The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Seeks Win No. 20 at SMU
2/24/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 24, 2006
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The UAB men's basketball team travels to Dallas, Texas for its final road game of the regular season -- a 7 p.m. CT, Saturday night Conference USA showdown with the Mustangs of SMU. The Blazers are in search of their 20th win this season which would produce UAB's 17th 20-win campaign in just 28 years of varsity men's basketball.
Mike Anderson's club has had six days of rest since its last outing. UAB spanked Southern Miss, 87-50, last Saturday in Hattiesburg, Miss. Marvett McDonald scored 20 points on 6-of-9 three-point shooting and Squeaky Johnson had eight assists and no turnovers to lead UAB. Johnson was named C-USA Player of the Week for his efforts last week, which included a career-high tying 11 assists against Tulane and a 9.5 assist-to-turnover ratio for the week.
"They did the things we asked them to do (against Southern Miss)," UAB head coach Mike Anderson said. "Hopefully, that's something we can build on. With our basketball team, the key is going to be other guys coming off the bench and giving us quality minutes. Our posts are coming in and either maintaining or taking it to another level. That's what we did in that particular game."
Wen Mukubu has scored 12 points in three straight games and UAB continues to lead the nation in forced turnovers per game at 22.2. McDonald leads the Blazers with 14.3 points per game. Mukubu averages 10.4 per contest.
SMU is 12-13 overall and 4-8 in Conference USA play, but the Mustangs are 9-5 at home this year. Bryan Hopkins leads four players in double-figure scoring with 16.2 points per game, but is the only SMU player in double figures in Conference USA play, with an average of 16.1 points per game against the league.
"Every game is magnified right now," Anderson said. "You are getting ready to go into someone else's home turf. Just like we want to defend our home turf, that's what they want to do. I expect a tremendous challenge from an SMU team that has been up-and-down, but this time of year, everyone is jockeying for position. I expect a team that is going to really get after us and we're going to have to match their intensity."
The Mustangs, one of the new members of Conference USA, are coming off a 73-56 loss at Tulsa on Wednesday night. They have lost four of their last five and six of their last eight, but beat UCF, 77-55, in their last game at Moody Coliseum.
Hopkins had 14 points in Wednesday's loss at Tulsa. Brian Epps scored 13 and Derrick Roberts notched 11 for the Mustangs. Roberts (11.2), Devon Pearson (10.3) and Dez Willingham (10.0) also average double-digit scoring for Jimmy Tubbs's team.
With three regular season games left, UAB is tied with UTEP for second place in C-USA standings at 9-2. The top four regular season clubs receive first-round byes in the Conference USA tournament, March 8-13 in Memphis, Tenn.
The radio broadcast of the SMU game can be heard on the ISP/Blazer Sports Network found locally in Birmingham on WYDE, 101.1 FM.
