The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Travels To Take On Tulsa On Wednesday
1/27/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 27, 2009
UAB-Tulsa Game Notes | Gametracker | Watch
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The UAB men's basketball team will travel to Tulsa, Okla. to take on the Golden Hurricane of Tulsa on Wednesday night. Tip is set for 7:05 p.m. CT and will air live on the Blazers ISP Radio Network, 107.7 FM WUHT beginning with the pregame show at 6:30 p.m. CT.
UAB enters its matchup at Tulsa with a 13-7 overall mark and a 3-2 record in Conference USA play following a 78-40 victory over Rice on Wednesday. Senior Robert Vaden struck for 21 points to lead five players in double figures as the Blazers won their third straight contest and second consecutive league game.
Vaden, a Wooden Award and Naismith Trophy candidate and Preseason C-USA Player of the Year recipient, currently leads the team in scoring (19.0 ppg) and is second in rebounding (5.6 rpg). Vaden has scored at least 20 points in 12 of UAB's 20 games on the season.
Paul Delaney III, who has scored double figures in all but one game he has played this season, is second on the team with 16.5 ppg, to go along with 4.6 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.7 steals per game. Additionally, Delaney also leads the team in field goal percentage, connecting on 111-of-188 shots from the floor this season (.590). He currently is tied for first in the league with Tulsa's Jerome Jordan in field goal percentage and is ninth in scoring.
Kinnard leads the team with 9.1 rebounds a game and is third on the team in scoring with 14.6 points per game. He recently recorded his Conference USA-leading eighth double-double of the season and 15th of his career in the win over UL-Lafayette on Jan. 19. He enters the Tulsa game second in the league in rebounding and is 12th in scoring.
Additionally, senior guard Channing Toney and junior forward Howard Crawford have played tremendously in UAB's last three contests. Over that span, Toney is collecting 15.0 points and 4.7 rebounds a game, while Crawford is contributing 15.0 points and 7.3 rebounds a contest.
As a team, the Blazers are shooting 45.7 percent from the floor and 33.7 percent from beyond the arc this season. UAB is also averaging 7.1 three-point makes per game and is outscoring opponents by 7.0 points a game (72.8-65.8), despite having one of the toughest schedules in the nation (strength of schedule is No. 33 according to CBSSportsline.com rankings (as of Jan. 22).
Tulsa comes into Wednesday night's contest with a 13-7 overall mark and a 3-2 record in league play following a 78-70 victory at UTEP on Saturday. Junior center Jerome Jordan led the Golden Hurricane with 21 points and 14 rebounds, as Tulsa won for the ninth time over its last 12 contests.
Jordan is second on the team with an average of 14.0 points per game. He leads Conference USA with 9.6 rebounds a contest and is tied for the league lead with UAB's Lawrence Kinnard with eight double-doubles on the season. Jordan is also shooting 59.0 percent from the field, which places him in a tie for first with UAB's Paul Delaney III in field goal percentage. Additionally, his 2.45 blocks per game ranks second in the conference and 21st nationally.
Junior guard Ben Uzoh leads his team in scoring (15.6 ppg), assists (3.7 apg), steals (1.7 spg) and minutes (36.3 mpg). In the win over UTEP, Uzoh collected 17 points, seven rebounds and four assists.
Sophomore guard Justin Hurtt, who had 16 points in the win over the Miners, leads the team in three-point shooting, connecting on a 44.4-percent clip (28-of-63), and is fourth in scoring (8.1 ppg). Senior forward Ray Reese is third on the team in scoring with 9.0 ppg and is second in three-point shooting (39.8 percent).
As a team, Tulsa enters the contest as one of the top defensive teams in Conference USA. The Golden Hurricane lead the league in scoring defense (59.7 ppg), three-point field goal percentage defense (26.1 percent) and rebounding margin (+8.7). Tulsa also ranks second in the league in blocked shots per game (4.65), rebounding defense (31.6), rebounding offense (40.3), field goal percentage defense (.389) and ranks third in scoring margin (+7.4), field goal percentage (.452).
UAB and Tulsa will meet for the 10th time in series history, with the Blazers owning a slim 5-4 lead in the previous nine contests. UAB has won three of the last four meetings between the two squads; however, Tulsa snapped a three-game losing streak to the Blazers in the 2008 C-USA Quarterfinals, when the Golden Hurricane captured a 78-68 overtime victory on March 13, 2008. The last time UAB played at Tulsa was on Feb. 21, 2007, when the Blazers snuck out a 62-57 victory. It is the only UAB win in three meetings at Tulsa.
