01-02-2008, 08:21 AM
Happy New Year from the Today in Blazer History research staff. The Blazers have never played on New years day, so the second of January if the first day of the new year for Blazer games.
The Date
UAB is 6-3 in games played on this date. Their losses were to VCU in 1982, Minnesota in 1993 and Mississippi State in 2003. UAB is 5-2 at home on this date.
UAB vs. Jackson State - January 2, 1988
On this date 20 years ago, the Blazers hosted the UAB Classic at the Birmingham Jefferson Civic Center. The field included UAB, Jackson State, Missouri-Kansas City and Tennessee-Chattanooga. This was a homecoming of sorts for all the coaches involved. Missouri-Kansas City was coached by former UAB assistant coach, Lee Hunt. Hunt had coached with Bartow since they were coaches at Memphis State and Hunt was a key figure in the birth of UAB Athletics. Mack McCarthy was a former assistant to Sonny Smith at Auburn and close friend to Bartow.
UAB’s first round opponent was Jackson State, coached by former UAB assistant, John Prince. Prince had been an assistant at UAB from 1982 to 1986 and had left to become head coach at Jackson State. He was 1-5 in his second year at Jackson State. The Blazers were struggling along at 5-6, having lost four of their last five games.
The Blazers started the game shorthanded because leading scorer, Michael Charles had been benched for the first half for missing a team meeting. The Blazers, without Charles found themselves down by eight points midway through the first half. Jackson State led 31-29 at halftime.
In the second half, Michael Charles entered the game and turned the game around. The Blazers shot 54.5% in the second half, and Larry Rembert scored a put-back basket with 13:47 left in the game to put the Blazers up for good. Jackson State cut the lead to 49-45 with 8:41 left, but UAB outscored the Tigers 16-6 the rest of the way and won the game 65-51. UAB outscored Jackson State 36-20 in the second half. Larry Rembert led all scorers with 19 points. Michael Charles contributed ten points, four assists and three steals in one half. Dylan Howard and Barry Bearden also scored 10 points each. This game marked the 200th win in UAB’s history. John Prince will be fired from Jackson State at the end of the season, and Gene Bartow welcomed back to UAB with open arms. He coached at UAB a second time from 1988-1992 before leaving again to be an assistant coach at Memphis.
UAB vs. Mississippi State – January 2, 2003
This date also marks the last time that UAB hosted a non conference team that was ranked coming into Bartow Arena. On this date in 2003, the Blazers played Rick Stansbury’s Mississippi State, ranked 8th in the nation. An almost sellout crowd included basketball greats Jerry West and Gene Bartow as well as several hundred Bulldog fans. Mississippi State was also the first SEC team to visit Bartow Arena since 1997 when Vanderbilt played at Bartow, and no SEC team has visited Bartow Arena since this game in 2003.
The Blazers were fired up to have a ranked SEC school in the house and their defense forced eleven turnovers in the first ten minutes. Jeffrey Collins tied the game at 14 on an awesome alley-oop pass from Mo Finley. However, Mario Austin scored five points in 45 seconds and had a steal to push the Bulldogs out to a 19-14 lead. This sparked a 22-5 run that would eventually give Mississippi State a 17 point lead at the half. The Bulldog defense held Mo Finley to two points in the first half.
In the second half, the much taller Bulldogs controlled the inside and easily beat the Blazers on the boards. Gabe Kennedy was hobbled by an ankle injury, and UAB had no inside presence, giving the Bulldogs a 43-28 rebounding edge. UAB shot 36% for the night from the field, and the Bulldogs eventually built a 20 point lead midway through the second half. UAB cut the lead down to 15 points, but could get no closer. Mississippi State won the game 68-52.
Rick Stansbury said their goal was to shut point guard Eric Bush down. They met this goal because Bush had only two points and one assist in 36 minutes of play. Mo Finley was UAB's high scorer with 15 points. Mario Austin led the Bulldogs with 13 points.
UAB vs. Virginia Commonwealth – January 2, 2006
The last game we will look at will, I am sure caused the most devout Blazer fans to wince at the memory of this game. On this date in 2006, the Blazers hosted Virginia Commonwealth. VCU came in on a six game winning streak and was 8-2. UAB was 8-3 coming into the game and had won four in a row.
UAB led 39-30 at the half, but could not put the game away because of poor free throw shooting. The Blazers shot 12 of 25 from the free throw line, and VCU was able to get back into the game. The game appeared to be headed to a classic UAB-VCU finish when disaster struck at the 6:27 mark in the second half.
UAB was leading 55-51 when Demario Eddins suddenly went down, grabbing his ankle and grimacing in excruciating pain. UAB’s four year starter and second leading scorer went down with a tear to his right Achilles tendon and his season and career was over.
The delay and shock of losing Eddins allowed VCU to take a 56-55 lead, but Paul Delaney put UAB back ahead 57-56 and then Brandon Tobias hit two free throws to give UAB a 59-57 lead, which they held to the end. Squeaky Johnson hit four free throws in the final 17 seconds to assure a Blazer victory by the score of 68-62. Squeaky tied his career high in points with 16 points. Marvett McDonald, who had just been awarded CUSA player of the week, contributed 15 points on 5 of 10 from three point range.
Demario Eddins scored six points and 8 rebounds in his last Blazer game. Mike Anderson said after the game, “This is a tremendous blow to our basketball program and our basketball family, but more importantly to Demario. He is a four-year starter and was one of the foundation-laying members of the resurgence of UAB basketball over the last four seasons.” It was especially disheartening because 2005-06 was to be Eddins’ year, having been overshadowed in previous years by Mo Finley and the Taylor twins. He had finally been moved to his natural position and it was expected that he was going to have a standout year. Eddins finished his career at UAB as only the second Blazer ever to record over 1000 points, 500 rebounds, 250 assists and 175 steals. Stanley Jackson was the other to accomplish that feat. Imagine what he might have accomplished had he completed his senior year.
The Opponent
UAB has a perfect 6-0 record against Alabama State, but the Blazers have not played the Hornets since 1995. All but two of these games have been Blazer blowouts. We will look at the two close games today.
UAB vs. Alabama State - December 8, 1988 – Larry and Andy Save the Day
This game was the second game in the brand new UAB Arena. The Blazers were 2-0 on the young season and was expected to easily defeat the Hornets of Alabama State. However, the Hornets used a full court pressure defense and contested every pass and shot to keep the Blazers out of sync. The Blazers were outrebounded 58-38 and the 5871 Blazer fans in attendance feared they were about to witness the first loss in the Arena to be an embarrassing loss to a feisty Alabama State team.
With four minutes left in the game, two Blazers decided to step up and make sure the home team won. Alabama State was ahead by ten points at 80-70 when Andy Kennedy and Larry Rembert took over. The two of them scored the final 17 points of the game and the UAB defense forced two crucial turnovers to bring UAB back. Kennedy hit three consecutive three point shots to three Hornet free throws and narrowed the gap to 83-79. Rembert went to work inside, scoring a basket inside and hitting four straight free throws. He also scored the game winning lay up with just seconds left in the game, giving the Blazers a two point lead. Alabama State tried a ¾ court shot at the buzzer. The ball hit the glass and rolled around the rim before dropping off the rim, securing the Blazer victory by the score of 87-85. Kennedy and Rembert had outscored Alabama State 17-5 in the last four minutes. Kennedy led UAB with 24 points and Rembert had 17. Reginald Turner and Alan Ogg each had 10 points.
UAB vs. Alabama State – January 3, 1995 – A Costly Favor
Earlier in this report, we looked at Demario Eddins’ career ending injury. Well, you can’t talk about the UAB-Alabama State series without discussing the most damaging game played in this series. The game was played on January 3, 1995, twelve years ago tomorrow and cost the Blazers a promising season.
The first and only game UAB has ever played in Montgomery was the last time we played Alabama State. Coach Gene Bartow had agreed to play in Montgomery as a favor to Coach James Oliver of the Hornets. Oliver had done favors for Bartow and agreed to games when Bartow had scheduling problems. “I felt I owe it to him.” Bartow had explained. Alabama State was 0-6 entering the game and had not played at home ina month. The Blazers were 8-5 and was led by Carlos Williams, averaging 18.6 points per game.
This was nothing short of an ugly game. The Blazers and Hornets combined to miss 33 free throws and most of the 2183 in attendance had left the Acadome before the game was over, even though the game went into three overtimes.
Nine minutes into the game, disaster struck. With 11:29 left in the game, Carlos Williams went up for an uncontested dunk and came down wrong. He injured his knee and was gone for the season. The Blazers had just lost their leading scorer and rebounder and the success of the season, to include the game at present, was in much doubt.
UAB trailed 37-35 at the half, but built the lead to nine points with 6:52 left in the game. Unfortunately, without their leading scorer, the Blazers blew a nine point lead in the final 6:52 of the game. In the final two minutes, Alabama State hit two 3 pointers. The second three pointer with 1:22 left put the Hornets in the lead. Leonard Bush missed the front end of a one and one with 51 seconds left and Alabama State pushed the lead to three points 73-70. The Blazers had one last possession. Travis Harper attempted and missed a three point shot. Anthony Thomas got the rebound and passed the ball out to Chad Jones from three point range and left-banked the shot in at an angle with 2.6 seconds left in regulation. The score was tied at 73 and went into overtime.
In overtime, it seemed neither team wanted to win. UAB had shot 13-17 from free throw range in regulation, but shot 9 of 21 in the overtime periods. The Hornets had shot 9-16 from the line in regulation, but shot 6 of 16 in overtime. In the first overtime, Alabama State jumped out to a 5 point lead with 3:14 left. UAB came back to tie the game and send it to a second overtime.
In the second overtime, UAB was the one who blew their lead. The Hornets hit two free throws with two seconds on the clock to force a third overtime. Alabama State took the lead in the third overtime with a three point shot, but scored only three points the rest of the way, as UAB scored 13 points in the third overtime. Three pointers by De’Shanti Foreman and Leonard Bush plus a couple of free throws by Leonard Bush with 18 seconds left secured the win for the Blazers. UAB won the game 102-95 in three overtimes. UAB was led in scoring by Leonard Bush with 25 points and Chad Jones had 23 points.
Carlos Williams would undergo two separate operations to repair the damage to his knee. He would not play until the following year. The impact of his loss was heavy on the Blazers. UAB would lose 10 of the next 16 games to finish the season 14-16 and give the Blazers their first ever losing season. It would be Coach Bartow’s first losing season in 20 years since he went 8-18 at Illinios.
Today we have looked at two season ending injuries to leading scorers on two different Blazer teams. Both injuries took place early in the season and in the case of Demario Eddins, the team regrouped and made it to the NCAA tournament. In the case of Carlos Williams, the team imploded. As this season’s Blazer team enters conference season, it remains to be seen how the current Blazers will handle the loss of Paul Delaney.
The Date
UAB is 6-3 in games played on this date. Their losses were to VCU in 1982, Minnesota in 1993 and Mississippi State in 2003. UAB is 5-2 at home on this date.
UAB vs. Jackson State - January 2, 1988
On this date 20 years ago, the Blazers hosted the UAB Classic at the Birmingham Jefferson Civic Center. The field included UAB, Jackson State, Missouri-Kansas City and Tennessee-Chattanooga. This was a homecoming of sorts for all the coaches involved. Missouri-Kansas City was coached by former UAB assistant coach, Lee Hunt. Hunt had coached with Bartow since they were coaches at Memphis State and Hunt was a key figure in the birth of UAB Athletics. Mack McCarthy was a former assistant to Sonny Smith at Auburn and close friend to Bartow.
UAB’s first round opponent was Jackson State, coached by former UAB assistant, John Prince. Prince had been an assistant at UAB from 1982 to 1986 and had left to become head coach at Jackson State. He was 1-5 in his second year at Jackson State. The Blazers were struggling along at 5-6, having lost four of their last five games.
The Blazers started the game shorthanded because leading scorer, Michael Charles had been benched for the first half for missing a team meeting. The Blazers, without Charles found themselves down by eight points midway through the first half. Jackson State led 31-29 at halftime.
In the second half, Michael Charles entered the game and turned the game around. The Blazers shot 54.5% in the second half, and Larry Rembert scored a put-back basket with 13:47 left in the game to put the Blazers up for good. Jackson State cut the lead to 49-45 with 8:41 left, but UAB outscored the Tigers 16-6 the rest of the way and won the game 65-51. UAB outscored Jackson State 36-20 in the second half. Larry Rembert led all scorers with 19 points. Michael Charles contributed ten points, four assists and three steals in one half. Dylan Howard and Barry Bearden also scored 10 points each. This game marked the 200th win in UAB’s history. John Prince will be fired from Jackson State at the end of the season, and Gene Bartow welcomed back to UAB with open arms. He coached at UAB a second time from 1988-1992 before leaving again to be an assistant coach at Memphis.
UAB vs. Mississippi State – January 2, 2003
This date also marks the last time that UAB hosted a non conference team that was ranked coming into Bartow Arena. On this date in 2003, the Blazers played Rick Stansbury’s Mississippi State, ranked 8th in the nation. An almost sellout crowd included basketball greats Jerry West and Gene Bartow as well as several hundred Bulldog fans. Mississippi State was also the first SEC team to visit Bartow Arena since 1997 when Vanderbilt played at Bartow, and no SEC team has visited Bartow Arena since this game in 2003.
The Blazers were fired up to have a ranked SEC school in the house and their defense forced eleven turnovers in the first ten minutes. Jeffrey Collins tied the game at 14 on an awesome alley-oop pass from Mo Finley. However, Mario Austin scored five points in 45 seconds and had a steal to push the Bulldogs out to a 19-14 lead. This sparked a 22-5 run that would eventually give Mississippi State a 17 point lead at the half. The Bulldog defense held Mo Finley to two points in the first half.
In the second half, the much taller Bulldogs controlled the inside and easily beat the Blazers on the boards. Gabe Kennedy was hobbled by an ankle injury, and UAB had no inside presence, giving the Bulldogs a 43-28 rebounding edge. UAB shot 36% for the night from the field, and the Bulldogs eventually built a 20 point lead midway through the second half. UAB cut the lead down to 15 points, but could get no closer. Mississippi State won the game 68-52.
Rick Stansbury said their goal was to shut point guard Eric Bush down. They met this goal because Bush had only two points and one assist in 36 minutes of play. Mo Finley was UAB's high scorer with 15 points. Mario Austin led the Bulldogs with 13 points.
UAB vs. Virginia Commonwealth – January 2, 2006
The last game we will look at will, I am sure caused the most devout Blazer fans to wince at the memory of this game. On this date in 2006, the Blazers hosted Virginia Commonwealth. VCU came in on a six game winning streak and was 8-2. UAB was 8-3 coming into the game and had won four in a row.
UAB led 39-30 at the half, but could not put the game away because of poor free throw shooting. The Blazers shot 12 of 25 from the free throw line, and VCU was able to get back into the game. The game appeared to be headed to a classic UAB-VCU finish when disaster struck at the 6:27 mark in the second half.
UAB was leading 55-51 when Demario Eddins suddenly went down, grabbing his ankle and grimacing in excruciating pain. UAB’s four year starter and second leading scorer went down with a tear to his right Achilles tendon and his season and career was over.
The delay and shock of losing Eddins allowed VCU to take a 56-55 lead, but Paul Delaney put UAB back ahead 57-56 and then Brandon Tobias hit two free throws to give UAB a 59-57 lead, which they held to the end. Squeaky Johnson hit four free throws in the final 17 seconds to assure a Blazer victory by the score of 68-62. Squeaky tied his career high in points with 16 points. Marvett McDonald, who had just been awarded CUSA player of the week, contributed 15 points on 5 of 10 from three point range.
Demario Eddins scored six points and 8 rebounds in his last Blazer game. Mike Anderson said after the game, “This is a tremendous blow to our basketball program and our basketball family, but more importantly to Demario. He is a four-year starter and was one of the foundation-laying members of the resurgence of UAB basketball over the last four seasons.” It was especially disheartening because 2005-06 was to be Eddins’ year, having been overshadowed in previous years by Mo Finley and the Taylor twins. He had finally been moved to his natural position and it was expected that he was going to have a standout year. Eddins finished his career at UAB as only the second Blazer ever to record over 1000 points, 500 rebounds, 250 assists and 175 steals. Stanley Jackson was the other to accomplish that feat. Imagine what he might have accomplished had he completed his senior year.
The Opponent
UAB has a perfect 6-0 record against Alabama State, but the Blazers have not played the Hornets since 1995. All but two of these games have been Blazer blowouts. We will look at the two close games today.
UAB vs. Alabama State - December 8, 1988 – Larry and Andy Save the Day
This game was the second game in the brand new UAB Arena. The Blazers were 2-0 on the young season and was expected to easily defeat the Hornets of Alabama State. However, the Hornets used a full court pressure defense and contested every pass and shot to keep the Blazers out of sync. The Blazers were outrebounded 58-38 and the 5871 Blazer fans in attendance feared they were about to witness the first loss in the Arena to be an embarrassing loss to a feisty Alabama State team.
With four minutes left in the game, two Blazers decided to step up and make sure the home team won. Alabama State was ahead by ten points at 80-70 when Andy Kennedy and Larry Rembert took over. The two of them scored the final 17 points of the game and the UAB defense forced two crucial turnovers to bring UAB back. Kennedy hit three consecutive three point shots to three Hornet free throws and narrowed the gap to 83-79. Rembert went to work inside, scoring a basket inside and hitting four straight free throws. He also scored the game winning lay up with just seconds left in the game, giving the Blazers a two point lead. Alabama State tried a ¾ court shot at the buzzer. The ball hit the glass and rolled around the rim before dropping off the rim, securing the Blazer victory by the score of 87-85. Kennedy and Rembert had outscored Alabama State 17-5 in the last four minutes. Kennedy led UAB with 24 points and Rembert had 17. Reginald Turner and Alan Ogg each had 10 points.
UAB vs. Alabama State – January 3, 1995 – A Costly Favor
Earlier in this report, we looked at Demario Eddins’ career ending injury. Well, you can’t talk about the UAB-Alabama State series without discussing the most damaging game played in this series. The game was played on January 3, 1995, twelve years ago tomorrow and cost the Blazers a promising season.
The first and only game UAB has ever played in Montgomery was the last time we played Alabama State. Coach Gene Bartow had agreed to play in Montgomery as a favor to Coach James Oliver of the Hornets. Oliver had done favors for Bartow and agreed to games when Bartow had scheduling problems. “I felt I owe it to him.” Bartow had explained. Alabama State was 0-6 entering the game and had not played at home ina month. The Blazers were 8-5 and was led by Carlos Williams, averaging 18.6 points per game.
This was nothing short of an ugly game. The Blazers and Hornets combined to miss 33 free throws and most of the 2183 in attendance had left the Acadome before the game was over, even though the game went into three overtimes.
Nine minutes into the game, disaster struck. With 11:29 left in the game, Carlos Williams went up for an uncontested dunk and came down wrong. He injured his knee and was gone for the season. The Blazers had just lost their leading scorer and rebounder and the success of the season, to include the game at present, was in much doubt.
UAB trailed 37-35 at the half, but built the lead to nine points with 6:52 left in the game. Unfortunately, without their leading scorer, the Blazers blew a nine point lead in the final 6:52 of the game. In the final two minutes, Alabama State hit two 3 pointers. The second three pointer with 1:22 left put the Hornets in the lead. Leonard Bush missed the front end of a one and one with 51 seconds left and Alabama State pushed the lead to three points 73-70. The Blazers had one last possession. Travis Harper attempted and missed a three point shot. Anthony Thomas got the rebound and passed the ball out to Chad Jones from three point range and left-banked the shot in at an angle with 2.6 seconds left in regulation. The score was tied at 73 and went into overtime.
In overtime, it seemed neither team wanted to win. UAB had shot 13-17 from free throw range in regulation, but shot 9 of 21 in the overtime periods. The Hornets had shot 9-16 from the line in regulation, but shot 6 of 16 in overtime. In the first overtime, Alabama State jumped out to a 5 point lead with 3:14 left. UAB came back to tie the game and send it to a second overtime.
In the second overtime, UAB was the one who blew their lead. The Hornets hit two free throws with two seconds on the clock to force a third overtime. Alabama State took the lead in the third overtime with a three point shot, but scored only three points the rest of the way, as UAB scored 13 points in the third overtime. Three pointers by De’Shanti Foreman and Leonard Bush plus a couple of free throws by Leonard Bush with 18 seconds left secured the win for the Blazers. UAB won the game 102-95 in three overtimes. UAB was led in scoring by Leonard Bush with 25 points and Chad Jones had 23 points.
Carlos Williams would undergo two separate operations to repair the damage to his knee. He would not play until the following year. The impact of his loss was heavy on the Blazers. UAB would lose 10 of the next 16 games to finish the season 14-16 and give the Blazers their first ever losing season. It would be Coach Bartow’s first losing season in 20 years since he went 8-18 at Illinios.
Today we have looked at two season ending injuries to leading scorers on two different Blazer teams. Both injuries took place early in the season and in the case of Demario Eddins, the team regrouped and made it to the NCAA tournament. In the case of Carlos Williams, the team imploded. As this season’s Blazer team enters conference season, it remains to be seen how the current Blazers will handle the loss of Paul Delaney.