02-24-2007, 10:38 AM
Murry’s 20 Boosters
The Date:
Only five games have been played on February 24. And it is all wins today. UAB has never lost on this date. Plus, three of the wins have been by more than 20 points. Only a 64-60 win in 1980 over Jacksonville and a 68-61 win in 2001 over Depaul have been close. It’s a good streak to keep alive.
UAB vs. Samford - February 24, 1981
Our first game to look at goes way back to 1981 for an intra-city game against Samford. Coach Gene Bartow was willing to play the Bulldogs, thinking that it would be good for the city and create excitement about basketball in the football-crazed city. Unfortunately, only 5310 showed up for this last game of the regular season.
The Samford coach, Cliff Wettig was a little more reluctant to be playing another school from Birmingham. The last time Samford had played another school from Birmingham had been in 1977, when they were embarrassed badly by NAIA Birmingham Southern. Leading up the game with UAB, Wettig was quoted as saying “We’re the type of school which is not conclusive to big time athletics academic-wise.” This is not what you want to hear your coach saying.
The Blazers had just won a share of the Sun Belt regular season championship and came into this game 18-7. It was not a close game. UAB was up 31-16 with five minutes to go in the first half and led by 11 points at halftime. In the second half, the Blazers hit their first seven shots and outscored the Bulldogs 16-5 in the first four minutes, making the score 53-31. The Blazers shot 57% verses 34% for Samford and won the game 92-67. Donnie Speer had the best game of his career so far, scoring 18 points and seven rebounds. Glenn Marcus, in his final home game at the BJCC, scored 14 points.
UAB @ DePaul February 24, 2001
The last game played on this date in 2001 when UAB traveled to Chicago to play the DePaul Blue Demons. Neither team was having stellar seasons. Depaul was 12-14 and 4-9 in conference. UAB was 14-12 and 6-7 in conference and coming off the worst home loss in UAB history, a 28 point loss to South Florida. Coach Murry Bartow was beginning to feel heat for the bad season. A sure sign that a coach is under fire, is when they start denying that they are concerned about what is being said (See Watson Brown). Murry stated that he was unconcerned with the criticism that he was receiving. “I’ve had 20 calls from boosters today that think we are heading in the right direction.” What he didn’t seem to realize was that even though the fan support had decreased under his watch, 20 boosters in his favor was still a minority of support.
Murry got a lot of criticism for blaming injuries, but to be fair, he did have a lot of injuries that season. In this game, David Walker was out with a sprained ankle and Tony Johnson was out with a stress fracture. DePaul was without their leading scorer, Bobby Simmons who was missing his first game in three years, because of a badly sprained ankle.
This game was ugly. Both teams shot a combined 17 of 71 in the first half. UAB shot 16% from the field in the first half. Depaul led at the half 28-18. The Blazers came out roaring in the second, opening with a 19-4 run. Igor Nikolic capped the run with three straight tip-ins to give UAB a 39-32 lead, the last one prompting a chorus of boos from the DePaul fans.
However, it looked as if UAB was in trouble when Murry’s appointed leader of the team, point guard Leandrew Bass, fouled out with 11:01 to go in the game. Bass had one foul at halftime, but was disqualified after getting a personal foul plus a technical for arguing with the official. He left the game with two points, but UAB led 42-35 at the time. Walk on Bill Armstrong entered the game as point guard and played 11 minutes, the most he had played all year. He had only played 17 minutes all season. He did not score, but also had no turnovers while running the offense.
The Blue Demons rallied behind Imari Sawyer who scored seven points during an 8-4 spurt that brought DePaul within five points at 52-47 with 5:13 left to play. DePaul cut the lead to 58-54 with 2:17 left on two Steve Hunter free throws, but UAB made 10 of 12 free throws in the final two minutes to seal the victory. The Blazers won the game 68-61, despite shooting 26% for the game. The game was won at the foul line where the Blazers were 27 of 34 foul shots while DePaul was 10 out of 20 free throws. Eric Batchelor was 1 for 11 from the field, but hit 14 out of 16 free throws to give him his 17 points. The high scorer was PJ Arnold who scored 30 points. He did not shoot that well, but he shot a lot. He was 9 of 26 from the field, but a perfect 6 for 6 at the free throw line.
The Opponent:
After the Blazers loss to Marshall earlier this season, UAB is 3-2 against the Thundering Herd. UAB is 1-1 at home against Marshall.
UAB vs. Marshall March 4, 2006
UAB hosted Marshall on March 4 of last year in the last game of the regular season. The Blazers were coming off their biggest win of the season two nights earlier in defeating #3 Memphis 80-74. This was a dangerous game for the Blazers after such an emotional high and playing with little time to relax and recover. However, the emotion of playing your last home game must override the emotion of defeating the #3 team in the country, because UAB did not suffer a let down. Iit was Senior Day and UAB fans were saying goodbye to one of the great senior classes in UAB history. Squeaky Johnson, Demario Eddins, Marvett McDonald, Derrick Broom, Brandon Tobias, Richard Jones, and Reed Davis were all honored before the game. These seniors had help bring UAB basketball back to the limelight and to the NCAA tournament. Except for Eddins, who had been injured earlier in the season, and was visibily emotional during the pregame ceremony, all the seniors scored during the game. Marvett McDonald hit two early three pointers on his way to scoring 17 points to lead the Blazers to a 82-61 win over the Thundering Herd. Derrick Broom scored 8 points while Squeaky, Tobias and Jones each scored seven points. Walk-on Reed Davis scored his first and only point of the year when he had a steal, drew a foul and went 1 for 2 from the free throw line in the last few minutes of the regular season.
The Date:
Only five games have been played on February 24. And it is all wins today. UAB has never lost on this date. Plus, three of the wins have been by more than 20 points. Only a 64-60 win in 1980 over Jacksonville and a 68-61 win in 2001 over Depaul have been close. It’s a good streak to keep alive.
UAB vs. Samford - February 24, 1981
Our first game to look at goes way back to 1981 for an intra-city game against Samford. Coach Gene Bartow was willing to play the Bulldogs, thinking that it would be good for the city and create excitement about basketball in the football-crazed city. Unfortunately, only 5310 showed up for this last game of the regular season.
The Samford coach, Cliff Wettig was a little more reluctant to be playing another school from Birmingham. The last time Samford had played another school from Birmingham had been in 1977, when they were embarrassed badly by NAIA Birmingham Southern. Leading up the game with UAB, Wettig was quoted as saying “We’re the type of school which is not conclusive to big time athletics academic-wise.” This is not what you want to hear your coach saying.
The Blazers had just won a share of the Sun Belt regular season championship and came into this game 18-7. It was not a close game. UAB was up 31-16 with five minutes to go in the first half and led by 11 points at halftime. In the second half, the Blazers hit their first seven shots and outscored the Bulldogs 16-5 in the first four minutes, making the score 53-31. The Blazers shot 57% verses 34% for Samford and won the game 92-67. Donnie Speer had the best game of his career so far, scoring 18 points and seven rebounds. Glenn Marcus, in his final home game at the BJCC, scored 14 points.
UAB @ DePaul February 24, 2001
The last game played on this date in 2001 when UAB traveled to Chicago to play the DePaul Blue Demons. Neither team was having stellar seasons. Depaul was 12-14 and 4-9 in conference. UAB was 14-12 and 6-7 in conference and coming off the worst home loss in UAB history, a 28 point loss to South Florida. Coach Murry Bartow was beginning to feel heat for the bad season. A sure sign that a coach is under fire, is when they start denying that they are concerned about what is being said (See Watson Brown). Murry stated that he was unconcerned with the criticism that he was receiving. “I’ve had 20 calls from boosters today that think we are heading in the right direction.” What he didn’t seem to realize was that even though the fan support had decreased under his watch, 20 boosters in his favor was still a minority of support.
Murry got a lot of criticism for blaming injuries, but to be fair, he did have a lot of injuries that season. In this game, David Walker was out with a sprained ankle and Tony Johnson was out with a stress fracture. DePaul was without their leading scorer, Bobby Simmons who was missing his first game in three years, because of a badly sprained ankle.
This game was ugly. Both teams shot a combined 17 of 71 in the first half. UAB shot 16% from the field in the first half. Depaul led at the half 28-18. The Blazers came out roaring in the second, opening with a 19-4 run. Igor Nikolic capped the run with three straight tip-ins to give UAB a 39-32 lead, the last one prompting a chorus of boos from the DePaul fans.
However, it looked as if UAB was in trouble when Murry’s appointed leader of the team, point guard Leandrew Bass, fouled out with 11:01 to go in the game. Bass had one foul at halftime, but was disqualified after getting a personal foul plus a technical for arguing with the official. He left the game with two points, but UAB led 42-35 at the time. Walk on Bill Armstrong entered the game as point guard and played 11 minutes, the most he had played all year. He had only played 17 minutes all season. He did not score, but also had no turnovers while running the offense.
The Blue Demons rallied behind Imari Sawyer who scored seven points during an 8-4 spurt that brought DePaul within five points at 52-47 with 5:13 left to play. DePaul cut the lead to 58-54 with 2:17 left on two Steve Hunter free throws, but UAB made 10 of 12 free throws in the final two minutes to seal the victory. The Blazers won the game 68-61, despite shooting 26% for the game. The game was won at the foul line where the Blazers were 27 of 34 foul shots while DePaul was 10 out of 20 free throws. Eric Batchelor was 1 for 11 from the field, but hit 14 out of 16 free throws to give him his 17 points. The high scorer was PJ Arnold who scored 30 points. He did not shoot that well, but he shot a lot. He was 9 of 26 from the field, but a perfect 6 for 6 at the free throw line.
The Opponent:
After the Blazers loss to Marshall earlier this season, UAB is 3-2 against the Thundering Herd. UAB is 1-1 at home against Marshall.
UAB vs. Marshall March 4, 2006
UAB hosted Marshall on March 4 of last year in the last game of the regular season. The Blazers were coming off their biggest win of the season two nights earlier in defeating #3 Memphis 80-74. This was a dangerous game for the Blazers after such an emotional high and playing with little time to relax and recover. However, the emotion of playing your last home game must override the emotion of defeating the #3 team in the country, because UAB did not suffer a let down. Iit was Senior Day and UAB fans were saying goodbye to one of the great senior classes in UAB history. Squeaky Johnson, Demario Eddins, Marvett McDonald, Derrick Broom, Brandon Tobias, Richard Jones, and Reed Davis were all honored before the game. These seniors had help bring UAB basketball back to the limelight and to the NCAA tournament. Except for Eddins, who had been injured earlier in the season, and was visibily emotional during the pregame ceremony, all the seniors scored during the game. Marvett McDonald hit two early three pointers on his way to scoring 17 points to lead the Blazers to a 82-61 win over the Thundering Herd. Derrick Broom scored 8 points while Squeaky, Tobias and Jones each scored seven points. Walk-on Reed Davis scored his first and only point of the year when he had a steal, drew a foul and went 1 for 2 from the free throw line in the last few minutes of the regular season.