The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
CONFERENCE USA CO-CHAMPS!!!!
3/6/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 6, 2004
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ----- With the help of an 87-62 win over TCU on Saturday afternoon and a Cincinnati win over Memphis, the UAB men's basketball team earned a share of the program's first Conference USA regular season crown since the 1998-99 campaign when it won the league's National Division title.
UAB is one of five teams to share the 2003-04 crown with identical 12-4 conference records (Charlotte, Cincinnati, DePaul and Memphis) and earns a first round bye in the upcoming Kelly Tires C-USA Tournament as the No. 4 seed.
The Blazers (19-8, 12-4) wil open C-USA Tournament play this coming Thursday at 1 p.m. EST when they play a quarterfinal game againt the winner of Wednesday's matchup between No. 5 seed Charlotte (20-7, 12-4) and 12th-seed Tulane (11-15, 4-12). The Blazers split with the Green Wave with each team winning at home, while UAB took a 68-62 win at Charlotte.
"As a head coach you talk about improvement and this year we are co-champions of Conference USA," UAB head coach Mike Anderson said. "We get to be a fourth seed and last yearwe were a ninth seed in the tournament and that shows you the improvement in this basketball team. Now we move into our next season which is the Conference USA Tournament."
UAB won the C-USA National Division title with a 10-6 record in the 1998-99 campaign. The Blazers' last league title when divisions weren't concerned came when the Blazers won the 1990 Sun Belt Conference title.
Based on tie-breaker procedures, DePaul will be the top seed at the tournament in Cincinnati, Ohio. The four-day, 12-team event will be held Wednesday-Saturday, March 10-13 at U.S. Bank Arena in downtown Cincinnati.
Twice Conference USA has had two schools share the regular season championship, but never has more than two schools earn a piece of the crown. For Cincinnati, it has now won at least a share of eight of the conference's first nine regular season titles. Memphis gains a piece of its second title, as the Tigers split the league's first regular season championship with UC back in 1996. Charlotte, DePaul, along with UAB, all won titles in other leagues during the 1990's. Charlotte captured the final regular season title of the Metro Conference in 199 and DePaul shared the inaugural Great Midwest Conference championship with Cincinnati in 1992.
2004 KELLY TIRES CONFERENCE USA TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
Wednesday, March 10 (First Round)
(5) Charlotte vs. (12) Tulane (ESPN 2) 1:00p
(8) Marquette vs. (9) TCU (ESPN 2) 3:30p
(6) Louisville vs. (11) East Carolina (ESPN Plus) 7:00p
(7) Saint Louis vs. (10) Southern Miss (ESPN Plus) 9:30p
Thursday, March 11 (Quarterfinals)
CHA/TUL vs. (4) UAB (ESPN Plus) 1:00p
MAR/TCU vs. (1) DePaul (ESPN Plus) 3:30p
LOU/ECU vs. (3) Cincinnati (ESPN Plus) 7:00p
SLU/USM vs. (2) Memphis (ESPN Plus) 9:30p
Friday, March 12 (Semifinals)
Semifinal No. 1 (ESPN) 4:30p
Semifinal No. 2 (ESPN Plus) 7:00p
Saturday, March 13
Championship Game (CBS) 11:41a
All times Eastern
