02-21-2007, 08:22 AM
The First Retired Jersey
The Date:
UAB is 5-3 on February 21. The Blazers won their first four games played on this date, but have lost three of their last four on this date, the last game being in 2004 at Memphis. UAB is 3-2 on the road on February 21.
UAB vs. Western Kentucky February 21, 1987
Twenty years ago today, UAB retired the jersey of Oliver Robinson in a game against Western Kentucky, Oliver was the first player to be honored by having his jersey retired at UAB. Gene Bartow placed a strict qualification on having a jersey retired. The player must have received his degree and have been named to an All American team. Oliver received his degree from UAB and was named in 1982 as an Honorable Mention All American by the Associated Press. He is only one of three mens basketball players to have their jerseys retired at UAB, the other two being Steve Mitchell and Jerome Mincy.
This game played after the retirement ceremony was an important one for the Blazers because they were UAB was 17-10 and 9-4 in the Sun Belt Conference and needed a win against the Hilltoppers and to make it to the conference tournament finals in order to secure an at large bid to the NCAA tournament. The Hilltoppers were 25-6, and had only one league loss. This was the final conference game of the season, and Western Kentucky had clinched first place in the conference. The matchups did not look promising for UAB. On the front line, it was three seniors for Western Kentucky verses a freshman, sophomore and junior for UAB.
Western Kentucky led briefly in the first half before UAB took the lead at the 12:05 mark. The Blazers took a 40-30 lead at the half despite the Hilltoppers having a 25-14 edge on the boards. In the second half, UAB extended their lead, up by 16 with 13:20 left in the game and the score 56-40. As the clock wound down, WKU attempted to close the gap by fouling. Their target was freshman Reginald Turner. Coach Clem Haskins figured the big freshman would be the most vulnerable from the line. He had missed the only free throw in the game he had attempted. One of the Hilltopper players informed Turner he was being fouled on purpose, and Turner simply replied “Thank you”. He then hit six straight free throws in the final 42 seconds to seal the win for the Blazers. The final score was 86-73. UAB was led by James Ponder with 23 points and Turner had 16 points. For Western Kentucky, Tellis Frank had 20 points and Kannard Johnson had 16 points and 16 rebounds. The two teams would meet again one week later in the finals of the Sun Belt Tournament in Bowling Green, Kentucky, with UAB taking that game as well.
UAB @ Houston February 21, 1998
The last win on the road on this date came in 1998, when the Blazers traveled to Houston to play the Cougars. UAB’s season was in a nosedive and Murry Bartow was hoping the a game against the 9-16 Cougars could stop the free fall. The Blazers had been 12-4 earlier in the season, but was had lost six of their last nine games and was now 15-10. They were coming off a loss at home to Cincinnati and was traveling to Houston with less than 36 hours between the two games. It was a strong possibility that UAB would be flat, even though they were playing Houston, who had only won two conference games against 11 losses.
It turned out that the Blazers were not flat. Despite Houston starting out 4-0, the Blazers outscored them 20-2 over the next 6 ½ minutes and led by 11 points at half time. In the first three minutes of the second half, UAB went on an 11-3 run, which pushed the lead to 19 points with 17 minutes left in the game. UAB would win easily by the score of 104-70. The 34 point lead was the biggest road victory for the Blazers until Mike Anderson’s team beat Southern Miss by 37 points in February 2006. The 100 point win was the first time in three years that the Blazers had topped the century remark.
The player most responsible for the blowout was point guard Cedric Dixon. He was 6 out of 10 in the first half and 3 of 5 from three point range. In the second half, he was 5 of 6 and 4 of 5 from three point range. Overall, he was 11-16 and 7 of 10 from three point range. He was so effective that the Houston players started playing a very close defense on him, which prompted an elbow by Dixon. He was called for a flagrant foul and was ejected from the game with 11:39 left. He still managed to score 31 points and could have easily broken scoring records had he stayed in the game. The Blazers carried on without him and made 21 of 26 shots in the second half, an 80% clip.
The Opponent:
The Blazers are 3-3 against Tulsa and this is the second time UAB has faced them as a conference foe. In this short history, neither team has put together two wins in a row over the other team. UAB won the last game at Bartow in January 2006 by the score of 84-54.
This is the first time that UAB has played Tulsa in Tulsa as a conference game. The previous two games were played in 1996 and in 1999 and were non conference games. As you can see, living on Tulsa time has not been pleasant for the Blazers. We have lost both games by 15 points each.
UAB @ Tulsa January 8, 1996
On January 6, 1996, UAB made its first trip to Tulsa to take on Coach Steve Robinson and the Tulsa Golden Hurricane. Robinson was in his first year at Tulsa, after replacing Tubby Smith as the coach. UAB came into the game with a 11-4 record. The trip for UAB to Tulsa was a messy one as weather problems cancelled flights out of Birmingham on Sunday and the team scrambled to find a way to get to Tulsa. The Blazers finally arrived in Tulsa on Monday, five hours before tip off and their luggage was still in Atlanta. The team had to walk through their shoot-around in street clothes. It was not a promising start to a game against a team which was 7-1.
Gene Bartow had shuffled his lineup and moved James Bristow into a starting position over Anthony Thomas. UAB was in trouble from the beginning because their only go to player that year, Carlos Williams got into quick foul trouble. He was hit with two quick fouls and the 3rd foul came at 17:25 and the fourth with 13 minutes to go in the first half. Without Carlos as a scoring option, Tulsa had two 6'11'' players who turned a close game into a runaway. Ray Poindexter had 15 points and 15 rebounds. UAB led by a point with 14:41 to go, but went on a scoring drought as the big men took over. UAB had only one field goal from 16:27 to 6:06. I guess they were worried about when their luggage would arrive. Tulsa won the game by the score of 70-55. Anthony Thomas led the Blazers with 12 points.
UAB @ Tulsa – December 4, 1999
The Blazers returned to Tulsa almost four years later on December 4, 1999. This Golden Hurricane team was 5-0 and averaging almost 90 points a game and was coached by Bill Self. UAB was 3-1, and riding a three game winning streak. Although the Blazers had their luggage with them this time, they forgot their offense. In the first half, the Blazers went scoreless for eight minutes and trailed by 19 points in the first half. A rally by UAB cut the lead to 12 points at the half. The rally was highlighted by a disputed charging call against Tulsa that earned Bill Self a technical foul. After the game, Blazer player Mark Kimbrough admitted he was moving and that it was a bad call. Self called it a “semi-marginal” call.
As the second half began, Tulsa went on a 10-2 run and pushed the lead to 20 points. The cruised to a 88-73 win over the Blazers. This was an ugly game. UAB shot 37.5% from the field and had 29 turnovers. Tulsa had 34 turnovers, but offset those by shooting 58.2% from the field. Mark Kimbrough had 23 points for the Blazers and Torrey Ward had 18 points. UAB would enter Tulsa’s record book in this game as Tulsa player Eric Coley became the first player to score a triple double in Tulsa history. He had 11 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. He almost had an unheard of quadruple double because he had 8 steals as well.
The Bench:
Tulsa has previously been known as a coaching factory because same great coaches have got their starts as head of the Golden Hurricane program. From Nolan Richardson to Tubby Smith, many coaches have made their jump to bigger programs from Tulsa. Is Doug Wojcik the next big name in coaching? Wojcik is in his second year as a head coach, but he has been an assistant coach for 15 years under the tutelage of head coaches, Don Devoe, Matt Doherty and Tom Izzo. Wojcik is 0-1 against the Blazers.
A Player To Remember – Oliver Robinson
Since today is the 20th anniversary of the retirement of Oliver Robinson’s jersey, it seems appropriate that we look back on his career at UAB.
Oliver Robinson was a 6’4” forward from Woodlawn High School. While he got no attention from Alabama and Auburn, several out of state schools were interested in him. However, when it was announced that UAB was starting a basketball program, his mother insisted on him staying at home. He states that “I wanted to go to Florida State, but she said, ‘Oh no you’re not.’ We lived in the housing projects in Gate City, and she said, ‘It’s going to be difficult enough for us to get downtown to see you play, and we’ll never get to see you play if you go to Tallahassee.’ I didn’t argue back; that’s how things worked in those days. I did what I was told."
Oliver’s friends and teachers at Woodlawn were disappointed. They felt he was throwing his basketball career away by deciding to play for a school that was just starting out.
Robinson did not play a lot during his first two years. He was hampered by a shoulder injury and was playing behind players like Keith McCord, Darryl Braden, Larry Spicer, Stan Scales and Greg Leet. After his first year, Robinson was moved from the forward spot to the guard spot and his basketball career began to take off. He states that people often forget those first couple of years and only remember the last two “Up until then, I couldn’t handle the ball very well and I couldn’t shoot from outside.” Oliver credits teammate Chris Giles with teaching him how to dribble the ball and his high school coach,
Andy Young, who was an assistant on the UAB women’s team for teaching how to shoot. From there, his career at UAB took off. He was named Sun Belt Most Valuable Player in 1982 and selected as an honorable mention to the 1982 AP All American Squad. Years later, the Sun Belt named him to the All Decade team. In his senior year, he led UAB to the NCAA Elite Eight, beating Indiana and Virginia, with All-American center Ralph Sampson, along the way He scored 1,577 points in his four years at UAB is ranked #5 on the all time scoring list.
Robinson was taken by the San Antonio Spurs with the 23rd pick in the 1982 National Basketball Association draft, which is still the highest a UAB player ever has been drafted. He spent one season with the Spurs, played one year in the Continental Basketball Association, and one year with the touring Athletes in Action team. He decided to retire because he needed surgery on his knee. He returned to UAB and completed his bachelor’s degree in urban affairs with minors in political science, business, and sociology.
Since graduating, Oliver Robinson has been a true success story. He went to work at AmSouth Bank as vice president and manager of the bank’s Office of Community Affairs. In 1994, Robinson and his wife started Robinson & Robinson Communications, which provide consulting services to financial institutions. In 1998, Robinson was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives for the 58th District in Jefferson County. He is chair of the State Government Committee and a member of the Banking and Insurance Committee. He has served his community well for almost ten years.
The Date:
UAB is 5-3 on February 21. The Blazers won their first four games played on this date, but have lost three of their last four on this date, the last game being in 2004 at Memphis. UAB is 3-2 on the road on February 21.
UAB vs. Western Kentucky February 21, 1987
Twenty years ago today, UAB retired the jersey of Oliver Robinson in a game against Western Kentucky, Oliver was the first player to be honored by having his jersey retired at UAB. Gene Bartow placed a strict qualification on having a jersey retired. The player must have received his degree and have been named to an All American team. Oliver received his degree from UAB and was named in 1982 as an Honorable Mention All American by the Associated Press. He is only one of three mens basketball players to have their jerseys retired at UAB, the other two being Steve Mitchell and Jerome Mincy.
This game played after the retirement ceremony was an important one for the Blazers because they were UAB was 17-10 and 9-4 in the Sun Belt Conference and needed a win against the Hilltoppers and to make it to the conference tournament finals in order to secure an at large bid to the NCAA tournament. The Hilltoppers were 25-6, and had only one league loss. This was the final conference game of the season, and Western Kentucky had clinched first place in the conference. The matchups did not look promising for UAB. On the front line, it was three seniors for Western Kentucky verses a freshman, sophomore and junior for UAB.
Western Kentucky led briefly in the first half before UAB took the lead at the 12:05 mark. The Blazers took a 40-30 lead at the half despite the Hilltoppers having a 25-14 edge on the boards. In the second half, UAB extended their lead, up by 16 with 13:20 left in the game and the score 56-40. As the clock wound down, WKU attempted to close the gap by fouling. Their target was freshman Reginald Turner. Coach Clem Haskins figured the big freshman would be the most vulnerable from the line. He had missed the only free throw in the game he had attempted. One of the Hilltopper players informed Turner he was being fouled on purpose, and Turner simply replied “Thank you”. He then hit six straight free throws in the final 42 seconds to seal the win for the Blazers. The final score was 86-73. UAB was led by James Ponder with 23 points and Turner had 16 points. For Western Kentucky, Tellis Frank had 20 points and Kannard Johnson had 16 points and 16 rebounds. The two teams would meet again one week later in the finals of the Sun Belt Tournament in Bowling Green, Kentucky, with UAB taking that game as well.
UAB @ Houston February 21, 1998
The last win on the road on this date came in 1998, when the Blazers traveled to Houston to play the Cougars. UAB’s season was in a nosedive and Murry Bartow was hoping the a game against the 9-16 Cougars could stop the free fall. The Blazers had been 12-4 earlier in the season, but was had lost six of their last nine games and was now 15-10. They were coming off a loss at home to Cincinnati and was traveling to Houston with less than 36 hours between the two games. It was a strong possibility that UAB would be flat, even though they were playing Houston, who had only won two conference games against 11 losses.
It turned out that the Blazers were not flat. Despite Houston starting out 4-0, the Blazers outscored them 20-2 over the next 6 ½ minutes and led by 11 points at half time. In the first three minutes of the second half, UAB went on an 11-3 run, which pushed the lead to 19 points with 17 minutes left in the game. UAB would win easily by the score of 104-70. The 34 point lead was the biggest road victory for the Blazers until Mike Anderson’s team beat Southern Miss by 37 points in February 2006. The 100 point win was the first time in three years that the Blazers had topped the century remark.
The player most responsible for the blowout was point guard Cedric Dixon. He was 6 out of 10 in the first half and 3 of 5 from three point range. In the second half, he was 5 of 6 and 4 of 5 from three point range. Overall, he was 11-16 and 7 of 10 from three point range. He was so effective that the Houston players started playing a very close defense on him, which prompted an elbow by Dixon. He was called for a flagrant foul and was ejected from the game with 11:39 left. He still managed to score 31 points and could have easily broken scoring records had he stayed in the game. The Blazers carried on without him and made 21 of 26 shots in the second half, an 80% clip.
The Opponent:
The Blazers are 3-3 against Tulsa and this is the second time UAB has faced them as a conference foe. In this short history, neither team has put together two wins in a row over the other team. UAB won the last game at Bartow in January 2006 by the score of 84-54.
This is the first time that UAB has played Tulsa in Tulsa as a conference game. The previous two games were played in 1996 and in 1999 and were non conference games. As you can see, living on Tulsa time has not been pleasant for the Blazers. We have lost both games by 15 points each.
UAB @ Tulsa January 8, 1996
On January 6, 1996, UAB made its first trip to Tulsa to take on Coach Steve Robinson and the Tulsa Golden Hurricane. Robinson was in his first year at Tulsa, after replacing Tubby Smith as the coach. UAB came into the game with a 11-4 record. The trip for UAB to Tulsa was a messy one as weather problems cancelled flights out of Birmingham on Sunday and the team scrambled to find a way to get to Tulsa. The Blazers finally arrived in Tulsa on Monday, five hours before tip off and their luggage was still in Atlanta. The team had to walk through their shoot-around in street clothes. It was not a promising start to a game against a team which was 7-1.
Gene Bartow had shuffled his lineup and moved James Bristow into a starting position over Anthony Thomas. UAB was in trouble from the beginning because their only go to player that year, Carlos Williams got into quick foul trouble. He was hit with two quick fouls and the 3rd foul came at 17:25 and the fourth with 13 minutes to go in the first half. Without Carlos as a scoring option, Tulsa had two 6'11'' players who turned a close game into a runaway. Ray Poindexter had 15 points and 15 rebounds. UAB led by a point with 14:41 to go, but went on a scoring drought as the big men took over. UAB had only one field goal from 16:27 to 6:06. I guess they were worried about when their luggage would arrive. Tulsa won the game by the score of 70-55. Anthony Thomas led the Blazers with 12 points.
UAB @ Tulsa – December 4, 1999
The Blazers returned to Tulsa almost four years later on December 4, 1999. This Golden Hurricane team was 5-0 and averaging almost 90 points a game and was coached by Bill Self. UAB was 3-1, and riding a three game winning streak. Although the Blazers had their luggage with them this time, they forgot their offense. In the first half, the Blazers went scoreless for eight minutes and trailed by 19 points in the first half. A rally by UAB cut the lead to 12 points at the half. The rally was highlighted by a disputed charging call against Tulsa that earned Bill Self a technical foul. After the game, Blazer player Mark Kimbrough admitted he was moving and that it was a bad call. Self called it a “semi-marginal” call.
As the second half began, Tulsa went on a 10-2 run and pushed the lead to 20 points. The cruised to a 88-73 win over the Blazers. This was an ugly game. UAB shot 37.5% from the field and had 29 turnovers. Tulsa had 34 turnovers, but offset those by shooting 58.2% from the field. Mark Kimbrough had 23 points for the Blazers and Torrey Ward had 18 points. UAB would enter Tulsa’s record book in this game as Tulsa player Eric Coley became the first player to score a triple double in Tulsa history. He had 11 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. He almost had an unheard of quadruple double because he had 8 steals as well.
The Bench:
Tulsa has previously been known as a coaching factory because same great coaches have got their starts as head of the Golden Hurricane program. From Nolan Richardson to Tubby Smith, many coaches have made their jump to bigger programs from Tulsa. Is Doug Wojcik the next big name in coaching? Wojcik is in his second year as a head coach, but he has been an assistant coach for 15 years under the tutelage of head coaches, Don Devoe, Matt Doherty and Tom Izzo. Wojcik is 0-1 against the Blazers.
A Player To Remember – Oliver Robinson
Since today is the 20th anniversary of the retirement of Oliver Robinson’s jersey, it seems appropriate that we look back on his career at UAB.
Oliver Robinson was a 6’4” forward from Woodlawn High School. While he got no attention from Alabama and Auburn, several out of state schools were interested in him. However, when it was announced that UAB was starting a basketball program, his mother insisted on him staying at home. He states that “I wanted to go to Florida State, but she said, ‘Oh no you’re not.’ We lived in the housing projects in Gate City, and she said, ‘It’s going to be difficult enough for us to get downtown to see you play, and we’ll never get to see you play if you go to Tallahassee.’ I didn’t argue back; that’s how things worked in those days. I did what I was told."
Oliver’s friends and teachers at Woodlawn were disappointed. They felt he was throwing his basketball career away by deciding to play for a school that was just starting out.
Robinson did not play a lot during his first two years. He was hampered by a shoulder injury and was playing behind players like Keith McCord, Darryl Braden, Larry Spicer, Stan Scales and Greg Leet. After his first year, Robinson was moved from the forward spot to the guard spot and his basketball career began to take off. He states that people often forget those first couple of years and only remember the last two “Up until then, I couldn’t handle the ball very well and I couldn’t shoot from outside.” Oliver credits teammate Chris Giles with teaching him how to dribble the ball and his high school coach,
Andy Young, who was an assistant on the UAB women’s team for teaching how to shoot. From there, his career at UAB took off. He was named Sun Belt Most Valuable Player in 1982 and selected as an honorable mention to the 1982 AP All American Squad. Years later, the Sun Belt named him to the All Decade team. In his senior year, he led UAB to the NCAA Elite Eight, beating Indiana and Virginia, with All-American center Ralph Sampson, along the way He scored 1,577 points in his four years at UAB is ranked #5 on the all time scoring list.
Robinson was taken by the San Antonio Spurs with the 23rd pick in the 1982 National Basketball Association draft, which is still the highest a UAB player ever has been drafted. He spent one season with the Spurs, played one year in the Continental Basketball Association, and one year with the touring Athletes in Action team. He decided to retire because he needed surgery on his knee. He returned to UAB and completed his bachelor’s degree in urban affairs with minors in political science, business, and sociology.
Since graduating, Oliver Robinson has been a true success story. He went to work at AmSouth Bank as vice president and manager of the bank’s Office of Community Affairs. In 1994, Robinson and his wife started Robinson & Robinson Communications, which provide consulting services to financial institutions. In 1998, Robinson was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives for the 58th District in Jefferson County. He is chair of the State Government Committee and a member of the Banking and Insurance Committee. He has served his community well for almost ten years.
