The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Men's Basketball Opens Exhibition Season Against Montevallo
11/10/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 10, 2004
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - UAB's men's basketball team takes to the floor for the first exhibition contest of the 2004-05 season Thursday night at Bartow Arena. The 7:30 p.m. CT tip against local NCAA Division II team Montevallo will be the official opening of the 2004-05 campaign for Mike Anderson's club, which is coming off an appearance in last season's NCAA Tournament Sweet 16.
"We're ready to play someone other than ourselves," Anderson, who was the 2004 Conference USA Ray Meyer Coach of the Year, said. "Everyone is anxious to see us play, including me. We've got some experience coming back and some talented newcomers who will bring different dimensions to our style of play. It's going to be a different team than last year, but we hope to take UAB basketball to another level this time around."
The Blazers were 22-10 a year ago and earned a share of the 2004 C-USA title. Anderson's team defeated Washington and top overall seed Kentucky in the first two rounds of the 2004 NCAA Tournament before falling to Kansas in the regional semifinals. UAB returns 10 letterwinners from that team, including two starters. Point guard Carldell "Squeaky" Johnson and Demario Eddins, plus twins Donell and Ronell Taylor headline the cast of returning players for UAB.
Montevallo is coming off a storybook season of their own in 2003-04. Danny Young's Falcons were 23-9 overall and won the Gulf South Conference title before bowing out of the NCAA Division II Tournament, also with a loss in the regional semifinals. Returning guard D.J. Towns (14.8 ppg in 2003-04) and forward Marcus Kennedy (13.2 ppg.) lead the way for Montevallo.
"The one carryover to this season from our success last year is that now, that UAB across our chest means something more," Anderson said. "It doesn't matter who we play. We're going to get a championship game effort out of them. It means more to play UAB now than it has in a while. We're no longer the hunter, we're the hunted."
These teams met once before, in another exhibition contest, back in the 2002-03 season. UAB took that contest by a 92-66 score.
The Blazers will continue with an exhibition contest on Monday night against VASDA USA's traveling exhibition club before opening the regular season against 2004 NCAA Tournament participant Virginia Commonwealth on Nov. 27. Game times for both the Monday exhibition and VCU opener are set for 7:30 p.m. CT.
