris Finley took over the game. With 50.6 seconds left, Marquette player Robert Jackson stepped on the baseline and turned the ball over to the Blazers. Bush drove the lane and made an acrobatic shot with 29 seconds left to put the Blazers up 79-76. Morris Finley then stole a pass from Dwayne Wade and was fouled, sealing the victory 83-76 for the Blazers. Finley led the Blazers with 23 points, Eric Bush had 17 points, and DeMario Eddins had 16 and five steals. Who can forget senior Eric Bush dancing on the table after the game. The Blazers forced Marquette into 30 turnovers and had 20 steals. Both were CUSA tournament records. Another record was set by Dwayne Wade when he committed 10 turnovers. Eric Bush set a record with 6 steals. Who would have guessed that the next game that Marquette would lose that year would be in the Final Four. And I doubt that Dwayne Wade has since had as bad a game as he had that day. The Blazers would lose in the championship game to Louisville, but begin a wonderful trip that is continuing today.
The Bench
Tom Crean is 3-3 against UAB since he has been a head coach at Marquette. However, he has faced UAB before. From 1990-94, he was an assistant coach under Ralph Willard at Western Kentucky, who was a fellow Sun Belt member. During that time, Western Kentucky won one game and lost two to the Blazers.
2/5/05 Louisville
The Date: 2/5/05
The Blazers have won four games and lost three on this date. We are 4-1 at home on February 5. The one loss was in 2000 when #1 Cincinnati came to town.
The first ever game on this date occurred in 1980 when UAB traveled to Charlotte to take on North Carolina-Charlotte as they were called at the time. The Blazers entered the game with a 14-6 overall record and 8-1 in conference. They were coming off a three game winning streak. UAB came out flat and trailed until the 5:43 mark of the second half when they managed to tie the game. However, as the game wound down, UAB could not get the ball inside to Keith McCord and Charlotte won the game 73-68. Larry Spicer led UAB with 22 points. This was UAB's only loss to the 49ers in the first 17 games played with Charlotte. The Blazers would not lose to them again for seven years until February 1987.
The biggest game played on this date was in 2000 when Cincinnati and Kenyon Martin came to town. Martin put on what may be the most dominating performance by an opponent in Bartow Arena history Cincinnati had won 13 straight and was the top ranked team in the polls. UAB was 12-8, but was 9-0 at home. The Blazers hoped to recreate the magic that had allowed them four years earlier to defeat Cincinnati when the Bearcats had come to Birmingham, ranked #3 in the nation. A crowd of 9279, which was the largest crowd at the time in Bartow Arena history turned out to cheer the Blazers on. They got to see why Kenyon Martin was named Player of the Year that year. Martin set the stage early, one minute into the game as he rejected a Myron Ransom layup by blocking it against the backboard and sending the ball all the way to midcourt. Martin got so high that he flipped as he came down hard and hit his head on the floor. He lay there for several minutes before getting up and walking to the bench rubbing his head. Unfortunately for the Blazers, he was out of the game for less than two minutes. He returned with 17:26 to go in the half, and scored a tying basket 29 seconds later. Later he would say “When someone thinks you’re hurt, they try to take advantage of you. I wanted them to know I wasn’t hurt.” The Blazers would have no doubt that he was uninjured as he scored a career high 31 points, grabbed 16 rebounds and had 7 blocks. On UAB’s first possession of the second half, he blocked a David Walker shot, making Kenyon Martin the all-time Bearcat shot blocker, a record held until a week ago, when Badiane of East Carolina broke his record. UAB battled hard against the much larger Bearcats, but could not find an answer to Martin, who was assisted by 25 points off the bench by Steve Logan. Cincinnati won the game 93-80. UAB was led by Eric Holmes who had 25 points. Torrey Ward added 13. A little over a month later, Kenyon Martin would break his leg in the CUSA Tournament and ruin the Bearcats chance at a national title.
The Opponent:
UAB is 4-9 against Louisville and 2-5 against them in Birmingham. We have lost three straight to the Cardinals and have not beaten them since 2001 when Murry Bartow ended DennyCrum's career with two straight losses within 9 days of each other.
There are two games with the Cardinals that stand out above the rest: the 1982 NCAA tournament game and the 2003 CUSA tournament game. Both games were losses, but served notice that UAB was a team to be reckoned with in the future.
On March 19, 1982, UAB was one game away from the Final Four, in only its fourth year of existence. After upsetting #3 ranked Virginia in the round of 16, the Blazers took on the 20th ranked Louisville Cardinals, which was the #3 seed. The winner headed to New Orleans as a member of the Final Four. Gene Bartow had the opportunity to be the only coach at the time to ever take three different schools to the Final Four. Louisville had defeated Minnesota to earn the right to play the Blazers. Their coach, Denny Crum had been hospitalized the week before because of kidney stone problem, and during the Minnesota game, had his doctor on the bench in case there was a problem. The BJCC was filled to capacity with 16,754 as the listed attendance. The key to this game was bench play. Louisville had it and we didn’t. The Louisville bench outscored the UAB bench 31-6. The Card bench hit 11 of 13 shots from the field, while the Blazers bench hit 2 of 7. Louisville was ahead 62-60 with 3:02 left on two free throws made by Charles Jones who lead all Louisville scorers with 19 points off the bench. With 1:15 left, he pulled down a rebound and was fouled again. He hit two more free throws, and made the score 72-64, effectively putting the game away. The final score was 75-68 Louisville, but it was hard for any Blazer fan to be upset when you see how far they had come in four short years. Oliver Robinson led the Blazers with 20 points. He was named the Mideast Region Most Outstanding Player.
Flash forward 21 years to the 2003 Conference USA tournament in Louisville, Kentucky. The game played on March 15, 2003 was the CUSA championship game between UAB and Louisville on their home court. The Blazers was playing their fourth game in four days, and everyone thought that with the frenetic way the Blazers play defense, there was no way they could make it this far. They had beaten Charlotte by 20 points, upset #8 Marquette, and survived a close one point game against Saint Louis to earn the right to play the #20th ranked Cardinals on their home court. The objective observer would have thought that this game would be a blowout. Surely, UAB had nothing left in the tank. However, with the lethal combination of Eric Bush and Mo Finley, the Blazers almost pulled off the impossible. UAB led by two points at half time, but the Cardinals went on a 16-2 run to take a 54-46 lead with 11:08 remaining. Eventually, the lead was 12 points and it appeared that the Cinderella Blazers’ run was over. However, the Blazers who refused to quit slowly made the comeback. With a pair of free throws by freshman Demario Eddins, UAB cut the lead to one point with only 53 seconds to go. After a steal by Mo Finley, UAB had possession of the ball with under 30 seconds to go, down by one. Unfortunately, a rushed shot went out of bounds off UAB and Louisville won the game 83-78 after hitting four free throws. Eric Bush and Mo Finley were both named to the All Tournament team. Finley led the Blazers with 20 points and Demario Eddins had a strong game with 18 points and 12 rebounds. The entire conference was talking about the heart and guts of the Blazers. Rick Pitino, in what was probably a bit of hyperbole, said that it was the most courageous performance he had seen in his years of college basketball. With UAB’s amazing run, the Blazers had earned a trip to the NIT, something that was in doubt at the beginning of the tournament. As a result of the run, UAB Basketball was officially back from the dead.
The Bench:
Rick Pitino has never lost to UAB. He has won all three games played against the Blazers while he has been Louisville's coach. He also upset the Blazers in the 1987 NCAA tournament when he was coach at Providence and had a unknown guard by the name of Billy Donovan.
Tonight, against Louisville, UAB has a chance once again to show the world that UAB is a force to be reckoned with. Let's do it!
2/12/05 @TCU
The Date:
The Blazers have a poor 4-7 record in games played on Abraham Lincoln's birthday. UAB is 2-4 on the road on this date. Five of the first six games played on this date were on the road. This game against TCU is the first game on the road since 1998. Our last game on February 12 was a win against South Florida in 2003.
We have played the Horned Frogs before on this date. In 2002, TCU traveled to Bartow Arena to play the Blazers. UAB had beaten TCU earlier that season in their arena by the score of 77-71. The Blazers were struggling with a record of 11-12, but was flying high after upsetting Memphis 64-46 the previous game. TCU jumped out to a 7-0 lead and led by 11 points in the first half. UAB cut the score to a three point deficit by halftime and went on a 19-8 run to take the lead in the second half. With 10:46 to go in the game, the Horned Frogs tied the game at 51. However, UAB did not have anything left, and with the game tied at 60, TCU outscored UAB 15-2 over a five minute span and won the game 78-68. Junior Blount of TCU led all scorers with 27 points. Antonae Roberson, in his last month as a Blazer came off the bench to lead UAB with 20 points. Backboard breaker Cedric Davis had an unusal stat line for the game: zero points and ten rebounds. In a coaching career that would include many home losses at Bartow Arena, this loss to TCU would be Murry Bartow's last home loss.
The Place: Fort Worth
We have two wins and one loss in Fort Worth, all against TCU. We have won the last two games at their arena. Our first loss on the road to TCU was actually a non conference NIT game in 1997. After a disappointing regular season, the Blazers had managed to win two games in the CUSA tournament to make it to the semifinals and earn an NIT bid. The first round game was against the Horned Frogs in Fort Worth. TCU was coached by Billy Tubbs. The Blazers came out flat, and was never really in the game. UAB shot 29% from the field while TCU shot 53%. In his last game as a Blazer, Carlos Williams went 7 for 23 for 16 points. TCU won the game 85-62. UAB would finish the season 18-14.
The Opponent:
The Blazers have five wins and two losses against TCU overall. We have already talked about both losses. UAB is 4-1 in CUSA play against the Horned Frogs. It's been a short conference run since TCU joined CUSA in 2002, and is leaving after this year. Oh Frogs, we hardly knew ye.
2003 was the year that this series saw the most excitement. In that year, both games were close, high scoring and went to overtime. In the first game on January 29, played at Bartow, TCU led at halftime by five points, but would build a nine point lead early in the second half. The Blazers used a 11-1 run to come back and take a 73-71 lead in the final minute. But a dunk by TCU sent the game to overtime at 73-73. In the final minute of overtime, with the game still tied at 79, UAB forced a tie-up and got the ball back on an alternate possession Eric Bush worked the ball to Jeffrey Collins who hit a three pointer with 25.8 seconds to go in the game. The amazing thing was that three pointer was only the second of the game for UAB in 23 tries, while TCU had hit 12 of 18 three pointers. Collins hit two free throws to seal the victory for the Blazers. Gabe Kennedy and Demario Eddins each set career highs as they scored 23 and 22 points respectively.
Almost three weeks later the two teams would have a rematch in Fort Worth on February 18. Where Jeffrey Collins had been the hero in the earlier game, this game saw Tony Johnson as the hero. The Horned Frogs seemed to have help from the referrees as UAB was called for 34 fouls to TCU's 19 fouls and four Blazers fouled out. TCU shot 51 free throws to UAB's 26. Collins was the hero in regulation as he hit a three pointer with 15 seconds to go to send the game to overtime. Eric Bush scored seven points in overtime, including a three pointer with 1:19 to go to give the Blazers a two point lead. TCU would tie the game again and as the clock ticked down, Tony Johnson hit a jumper to seal the victory for UAB 88-85. The dynamic duo of Mo Finley and Eric Bush led the Blazers in scoring with 19 points each. That was two overtime wins for UAB over TCU in a span of three weeks.
The Bench:
Here is a little known fact about TCU coach, Neil Daugherty. He played for Mike Kryzewski, when Kryzewski was at Army from 1979-1981. He was also an assistant coach under Roy Williams at Kansas. He has been a better assistant coach against UAB than a head coach. As an assistant at Vanderbilt under head coach Eddie Fogler, his team played UAB in 1989 and in 1992, and won both. As a head coach at TCU, he is 0-3 against the Blazers, making his total record 2-3 against UAB.
2/16/05 East Carolina
The Date:
UAB has not been very successful on February 16 throughout the years. The Blazers are 2-4 in games played on this date. However, they are 2-1 in home games on this date. Our last game played on this date was a loss at Tulane, 83-72 in 2002.
Let's look at our two wins on this date:
On this date in 1980, UAB hosted New Orleans, in a Sun Belt Conference game. The 1979-1980 season was the only season that New Orleans and UAB were in the Sun Belt conference together, and they met on three occasions. UAB took all three contests, including this one, winning 86-75. This game was played on a Saturday night, but UAB had to play the next day against South Alabama, at 1:30 PM because of strange scheduling by the Sun Belt. UAB had a 19 points lead in the first half, and led 38-26 at halftime. During the second half, they retained control of the game, even though the Privateers made a comeback. UAB was led in scoring by Keith McCord with 23 points and Larry Spicer with 18.
On this date in 2000, the Tigers of Memphis traveled to Birmingham for a game against the Blazers. Neither team was having a particularly good year, with Memphis finishing 15-16 that year and UAB finishing 14-14. Memphis was on a four game losing streak and had not won a game since they had beaten UAB at the Pyramid three weeks earlier by the score of 84-70. They were coached by interim coach Johnny Jones, because head coach Tic Price had been fired for having an affair with a student. UAB was on a three game losing streak. UAB came out hot and never let up in the game. The Blazers was ahead by 15 at the half, and Memphis could not get any closer than 12 points in the second half. UAB pounded the Tigers mercilessly by the score of 102-75. Six Blazers scored in double figures, led by Myron Ransom with 20 points. The Blazers shot a blistering 61.7% and improved their record to 13-10 .
The Opponent:
After our win earlier this season against East Carolina, the Blazers are 4-0 against the Pirates. I covered two of our previous games against East Carolina in the last game, so, besides this season's games, there is only one other game to look at against the Pirates. That is the game played January 8, 2002. I hope UAB do not meet up against them in the CUSA tournament, or I will have nothing to write about.
In 2002, the Blazers entered the game with a disappointing 7-7 record. They were 0-1 in the conference after losing by 11 at home to Louisville. The game was not a well played game and there was some dissension among the Blazers. PJ Arnold was in Coach Murry Bartow's doghouse. He was the leading scorer on the team, but had lost his starting position. He came into the game with 13 minutes in the first half, played five minutes and scored one point. He did not play in the second half. Murry Bartow said after the game that he was suffering from "poor shot selection". Cedric Davis started in Arnold's place and scored 8 straight points and had 8 rebounds. UAB jumped out to a nine point lead in the first half, but ECU went on a 10-0 run and held a 1 point lead at halftime. However, the Pirates turned cold in the second half and shot only 29% from the field in the second half. UAB could not take advantage, building 10 point leads, but then allowing ECU back into the game. With just over six minutes left, UAB led by one point. At that point, the Blazers scored the next six points to put the game away and win 63-54. Eric Batchelor came off the bench to lead the Blazers with 14 points. UAB shot only 38%, but held ECU to 32% in field goals. One bright spot in the game was free throw shooting by the Blazers. They shot a season best 89.5%, making 17 of 19 shots. Unfortunately, their win streak was short, as Murry's team would lose the next four games, including an embarrassing 50-36 loss at Southern Miss four days later.
The Bench:
Bill Herrion is 0-4 against UAB in his tenure at East Carolina. He has never coached against the Blazers anywhere else.
2/19/05 @ Cincinnati
The Date:
Whoever the schedule maker was this year should have looked at UAB's record on game days in February. This is the third straight game this year in which we have a losing record on that date. The Blazers are 2-5 in games on February 19. UAB won their first two games on this date, but have lost five straight, the last loss coming to Saint Louis in 2002. The Blazers are 1-4 on the road on this date.
On this date in 1983, UAB played South Alabama in Mobile in a key Sun Belt game. UAB was 8-3 in the conference and needed to keep pace with league leading VCU and Old Dominion. For this game, Gene Bartow decided to put fifth year senior Raymond Gause in the starting lineup because of his defensive prowess. However, Gause provided more than defense as he had a career high 21 points to lead the Blazers to an 85-80 win on the road. UAB scored 11 of the last 14 points including going 7 for 7 from the line. UAB led the entire second half, but South Alabama managed to close the gap with 3 three-point shots. The Sun Belt was the only conference with the three point shot that year, as they were selected to use the shot on an experimental basis. The three point shot would not be adopted nationwide until the 1986-87 year. Freshman Steve Mitchell had 19 points for the Blazers.
The Place: Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio is definitely one of the worst places for the Blazers to play. Hopefully, today's game will be the last trip to Cincinnati for some time. UAB is a pitiful 3-13 in Cincinnati. We are 1-9 against the Bearcats and 0-1 against Xavier. We have beaten Saint Louis and Charlotte and lost to Memphis, South Florida and DePaul in Conference USA tournaments games held in Cincinnati.
The Opponent:
Despite our poor record in Cincinnati, the Blazers have actually been somewhat successful against the Bearcats. While we have an overall record against them of 7-13, we won five out of six games from 1993-1996.
We all remember the great win last year in Birmingham over #17 Cincinnati when UAB won 80-69 in front of 9312, a Bartow attendance record at the time. Several factors were credited for the win: the crowd, UAB's smothering defense, UAB shooting almost 84% from the free throw line, including DeMario Eddins hitting 9 of 10 from the line, the UAB bench scoring 37 points and holding Tony Bobbitt to zero points. However, let's look at one factor I don't think anyone has mentioned as a motivation tool for the Blazers for this game: the game the year before in Cincinnati.
This game was played March 5, 2003 at Shoemaker Center. The Blazers felt that Cincinnati was beatable because both teams entered the game 16-9. It was one of the few times the teams had played that Cincinnati was unranked. UAB's pressure defense had its effect on Cincinnati in the first half as the Bearcats had nine turnovers in the first half alone, one shy of their game average. Apparently, the defense caused tempers to flare and there were several on court altercations. Even mild mannered Morris Finley drew a technical as he and Cincinnati's Field Williams got tangled up and both players got technicals. Later, Jason Maxiell threw an arm at Gabe Kennedy after a pileup, and Brandon Tobias also drew a technical for taking a swing at Jason Maxiell during a shouting match. All of this bickering must have fired up the Blazers as Cincinnati came to town in 2004. Cincinnati won this game in the second half as they went on a 14 point spurt to push the game to 71-53. The Bearcats hit 29 of 33 free throws while UAB only hit 12 of 20. That 17 point difference was the margin in the game as Cincinnati won 87-70. Leonard Stokes playing in his final game on Senior day at Cincinnati led the Bearcats with 23 points and 12 rebounds. Finley led the Blazers with 24 points.
Another big game came on February 5, 1994, when both UAB and Cincinnati were ranked. UAB entered the game 16-3 and Cincinnati was 15-5. Both had two losses in the conference. UAB was ranked 17th, but had lost to Marquette earlier in the week and needed a win to stay in the Top 25. Cincinnati came into the game ranked 25th. UAB Arena was packed with a standing room only crowd of 8907. As the game started, UAB's best shooters, Robert Shannon and Carter Long were held scoreless in the first 12:28 of the game. But the slack was picked up by George Wilkerson, Reggie Allen and Clarence Thrash who kept UAB in the game. Shannon then led the Blazers from ten down to a 44-40 halftime lead. Cincinnati who had shot 61% in the first half, cooled down to 35% in the second half. Clarence Thrash and Travis Harper shut down the Bearcats star freshman Dontonio Wingfield. In an earlier game against the Blazers, Wingfield had 18 points and 18 rebounds. But in this game, Harper and Thrash fronted him instead of playing behind him, and held him to 15 points on 5 of 16 shooting. He also fouled out of the game. UAB put a strong second half together to win the game 83-67. Robert Shannon led in scoring with 21 points and Clarence Thrash had a career high 18 points. The Blazers dropped in the AP poll to 19th where two consecutive losses would have put them out of the rankings.
Since this is the last regular season conference game against the Bearcats, I thought I would do another flashback segment at a few other memorable moments in the Blazer-Bearcat series.
Although these are in no particular order, I have to start with this one:
1. 9213 fans show up to see the third ranked and undefeated Bearcats take on UAB on January 21, 1996. Cedric Dixon scores 26 points and Carlos Williams score 20 points as the Blazers defeat Cincinnati 70-68.
2. UAB jumps into the Top 25 at #22 with a 11-1 record after upsetting the #17 ranked Bearcats on January 9, 1994. Robert Shannon hits two free throws to break a 65-65 tie and win the game 67-65. It remains UAB's only win against the Bearcats in Cincinnati.
3. In 2000, Cincinnati comes to Birmingham ranked #1 and Kenyon Martin showed the Bartow arena crowd of 9279 why he was Player of the Year as he totally manhandles the Blazers in a Cincinnati victory 93-80. Martin would score 31 points, grab 16 rebounds and get seven blocks in one of the most impressive performances ever in Bartow Arena.
4. In 1993, Gene Bartow instituted a slow down game to perfection and would have upset the Bearcats, except that Nick Van Exel picks up the ball after a desperation shot was blocked. Van Exel hits nothing but net from beyond the three point line to give the Bearcats a 40-38 win at the buzzer.
5. In a game played at Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati in 1984, our first game against Cincinnati, the Bearcats win 69-67 on a miracle three point heave from beyond mid court as time expires.
6. I can't remember the year, but I believe it was in 1998 or 1999 when the Blazers traveled to Cincinnati. Cincinnati won the game, but the excitement came as the coaches went to shake hands as the buzzer sounded. The game is on TV and lip readers around the nation watched as Murry Bartow and Bob Huggins exchanged terse words with each other. The encounter ended with Huggins telling Murry "F*** You, Murry"
7. On a more pleasant note, in 1992, Steve Mitchell's jersey is retired at the halftime of the #19 Cincinnati-UAB game. The game itself was a typical bitter fight as both Bob Huggins and Gene Bartow received technicals. Cincinnati won 63-58 on its way to the Final Four that season.
8. February 26, 1995 game in Birmingham. UAB wins 64-63. Huggins is ejected with two technicals with 12 minutes to play in the FIRST half. After the game, he has to be restrained from beating up a heckling Golden 100 member.
The Bench:
Bob Huggins has only faced UAB as a coach at Cincinnati. He is 12-6 against the Blazers. His assistant coach, Andy Kennedy is 62-34 while playing as a Blazer. He is 1-2 in coaching against his alma mater. This includes a loss to the Blazers while Kennedy was an assistant coach at South Alabama in 1994.
One final note: The UAB-Cincinnati game has always been a hotly contested competition. . Since the two teams started conference play in 1991 in the Great Midwest Conference, they have played 18 times. In those games, there have been 17 technicals called.
2/23/05 @ Saint Louis
The Date:
UAB is 6-4 in games played on February 23. However, we are 0-3 in road games played on this date. We have won our last two games on this date, 1998 against Norfolk State and in 2003 against South Florida.
Today is the 25th anniversary of our first conference tournament game. Today, in 1980, UAB entered the Sun Belt Tournament in Charlotte, North Carolina as the #2 seed. UAB did not play in the Sun Belt Conference tournament during their inaugural year because they were ineligible since they were in their first year. UAB's opponent was the seventh seed, New Orleans. The Blazers had beaten the Privateers twice in the regular season, and this game was a victory as well, as UAB won 85-75. Keith McCord scored 13 points in the first half on his way to a 22 point output to lead the Blazers. Stan Scales had 12 points and 9 rebounds.
Although this game report appeared in last year's Today in Blazer History, I feel the need to include it again this year. I call it the "Why We don't play Samford" segment:
On this date in 1982, UAB played Samford in an crosstown game that both sides hoped would be the start of a great rivalry. The first game in the series had been played one year earlier in 1981,and UAB had won handily 92-67. Samford coach Mike Hanks decided that the best way to have a chance to win was to slow the ball down. I mean very slow. With no shot clock, there was no restriction on how long a team could sit and hold the ball. The Bulldogs took only four shots in the first half. For the game, they took 15 shots and hit seven of them. They were 13-24 from the line. The plan did not work as UAB won the game 40-27. Bartow was quoted as saying, “I’m not mad at Mike Hanks. He has every right as a head coach to do what he feels he has to do to win.” Hanks stated that he hoped that his tactics would not affect the series. (It did. The series was a three year deal. The teams played the next year and have not played since.) Most upset about the slow down game were the Blazer seniors. Oliver Robinson had a string of six 20-plus point games that was ended because of the slow down game. He had 17 points. Oliver said it was not good for an inner city rivalry. “I really hate to see it as the last game of the year. This is the night for the seniors and who wants to go out like that.”
Also on this date in 1989, Reginald Turner set a new scoring record at UAB as he scored 36 points enroute to a 76-62 win over Virginia Commonwealth. The Blazers were 15-9 entering the game, and VCU was 11-13. VCU was too concerned with outside shooting and left Turner open underneath the basket many times. Turner, playing in his final game at UAB Arena scored 12 of the Blazer's first 19 points. He had 18 points in each half. VCU tied the game at 33 with 1:12 in the half, and again at 41 with 14:56 left in the game. At that point, Turner took over again and scored 14 of UAB's next 16 points over the next six minutes. On the two points he did not score during that span, he got the assist as he dished the ball to Dylan Howard. It was a great performance and now ranks third as the most points scored by a Blazer in a game. Quick trivia: Who is #1 and #2? No peeking.
The Place: Saint Louis
The Blazers have six wins and seven losses in St. Louis. The only non Saint Louis games occurred in 1997 in the Conference USA tournament in which the Blazers won two and lost one, and last year in the NCAA Tournament in the loss to Kansas. We have not won in the Gateway City since the CUSA Tournament in 1997, meaning we have lost the last four games there, three of them to Saint Louis.
The Opponent:
UAB is 4-6 against Saint Louis as a road team. We have a much better overall record against the Billikins at 16-7. The Blazers have won the last two games in the series.
On January 13, 1991, UAB played Saint Louis in UAB Arena and won easily 98-80. The game stands out because Andy Kennedy set the UAB mark for most points ever scored in a game. He shot 13 of 20 from the field, including 8 of 12 from beyond the three. Kennedy still holds the record for most points in a game because of his 41 points scored against Saint Louis.
The lowest point in our series with Saint Louis had to come March 3, 2001 when the Blazers suffered their second worse home loss ever to the Billikins, losing by 25, 73-48. The worse home loss ever for UAB had come ten days earlier when the Blazers lost by 28 to South Florida. I have been watching Blazer basketball since its inception, and that had to be the lowest point in the history of the program. UAB scored just 16 points in the first half of the Saint Louis game, and shot just 26% for the game. The ironic thing about this game is that UAB's leading scorer and the only player in double figures for the Blazers was Tom Frericks, with 10 points. This was effectively his last game as a Blazer. He would only play three more minutes for UAB, and then transferred to junior college, eventually ending up with the Billikins.
But enough bad memories. Now a good one. Remember the 2003 Conference USA tournament. After upsetting eighth ranked Marquette, UAB was playing their third game in as many days and was in a perfect position to have a letdown game against Saint Louis in the semi finals. Saint Louis was the hot team and had an eight game winning streak going. UAB jumped out to a 44-22 lead early in the second half as the Billikins struggled against Mike Anderson's defensive schemes. However, fatigue set in on the Blazers and Saint Louis put together an 18-4 run and took its only lead on a free throw with 23 seconds to play. Eric Bush then scored with 11.9 seconds remaining on a driving layup to give the Blazers a 63-62 lead. The Billikins had two chances to win the game, but failed to score and the Blazers were in the championship game against Louisville. Eric Bush and Gabe Kennedy led UAB with 16 points each. Kennedy also had 12 rebounds.
The Bench:
As a head coach, Brad Soderberg is 0-2 against the Blazers. However, he was an assistant at Saint Louis under Lorenzo Romar during 2001-02 and had a 1-0 record against UAB that year. He has not faced the Blazers any other time in his coaching career.
2/26/05 Tulane
The Date:
It's a great date for basketball! UAB has never lost a game on February 26, a perfect 6-0. Five of the wins have come at home and one win came on a neutral court in the 1987 Sun Belt Tournament.
Our opponenet in the first round of the 1987 Sun Belt tournament, played in Bowling Green, Kentucky, was South Alabama. UAB entered the tournament, seeded third, with a 10-4 conference record behind Western Kentucky and Jacksonville. South Alabama was seeded sixth with a 6-8 conference record. The Jaguars featured a deadly combination of Jeff Hodge and Junie Lewis, both averaging 19.1 per game. The Blazers started the game extremely cold and just nine minutes into the game, they found themselves in a 16 point deficit with the score 25-9 with 11:16 minutes to go in the first half. However, Gene Bartow began substituting bench players for starters and over the next 24 minutes, there was a 32 point swing, as UAB went up by 16 points with 7:33 to go in the game. The bench, mainly Dylan Howard and Michael Charles was so effective that the starters (Eddie Collins and Larry Rembert) were left on the bench. UAB would win the game 77-64. James Ponder led all scorers with 22 points. UAB would defeat the second seeded Jacksonville the next day and upset the 25-7 Western Kentucky team on their home court in the championship game to win the 1987 Sun Belt Championship in a year that it had appeared that their string of NCAA tournament appearances would be broken. It was also the last conference tournament that UAB has ever won. Looks like we might need history to repeat itself this year in Memphis.
Probably UAB's greatest win on this date came in 1995 over seventh ranked Cincinnati. UAB had won three straight games over the Bearcats despite much better Cincinnati teams. The Blazers were the only team in the Great Midwest Conference to have a winning record over the Bearcats. UAB was on the verge of its first losing season with a 12-14 record coming into the game, and they needed to steal a few wins. This was the final home game, but for the only time in UAB history, there were no seniors to honor. The 1994-95 season was an odd season, one that I think may have been Gene Bartow's greatest coaching job. No seniors, next to last in the conference, with a losing record, yet he owned wins in the conference over #1 Memphis, #2 Saint Louis, and #3 Dayton. On this date, he would add Cincinnati to that list. The Blazers did get help from Bob Huggins. Eight minutes into the game, Huggins picked up his second technical and was ejected from the game. Huggins claimed that his first technical came because he told official Ted Hillary "That's a terrible call". According to Huggins, he said "What's that for?" and he got his second technical. Anyway, he watched on television as the game came to a dramatic end. UAB had come from ten points down, and with 13 seconds to go, Leonard Bush stepped to the free throw line with the Blazers down by two points. He made his first free throw, but missed the second one. UAB's Travis Harper got the rebound but his shot would not fall and went out of bounds off Cincinnati with four seconds to go, and UAB down by one. Cedric Dixon got the inbounds pass and took a shot from the corner that missed everything. Travis Harper got the rebound, but his putback teetered off the rim. Big man and part time football player James Bristow grabbed the ball and jammed it home as the buzzer sounded, giving UAB the 64-63 win over the seventh ranked Bearcats. Cedric Dixon led the Blazers with 22 points. Freshman DannyFortson led Cincinnati with 28 points and 14 rebounds. Huggins watching on a TV somewhere in the arena, claimed that Bristow's put back should not have counted because the ball was still in the cylinder, but no one would listen to him. His nightmare was not over with the end of the game either. As he made his way to the interview room, several Golden 100 fans outside the Golden 100 Room started yelling at him, and the Cincinnati Sports Information Director had to restrain Huggins from physically going after them. "They don't pay me enough money to have to take that" he complained. I guess the Golden 100 has some fight in them after all.
The Opponent:
It pains me to say that after our loss to Tulane earlier this year, our record with the Green Wave is now 11-11. We have lost five of the last six games to them. Oddly enough, when Tulane had a very good team in the mid 1990's, UAB was more successful against them than now. Between 1995 and 1997, Tulane won 42 games, and the Blazers were 3-2 against them. On a positive note, UAB has won three of the last four in Birmingham against Tulane.
Most of our games against Tulane has been either blowouts or disappointing losses. However, in 1997, the situation was different in that Tulane had a very good team. When we played them on February 13 in Fogelman, Tulane was ranked #23 in the nation. UAB trailed by five points at halftime with the score 31-26. However, led by Carlos Williams, the Blazers came back in the second half and won the game 64-61. Carlos Williams had 30 points, but only shot 9 of 23 from the field. He made 10 of 14 points and had 11 rebounds. The loss dropped Tulane out of the Top 25.
Our one win over Tulane since January 2002 came last year at Bartow Arena on January 28, 2004. The Blazers were led by Sidney Ball who had 13 points and 11 rebounds. UAB led by seven at halftime, and held Tulane without a field goal for the first five minutes of the second half. However, the Green Wave soared back on a 11-2 run which cut the score to 60-57 with 7:19 remaining. At that point, Mo Finley's three pointer sparked a 20-2 run for the Blazers that gave UAB a 80-59 win. The victory pushed the Blazers record to 12-5 and 5-1 in the conference. The Blazers had 14 steals and forced Tulane into 23 turnovers.
The Bench:
Shawn Finney can't seem to beat anyone else in the conference, but he is 5-4 against UAB. You're welcome, Shawn.
2/2/05 @Marquette
The Date:
UAB has a pretty good record on this date with 8 wins and 2 losses. We are 4-1 on the road on Groundhog day. Unfortunately, the one road loss on this date was today's opponent, Marquette in 1994. More about that game in a bit.
Our first game on this date came in our first season. On February 2, 1979, UAB played the Hawaii Rainbows at the BJCC. Scheduling was strange that first year. This game was played on a Friday night, and the Blazers would return to the Civic Center the next day on Saturday to play a noon game against South Florida. A crowd of 5,196 was treated to the colorful sight of watching the Hawaiian team run onto the floor in Hawaiian floral print warm ups. The game itself was not as close as the score indicated. Darryl Braden scored 8 of the first 12 points and Greg Leet had 8 straight points. The Blazers was ahead by 25 points in the second half when Coach Bartow pulled the starters, to rest them for the next days game. The Rainbows made a comeback, but lost by 10 points, 85-75. Greg Leet led UAB with 22 points on nine of ten shooting from the field. Darryl Braden had 16 and Larry Spicer had 15. George Jones added 14 in the Blazer win.
Also on this date in 1981, the Blazers traveled to Atlanta to play Georgia State, who was a Sun Belt member at the time. Due to a quirk in the schedule, this was the first of back to back games against Georgia State, first in Atlanta, and then three days later in Birmingham. UAB was high flying after defeating a ranked South Alabama team in front of 16,000 at the BJCC, and was in a good position for a letdown, since Georgia State was the cellar dweller in the old Sun Belt. The game was played at the 15,000 seat Omni in front of an announced crowd of 325. And that included the UAB Golden Girls, cheerleaders and Beauregard T. Rooster. UAB did not come out flat and won the game 85-67. It was the 15th straight loss for Georgia State, and Chris Giles and Oliver Robinson led the Blazers with 19 points apiece. The only excitement in the game did not even happen on court. It occurred when someone noticed NBA great Walt Frazier at the game. Apparently the many in the crowd of 325 then ignored the game and tried to get his autograph. The Birmingham News reported that the game was so unexciting that even Beauregard T. Rooster left at the half.
One of our biggest games on this date came in 1985 against our Sun Belt rival South Alabama. Mike Hanks was the new coach of the Jaguars and making his first return to Birmingham since he had coached Samford. The game was a nationally televised game on CBS, but only 6,883 turned out. The rest missed a very exciting game. South Alabama was led by Terry Catledge, who was averaging 26.2 points per game (3rd in the nation) and 11.6 rebounds per game (9th in the nation). Gene Bartow had inserted three new starters in the lineup (James Ponder, Archie Johnson, and Michael Charles) after UAB had lost the last game to Old Dominion. UAB led through most of the game and had a 49-40 lead midway through the second half. However, they could not put the Jags away. South Alabama managed to get the lead, and with three seconds to go and down by one point, Steve Mitchell was fouled while shooting. He missed the first free throw, but made the second to send the game to overtime. In overtime, the Blazers quickly took the lead on James Ponder and Marvin Ray Johnson jumpers, but then missed their first three free throws. Fortunately they then hit their eight free throws in a row to put the game away. UAB won 81-73. James Ponder led with 22 points and Steve Mitchell had 20 points. Ponder had six points in overtime and Mitchell had five. Terry Catledge ended the game with an impressive 24 points and 12 rebounds.
The Place: Milwaukee
One Blazer will be returning home today to play before his hometown for the first time in his UAB career. Marques Lewis is from Milwaukee and was All-City his senior year in high school. Here's hoping for a happy homecoming for Marques.
UAB does not have a good record in Milwaukee. Two wins and eight losses, all to Marquette. Even when the Great Midwest tournament was held in Milwaukee in 1995, the Blazers first draw was the home team Marquette and UAB lost 55-46. Our two wins occured in 1993 and in 1998. About time for another one.
The Opponent:
We are 7-12 against the Golden Eagles of Marquette. Technically, we are 5-9 against the Golden Eagles and 2-3 against the Warriors of Marquette. From January 1994 to February 1997, we lost seven straight to Marquette, but we have won the last two games.
One of our losses came on today's date in 1994, when we traveled to Milwaukee for a Great Midwest Conference showdown. UAB had a great record of 16-2 and Marquette was 13-5. However Marquette had a half game lead in conference play at 5-1 vs. UAB's 4-1. The Blazers entered the game ranked 17th in the AP poll. The Blazers had lost two weeks earlier to Marquette by two points at home and was looking to avenge the loss and take over first place in the conference. Over 13,000 fans showed up and watched Marquette take a three point lead at halftime. With 2:35 to go in the second half, Carter Long hit a three pointer giving the Blazers a 50-49 lead. With 1:22 to go, Roney Eford hit a three pointer with three seconds on the shot clock to give Marquette the lead, and a basket by Jim Mcilvaine and two free throws by Damon Key gave Marquette a 56-50 lead with 17 seconds left. But, UAB still had a shot when Carter Long hit a three pointer to cut the lead in half. With 5.5 seconds to go, Roney Eford missed a free throw and the Blazers got the ball. Carter Long had the hot hand and got the ball, but he was fouled before he could get off another shot. The margin was four. Long hit his first free throw, and tried to intentionally miss the second. But he did not hit the rim and Marquette got the ball out of bounds. Marquette won the game 58-54 in a great game. Carter Long led the Blazers with 19 points on 7 of 12 field goal shooting. Marquette would go on to win the Great Midwest Conference that year. At that point in the season, UAB had only three losses by a total of nine points. Two of those losses were to Marquette.
You can't talk about the Marquette series without mentioning the Conference USA tournament of 2003. UAB entered the Conference USA tournament needing a boost to get into post season play. They were 16-11, but had lost their last three games. After an opening day win against Charlotte, the Blazers were faced with playing the #8 ranked Marquette, with a 23-4 record and led by Dwayne Wade. Mike Anderson was in his first year at UAB and it was in this tournament when his system that we have come to love, really kicked in. UAB led by four points at half time, but Marquette took their first lead of the second half with 2:20 when Travis Diener hit a three pointer to make the score 74-73. The lead changed hands several times. The amazing combo of Eric Bush and Morris Finley took over the game. With 50.6 seconds left, Marquette player Robert Jackson stepped on the baseline and turned the ball over to the Blazers. Bush drove the lane and made an acrobatic shot with 29 seconds left to put the Blazers up 79-76. Morris Finley then stole a pass from Dwayne Wade and was fouled, sealing the victory 83-76 for the Blazers. Finley led the Blazers with 23 points, Eric Bush had 17 points, and DeMario Eddins had 16 and five steals. Who can forget senior Eric Bush dancing on the table after the game. The Blazers forced Marquette into 30 turnovers and had 20 steals. Both were CUSA tournament records. Another record was set by Dwayne Wade when he committed 10 turnovers. Eric Bush set a record with 6 steals. Who would have guessed that the next game that Marquette would lose that year would be in the Final Four. And I doubt that Dwayne Wade has since had as bad a game as he had that day. The Blazers would lose in the championship game to Louisville, but begin a wonderful trip that is continuing today.
The Bench
Tom Crean is 3-3 against UAB since he has been a head coach at Marquette. However, he has faced UAB before. From 1990-94, he was an assistant coach under Ralph Willard at Western Kentucky, who was a fellow Sun Belt member. During that time, Western Kentucky won one game and lost two to the Blazers.
2/5/05 Louisville
The Date: 2/5/05
The Blazers have won four games and lost three on this date. We are 4-1 at home on February 5. The one loss was in 2000 when #1 Cincinnati came to town.
The first ever game on this date occurred in 1980 when UAB traveled to Charlotte to take on North Carolina-Charlotte as they were called at the time. The Blazers entered the game with a 14-6 overall record and 8-1 in conference. They were coming off a three game winning streak. UAB came out flat and trailed until the 5:43 mark of the second half when they managed to tie the game. However, as the game wound down, UAB could not get the ball inside to Keith McCord and Charlotte won the game 73-68. Larry Spicer led UAB with 22 points. This was UAB's only loss to the 49ers in the first 17 games played with Charlotte. The Blazers would not lose to them again for seven years until February 1987.
The biggest game played on this date was in 2000 when Cincinnati and Kenyon Martin came to town. Martin put on what may be the most dominating performance by an opponent in Bartow Arena history Cincinnati had won 13 straight and was the top ranked team in the polls. UAB was 12-8, but was 9-0 at home. The Blazers hoped to recreate the magic that had allowed them four years earlier to defeat Cincinnati when the Bearcats had come to Birmingham, ranked #3 in the nation. A crowd of 9279, which was the largest crowd at the time in Bartow Arena history turned out to cheer the Blazers on. They got to see why Kenyon Martin was named Player of the Year that year. Martin set the stage early, one minute into the game as he rejected a Myron Ransom layup by blocking it against the backboard and sending the ball all the way to midcourt. Martin got so high that he flipped as he came down hard and hit his head on the floor. He lay there for several minutes before getting up and walking to the bench rubbing his head. Unfortunately for the Blazers, he was out of the game for less than two minutes. He returned with 17:26 to go in the half, and scored a tying basket 29 seconds later. Later he would say “When someone thinks you’re hurt, they try to take advantage of you. I wanted them to know I wasn’t hurt.” The Blazers would have no doubt that he was uninjured as he scored a career high 31 points, grabbed 16 rebounds and had 7 blocks. On UAB’s first possession of the second half, he blocked a David Walker shot, making Kenyon Martin the all-time Bearcat shot blocker, a record held until a week ago, when Badiane of East Carolina broke his record. UAB battled hard against the much larger Bearcats, but could not find an answer to Martin, who was assisted by 25 points off the bench by Steve Logan. Cincinnati won the game 93-80. UAB was led by Eric Holmes who had 25 points. Torrey Ward added 13. A little over a month later, Kenyon Martin would break his leg in the CUSA Tournament and ruin the Bearcats chance at a national title.
The Opponent:
UAB is 4-9 against Louisville and 2-5 against them in Birmingham. We have lost three straight to the Cardinals and have not beaten them since 2001 when Murry Bartow ended DennyCrum's career with two straight losses within 9 days of each other.
There are two games with the Cardinals that stand out above the rest: the 1982 NCAA tournament game and the 2003 CUSA tournament game. Both games were losses, but served notice that UAB was a team to be reckoned with in the future.
On March 19, 1982, UAB was one game away from the Final Four, in only its fourth year of existence. After upsetting #3 ranked Virginia in the round of 16, the Blazers took on the 20th ranked Louisville Cardinals, which was the #3 seed. The winner headed to New Orleans as a member of the Final Four. Gene Bartow had the opportunity to be the only coach at the time to ever take three different schools to the Final Four. Louisville had defeated Minnesota to earn the right to play the Blazers. Their coach, Denny Crum had been hospitalized the week before because of kidney stone problem, and during the Minnesota game, had his doctor on the bench in case there was a problem. The BJCC was filled to capacity with 16,754 as the listed attendance. The key to this game was bench play. Louisville had it and we didn’t. The Louisville bench outscored the UAB bench 31-6. The Card bench hit 11 of 13 shots from the field, while the Blazers bench hit 2 of 7. Louisville was ahead 62-60 with 3:02 left on two free throws made by Charles Jones who lead all Louisville scorers with 19 points off the bench. With 1:15 left, he pulled down a rebound and was fouled again. He hit two more free throws, and made the score 72-64, effectively putting the game away. The final score was 75-68 Louisville, but it was hard for any Blazer fan to be upset when you see how far they had come in four short years. Oliver Robinson led the Blazers with 20 points. He was named the Mideast Region Most Outstanding Player.
Flash forward 21 years to the 2003 Conference USA tournament in Louisville, Kentucky. The game played on March 15, 2003 was the CUSA championship game between UAB and Louisville on their home court. The Blazers was playing their fourth game in four days, and everyone thought that with the frenetic way the Blazers play defense, there was no way they could make it this far. They had beaten Charlotte by 20 points, upset #8 Marquette, and survived a close one point game against Saint Louis to earn the right to play the #20th ranked Cardinals on their home court. The objective observer would have thought that this game would be a blowout. Surely, UAB had nothing left in the tank. However, with the lethal combination of Eric Bush and Mo Finley, the Blazers almost pulled off the impossible. UAB led by two points at half time, but the Cardinals went on a 16-2 run to take a 54-46 lead with 11:08 remaining. Eventually, the lead was 12 points and it appeared that the Cinderella Blazers’ run was over. However, the Blazers who refused to quit slowly made the comeback. With a pair of free throws by freshman Demario Eddins, UAB cut the lead to one point with only 53 seconds to go. After a steal by Mo Finley, UAB had possession of the ball with under 30 seconds to go, down by one. Unfortunately, a rushed shot went out of bounds off UAB and Louisville won the game 83-78 after hitting four free throws. Eric Bush and Mo Finley were both named to the All Tournament team. Finley led the Blazers with 20 points and Demario Eddins had a strong game with 18 points and 12 rebounds. The entire conference was talking about the heart and guts of the Blazers. Rick Pitino, in what was probably a bit of hyperbole, said that it was the most courageous performance he had seen in his years of college basketball. With UAB’s amazing run, the Blazers had earned a trip to the NIT, something that was in doubt at the beginning of the tournament. As a result of the run, UAB Basketball was officially back from the dead.
The Bench:
Rick Pitino has never lost to UAB. He has won all three games played against the Blazers while he has been Louisville's coach. He also upset the Blazers in the 1987 NCAA tournament when he was coach at Providence and had a unknown guard by the name of Billy Donovan.
Tonight, against Louisville, UAB has a chance once again to show the world that UAB is a force to be reckoned with. Let's do it!
2/12/05 @TCU
The Date:
The Blazers have a poor 4-7 record in games played on Abraham Lincoln's birthday. UAB is 2-4 on the road on this date. Five of the first six games played on this date were on the road. This game against TCU is the first game on the road since 1998. Our last game on February 12 was a win against South Florida in 2003.
We have played the Horned Frogs before on this date. In 2002, TCU traveled to Bartow Arena to play the Blazers. UAB had beaten TCU earlier that season in their arena by the score of 77-71. The Blazers were struggling with a record of 11-12, but was flying high after upsetting Memphis 64-46 the previous game. TCU jumped out to a 7-0 lead and led by 11 points in the first half. UAB cut the score to a three point deficit by halftime and went on a 19-8 run to take the lead in the second half. With 10:46 to go in the game, the Horned Frogs tied the game at 51. However, UAB did not have anything left, and with the game tied at 60, TCU outscored UAB 15-2 over a five minute span and won the game 78-68. Junior Blount of TCU led all scorers with 27 points. Antonae Roberson, in his last month as a Blazer came off the bench to lead UAB with 20 points. Backboard breaker Cedric Davis had an unusal stat line for the game: zero points and ten rebounds. In a coaching career that would include many home losses at Bartow Arena, this loss to TCU would be Murry Bartow's last home loss.
The Place: Fort Worth
We have two wins and one loss in Fort Worth, all against TCU. We have won the last two games at their arena. Our first loss on the road to TCU was actually a non conference NIT game in 1997. After a disappointing regular season, the Blazers had managed to win two games in the CUSA tournament to make it to the semifinals and earn an NIT bid. The first round game was against the Horned Frogs in Fort Worth. TCU was coached by Billy Tubbs. The Blazers came out flat, and was never really in the game. UAB shot 29% from the field while TCU shot 53%. In his last game as a Blazer, Carlos Williams went 7 for 23 for 16 points. TCU won the game 85-62. UAB would finish the season 18-14.
The Opponent:
The Blazers have five wins and two losses against TCU overall. We have already talked about both losses. UAB is 4-1 in CUSA play against the Horned Frogs. It's been a short conference run since TCU joined CUSA in 2002, and is leaving after this year. Oh Frogs, we hardly knew ye.
2003 was the year that this series saw the most excitement. In that year, both games were close, high scoring and went to overtime. In the first game on January 29, played at Bartow, TCU led at halftime by five points, but would build a nine point lead early in the second half. The Blazers used a 11-1 run to come back and take a 73-71 lead in the final minute. But a dunk by TCU sent the game to overtime at 73-73. In the final minute of overtime, with the game still tied at 79, UAB forced a tie-up and got the ball back on an alternate possession Eric Bush worked the ball to Jeffrey Collins who hit a three pointer with 25.8 seconds to go in the game. The amazing thing was that three pointer was only the second of the game for UAB in 23 tries, while TCU had hit 12 of 18 three pointers. Collins hit two free throws to seal the victory for the Blazers. Gabe Kennedy and Demario Eddins each set career highs as they scored 23 and 22 points respectively.
Almost three weeks later the two teams would have a rematch in Fort Worth on February 18. Where Jeffrey Collins had been the hero in the earlier game, this game saw Tony Johnson as the hero. The Horned Frogs seemed to have help from the referrees as UAB was called for 34 fouls to TCU's 19 fouls and four Blazers fouled out. TCU shot 51 free throws to UAB's 26. Collins was the hero in regulation as he hit a three pointer with 15 seconds to go to send the game to overtime. Eric Bush scored seven points in overtime, including a three pointer with 1:19 to go to give the Blazers a two point lead. TCU would tie the game again and as the clock ticked down, Tony Johnson hit a jumper to seal the victory for UAB 88-85. The dynamic duo of Mo Finley and Eric Bush led the Blazers in scoring with 19 points each. That was two overtime wins for UAB over TCU in a span of three weeks.
The Bench:
Here is a little known fact about TCU coach, Neil Daugherty. He played for Mike Kryzewski, when Kryzewski was at Army from 1979-1981. He was also an assistant coach under Roy Williams at Kansas. He has been a better assistant coach against UAB than a head coach. As an assistant at Vanderbilt under head coach Eddie Fogler, his team played UAB in 1989 and in 1992, and won both. As a head coach at TCU, he is 0-3 against the Blazers, making his total record 2-3 against UAB.
2/16/05 East Carolina
The Date:
UAB has not been very successful on February 16 throughout the years. The Blazers are 2-4 in games played on this date. However, they are 2-1 in home games on this date. Our last game played on this date was a loss at Tulane, 83-72 in 2002.
Let's look at our two wins on this date:
On this date in 1980, UAB hosted New Orleans, in a Sun Belt Conference game. The 1979-1980 season was the only season that New Orleans and UAB were in the Sun Belt conference together, and they met on three occasions. UAB took all three contests, including this one, winning 86-75. This game was played on a Saturday night, but UAB had to play the next day against South Alabama, at 1:30 PM because of strange scheduling by the Sun Belt. UAB had a 19 points lead in the first half, and led 38-26 at halftime. During the second half, they retained control of the game, even though the Privateers made a comeback. UAB was led in scoring by Keith McCord with 23 points and Larry Spicer with 18.
On this date in 2000, the Tigers of Memphis traveled to Birmingham for a game against the Blazers. Neither team was having a particularly good year, with Memphis finishing 15-16 that year and UAB finishing 14-14. Memphis was on a four game losing streak and had not won a game since they had beaten UAB at the Pyramid three weeks earlier by the score of 84-70. They were coached by interim coach Johnny Jones, because head coach Tic Price had been fired for having an affair with a student. UAB was on a three game losing streak. UAB came out hot and never let up in the game. The Blazers was ahead by 15 at the half, and Memphis could not get any closer than 12 points in the second half. UAB pounded the Tigers mercilessly by the score of 102-75. Six Blazers scored in double figures, led by Myron Ransom with 20 points. The Blazers shot a blistering 61.7% and improved their record to 13-10 .
The Opponent:
After our win earlier this season against East Carolina, the Blazers are 4-0 against the Pirates. I covered two of our previous games against East Carolina in the last game, so, besides this season's games, there is only one other game to look at against the Pirates. That is the game played January 8, 2002. I hope UAB do not meet up against them in the CUSA tournament, or I will have nothing to write about.
In 2002, the Blazers entered the game with a disappointing 7-7 record. They were 0-1 in the conference after losing by 11 at home to Louisville. The game was not a well played game and there was some dissension among the Blazers. PJ Arnold was in Coach Murry Bartow's doghouse. He was the leading scorer on the team, but had lost his starting position. He came into the game with 13 minutes in the first half, played five minutes and scored one point. He did not play in the second half. Murry Bartow said after the game that he was suffering from "poor shot selection". Cedric Davis started in Arnold's place and scored 8 straight points and had 8 rebounds. UAB jumped out to a nine point lead in the first half, but ECU went on a 10-0 run and held a 1 point lead at halftime. However, the Pirates turned cold in the second half and shot only 29% from the field in the second half. UAB could not take advantage, building 10 point leads, but then allowing ECU back into the game. With just over six minutes left, UAB led by one point. At that point, the Blazers scored the next six points to put the game away and win 63-54. Eric Batchelor came off the bench to lead the Blazers with 14 points. UAB shot only 38%, but held ECU to 32% in field goals. One bright spot in the game was free throw shooting by the Blazers. They shot a season best 89.5%, making 17 of 19 shots. Unfortunately, their win streak was short, as Murry's team would lose the next four games, including an embarrassing 50-36 loss at Southern Miss four days later.
The Bench:
Bill Herrion is 0-4 against UAB in his tenure at East Carolina. He has never coached against the Blazers anywhere else.
2/19/05 @ Cincinnati
The Date:
Whoever the schedule maker was this year should have looked at UAB's record on game days in February. This is the third straight game this year in which we have a losing record on that date. The Blazers are 2-5 in games on February 19. UAB won their first two games on this date, but have lost five straight, the last loss coming to Saint Louis in 2002. The Blazers are 1-4 on the road on this date.
On this date in 1983, UAB played South Alabama in Mobile in a key Sun Belt game. UAB was 8-3 in the conference and needed to keep pace with league leading VCU and Old Dominion. For this game, Gene Bartow decided to put fifth year senior Raymond Gause in the starting lineup because of his defensive prowess. However, Gause provided more than defense as he had a career high 21 points to lead the Blazers to an 85-80 win on the road. UAB scored 11 of the last 14 points including going 7 for 7 from the line. UAB led the entire second half, but South Alabama managed to close the gap with 3 three-point shots. The Sun Belt was the only conference with the three point shot that year, as they were selected to use the shot on an experimental basis. The three point shot would not be adopted nationwide until the 1986-87 year. Freshman Steve Mitchell had 19 points for the Blazers.
The Place: Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio is definitely one of the worst places for the Blazers to play. Hopefully, today's game will be the last trip to Cincinnati for some time. UAB is a pitiful 3-13 in Cincinnati. We are 1-9 against the Bearcats and 0-1 against Xavier. We have beaten Saint Louis and Charlotte and lost to Memphis, South Florida and DePaul in Conference USA tournaments games held in Cincinnati.
The Opponent:
Despite our poor record in Cincinnati, the Blazers have actually been somewhat successful against the Bearcats. While we have an overall record against them of 7-13, we won five out of six games from 1993-1996.
We all remember the great win last year in Birmingham over #17 Cincinnati when UAB won 80-69 in front of 9312, a Bartow attendance record at the time. Several factors were credited for the win: the crowd, UAB's smothering defense, UAB shooting almost 84% from the free throw line, including DeMario Eddins hitting 9 of 10 from the line, the UAB bench scoring 37 points and holding Tony Bobbitt to zero points. However, let's look at one factor I don't think anyone has mentioned as a motivation tool for the Blazers for this game: the game the year before in Cincinnati.
This game was played March 5, 2003 at Shoemaker Center. The Blazers felt that Cincinnati was beatable because both teams entered the game 16-9. It was one of the few times the teams had played that Cincinnati was unranked. UAB's pressure defense had its effect on Cincinnati in the first half as the Bearcats had nine turnovers in the first half alone, one shy of their game average. Apparently, the defense caused tempers to flare and there were several on court altercations. Even mild mannered Morris Finley drew a technical as he and Cincinnati's Field Williams got tangled up and both players got technicals. Later, Jason Maxiell threw an arm at Gabe Kennedy after a pileup, and Brandon Tobias also drew a technical for taking a swing at Jason Maxiell during a shouting match. All of this bickering must have fired up the Blazers as Cincinnati came to town in 2004. Cincinnati won this game in the second half as they went on a 14 point spurt to push the game to 71-53. The Bearcats hit 29 of 33 free throws while UAB only hit 12 of 20. That 17 point difference was the margin in the game as Cincinnati won 87-70. Leonard Stokes playing in his final game on Senior day at Cincinnati led the Bearcats with 23 points and 12 rebounds. Finley led the Blazers with 24 points.
Another big game came on February 5, 1994, when both UAB and Cincinnati were ranked. UAB entered the game 16-3 and Cincinnati was 15-5. Both had two losses in the conference. UAB was ranked 17th, but had lost to Marquette earlier in the week and needed a win to stay in the Top 25. Cincinnati came into the game ranked 25th. UAB Arena was packed with a standing room only crowd of 8907. As the game started, UAB's best shooters, Robert Shannon and Carter Long were held scoreless in the first 12:28 of the game. But the slack was picked up by George Wilkerson, Reggie Allen and Clarence Thrash who kept UAB in the game. Shannon then led the Blazers from ten down to a 44-40 halftime lead. Cincinnati who had shot 61% in the first half, cooled down to 35% in the second half. Clarence Thrash and Travis Harper shut down the Bearcats star freshman Dontonio Wingfield. In an earlier game against the Blazers, Wingfield had 18 points and 18 rebounds. But in this game, Harper and Thrash fronted him instead of playing behind him, and held him to 15 points on 5 of 16 shooting. He also fouled out of the game. UAB put a strong second half together to win the game 83-67. Robert Shannon led in scoring with 21 points and Clarence Thrash had a career high 18 points. The Blazers dropped in the AP poll to 19th where two consecutive losses would have put them out of the rankings.
Since this is the last regular season conference game against the Bearcats, I thought I would do another flashback segment at a few other memorable moments in the Blazer-Bearcat series.
Although these are in no particular order, I have to start with this one:
1. 9213 fans show up to see the third ranked and undefeated Bearcats take on UAB on January 21, 1996. Cedric Dixon scores 26 points and Carlos Williams score 20 points as the Blazers defeat Cincinnati 70-68.
2. UAB jumps into the Top 25 at #22 with a 11-1 record after upsetting the #17 ranked Bearcats on January 9, 1994. Robert Shannon hits two free throws to break a 65-65 tie and win the game 67-65. It remains UAB's only win against the Bearcats in Cincinnati.
3. In 2000, Cincinnati comes to Birmingham ranked #1 and Kenyon Martin showed the Bartow arena crowd of 9279 why he was Player of the Year as he totally manhandles the Blazers in a Cincinnati victory 93-80. Martin would score 31 points, grab 16 rebounds and get seven blocks in one of the most impressive performances ever in Bartow Arena.
4. In 1993, Gene Bartow instituted a slow down game to perfection and would have upset the Bearcats, except that Nick Van Exel picks up the ball after a desperation shot was blocked. Van Exel hits nothing but net from beyond the three point line to give the Bearcats a 40-38 win at the buzzer.
5. In a game played at Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati in 1984, our first game against Cincinnati, the Bearcats win 69-67 on a miracle three point heave from beyond mid court as time expires.
6. I can't remember the year, but I believe it was in 1998 or 1999 when the Blazers traveled to Cincinnati. Cincinnati won the game, but the excitement came as the coaches went to shake hands as the buzzer sounded. The game is on TV and lip readers around the nation watched as Murry Bartow and Bob Huggins exchanged terse words with each other. The encounter ended with Huggins telling Murry "F*** You, Murry"
7. On a more pleasant note, in 1992, Steve Mitchell's jersey is retired at the halftime of the #19 Cincinnati-UAB game. The game itself was a typical bitter fight as both Bob Huggins and Gene Bartow received technicals. Cincinnati won 63-58 on its way to the Final Four that season.
8. February 26, 1995 game in Birmingham. UAB wins 64-63. Huggins is ejected with two technicals with 12 minutes to play in the FIRST half. After the game, he has to be restrained from beating up a heckling Golden 100 member.
The Bench:
Bob Huggins has only faced UAB as a coach at Cincinnati. He is 12-6 against the Blazers. His assistant coach, Andy Kennedy is 62-34 while playing as a Blazer. He is 1-2 in coaching against his alma mater. This includes a loss to the Blazers while Kennedy was an assistant coach at South Alabama in 1994.
One final note: The UAB-Cincinnati game has always been a hotly contested competition. . Since the two teams started conference play in 1991 in the Great Midwest Conference, they have played 18 times. In those games, there have been 17 technicals called.
2/23/05 @ Saint Louis
The Date:
UAB is 6-4 in games played on February 23. However, we are 0-3 in road games played on this date. We have won our last two games on this date, 1998 against Norfolk State and in 2003 against South Florida.
Today is the 25th anniversary of our first conference tournament game. Today, in 1980, UAB entered the Sun Belt Tournament in Charlotte, North Carolina as the #2 seed. UAB did not play in the Sun Belt Conference tournament during their inaugural year because they were ineligible since they were in their first year. UAB's opponent was the seventh seed, New Orleans. The Blazers had beaten the Privateers twice in the regular season, and this game was a victory as well, as UAB won 85-75. Keith McCord scored 13 points in the first half on his way to a 22 point output to lead the Blazers. Stan Scales had 12 points and 9 rebounds.
Although this game report appeared in last year's Today in Blazer History, I feel the need to include it again this year. I call it the "Why We don't play Samford" segment:
On this date in 1982, UAB played Samford in an crosstown game that both sides hoped would be the start of a great rivalry. The first game in the series had been played one year earlier in 1981,and UAB had won handily 92-67. Samford coach Mike Hanks decided that the best way to have a chance to win was to slow the ball down. I mean very slow. With no shot clock, there was no restriction on how long a team could sit and hold the ball. The Bulldogs took only four shots in the first half. For the game, they took 15 shots and hit seven of them. They were 13-24 from the line. The plan did not work as UAB won the game 40-27. Bartow was quoted as saying, “I’m not mad at Mike Hanks. He has every right as a head coach to do what he feels he has to do to win.” Hanks stated that he hoped that his tactics would not affect the series. (It did. The series was a three year deal. The teams played the next year and have not played since.) Most upset about the slow down game were the Blazer seniors. Oliver Robinson had a string of six 20-plus point games that was ended because of the slow down game. He had 17 points. Oliver said it was not good for an inner city rivalry. “I really hate to see it as the last game of the year. This is the night for the seniors and who wants to go out like that.”
Also on this date in 1989, Reginald Turner set a new scoring record at UAB as he scored 36 points enroute to a 76-62 win over Virginia Commonwealth. The Blazers were 15-9 entering the game, and VCU was 11-13. VCU was too concerned with outside shooting and left Turner open underneath the basket many times. Turner, playing in his final game at UAB Arena scored 12 of the Blazer's first 19 points. He had 18 points in each half. VCU tied the game at 33 with 1:12 in the half, and again at 41 with 14:56 left in the game. At that point, Turner took over again and scored 14 of UAB's next 16 points over the next six minutes. On the two points he did not score during that span, he got the assist as he dished the ball to Dylan Howard. It was a great performance and now ranks third as the most points scored by a Blazer in a game. Quick trivia: Who is #1 and #2? No peeking.
The Place: Saint Louis
The Blazers have six wins and seven losses in St. Louis. The only non Saint Louis games occurred in 1997 in the Conference USA tournament in which the Blazers won two and lost one, and last year in the NCAA Tournament in the loss to Kansas. We have not won in the Gateway City since the CUSA Tournament in 1997, meaning we have lost the last four games there, three of them to Saint Louis.
The Opponent:
UAB is 4-6 against Saint Louis as a road team. We have a much better overall record against the Billikins at 16-7. The Blazers have won the last two games in the series.
On January 13, 1991, UAB played Saint Louis in UAB Arena and won easily 98-80. The game stands out because Andy Kennedy set the UAB mark for most points ever scored in a game. He shot 13 of 20 from the field, including 8 of 12 from beyond the three. Kennedy still holds the record for most points in a game because of his 41 points scored against Saint Louis.
The lowest point in our series with Saint Louis had to come March 3, 2001 when the Blazers suffered their second worse home loss ever to the Billikins, losing by 25, 73-48. The worse home loss ever for UAB had come ten days earlier when the Blazers lost by 28 to South Florida. I have been watching Blazer basketball since its inception, and that had to be the lowest point in the history of the program. UAB scored just 16 points in the first half of the Saint Louis game, and shot just 26% for the game. The ironic thing about this game is that UAB's leading scorer and the only player in double figures for the Blazers was Tom Frericks, with 10 points. This was effectively his last game as a Blazer. He would only play three more minutes for UAB, and then transferred to junior college, eventually ending up with the Billikins.
But enough bad memories. Now a good one. Remember the 2003 Conference USA tournament. After upsetting eighth ranked Marquette, UAB was playing their third game in as many days and was in a perfect position to have a letdown game against Saint Louis in the semi finals. Saint Louis was the hot team and had an eight game winning streak going. UAB jumped out to a 44-22 lead early in the second half as the Billikins struggled against Mike Anderson's defensive schemes. However, fatigue set in on the Blazers and Saint Louis put together an 18-4 run and took its only lead on a free throw with 23 seconds to play. Eric Bush then scored with 11.9 seconds remaining on a driving layup to give the Blazers a 63-62 lead. The Billikins had two chances to win the game, but failed to score and the Blazers were in the championship game against Louisville. Eric Bush and Gabe Kennedy led UAB with 16 points each. Kennedy also had 12 rebounds.
The Bench:
As a head coach, Brad Soderberg is 0-2 against the Blazers. However, he was an assistant at Saint Louis under Lorenzo Romar during 2001-02 and had a 1-0 record against UAB that year. He has not faced the Blazers any other time in his coaching career.
2/26/05 Tulane
The Date:
It's a great date for basketball! UAB has never lost a game on February 26, a perfect 6-0. Five of the wins have come at home and one win came on a neutral court in the 1987 Sun Belt Tournament.
Our opponenet in the first round of the 1987 Sun Belt tournament, played in Bowling Green, Kentucky, was South Alabama. UAB entered the tournament, seeded third, with a 10-4 conference record behind Western Kentucky and Jacksonville. South Alabama was seeded sixth with a 6-8 conference record. The Jaguars featured a deadly combination of Jeff Hodge and Junie Lewis, both averaging 19.1 per game. The Blazers started the game extremely cold and just nine minutes into the game, they found themselves in a 16 point deficit with the score 25-9 with 11:16 minutes to go in the first half. However, Gene Bartow began substituting bench players for starters and over the next 24 minutes, there was a 32 point swing, as UAB went up by 16 points with 7:33 to go in the game. The bench, mainly Dylan Howard and Michael Charles was so effective that the starters (Eddie Collins and Larry Rembert) were left on the bench. UAB would win the game 77-64. James Ponder led all scorers with 22 points. UAB would defeat the second seeded Jacksonville the next day and upset the 25-7 Western Kentucky team on their home court in the championship game to win the 1987 Sun Belt Championship in a year that it had appeared that their string of NCAA tournament appearances would be broken. It was also the last conference tournament that UAB has ever won. Looks like we might need history to repeat itself this year in Memphis.
Probably UAB's greatest win on this date came in 1995 over seventh ranked Cincinnati. UAB had won three straight games over the Bearcats despite much better Cincinnati teams. The Blazers were the only team in the Great Midwest Conference to have a winning record over the Bearcats. UAB was on the verge of its first losing season with a 12-14 record coming into the game, and they needed to steal a few wins. This was the final home game, but for the only time in UAB history, there were no seniors to honor. The 1994-95 season was an odd season, one that I think may have been Gene Bartow's greatest coaching job. No seniors, next to last in the conference, with a losing record, yet he owned wins in the conference over #1 Memphis, #2 Saint Louis, and #3 Dayton. On this date, he would add Cincinnati to that list. The Blazers did get help from Bob Huggins. Eight minutes into the game, Huggins picked up his second technical and was ejected from the game. Huggins claimed that his first technical came because he told official Ted Hillary "That's a terrible call". According to Huggins, he said "What's that for?" and he got his second technical. Anyway, he watched on television as the game came to a dramatic end. UAB had come from ten points down, and with 13 seconds to go, Leonard Bush stepped to the free throw line with the Blazers down by two points. He made his first free throw, but missed the second one. UAB's Travis Harper got the rebound but his shot would not fall and went out of bounds off Cincinnati with four seconds to go, and UAB down by one. Cedric Dixon got the inbounds pass and took a shot from the corner that missed everything. Travis Harper got the rebound, but his putback teetered off the rim. Big man and part time football player James Bristow grabbed the ball and jammed it home as the buzzer sounded, giving UAB the 64-63 win over the seventh ranked Bearcats. Cedric Dixon led the Blazers with 22 points. Freshman DannyFortson led Cincinnati with 28 points and 14 rebounds. Huggins watching on a TV somewhere in the arena, claimed that Bristow's put back should not have counted because the ball was still in the cylinder, but no one would listen to him. His nightmare was not over with the end of the game either. As he made his way to the interview room, several Golden 100 fans outside the Golden 100 Room started yelling at him, and the Cincinnati Sports Information Director had to restrain Huggins from physically going after them. "They don't pay me enough money to have to take that" he complained. I guess the Golden 100 has some fight in them after all.
The Opponent:
It pains me to say that after our loss to Tulane earlier this year, our record with the Green Wave is now 11-11. We have lost five of the last six games to them. Oddly enough, when Tulane had a very good team in the mid 1990's, UAB was more successful against them than now. Between 1995 and 1997, Tulane won 42 games, and the Blazers were 3-2 against them. On a positive note, UAB has won three of the last four in Birmingham against Tulane.
Most of our games against Tulane has been either blowouts or disappointing losses. However, in 1997, the situation was different in that Tulane had a very good team. When we played them on February 13 in Fogelman, Tulane was ranked #23 in the nation. UAB trailed by five points at halftime with the score 31-26. However, led by Carlos Williams, the Blazers came back in the second half and won the game 64-61. Carlos Williams had 30 points, but only shot 9 of 23 from the field. He made 10 of 14 points and had 11 rebounds. The loss dropped Tulane out of the Top 25.
Our one win over Tulane since January 2002 came last year at Bartow Arena on January 28, 2004. The Blazers were led by Sidney Ball who had 13 points and 11 rebounds. UAB led by seven at halftime, and held Tulane without a field goal for the first five minutes of the second half. However, the Green Wave soared back on a 11-2 run which cut the score to 60-57 with 7:19 remaining. At that point, Mo Finley's three pointer sparked a 20-2 run for the Blazers that gave UAB a 80-59 win. The victory pushed the Blazers record to 12-5 and 5-1 in the conference. The Blazers had 14 steals and forced Tulane into 23 turnovers.
The Bench:
Shawn Finney can't seem to beat anyone else in the conference, but he is 5-4 against UAB. You're welcome, Shawn.