The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Takes On East Carolina In Conference USA Opener
1/5/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 5, 2010
UAB-East Carolina Game Notes | Gametracker | Watch
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The UAB men's basketball team will open play in Conference USA on Wednesday night when it welcomes East Carolina for a 7 p.m. tipoff at Bartow Arena. The contest will mark the first time under head coach Mike Davis that the Blazers have opened league play on their home court.
UAB will play the program's 999th game in school history on Wednesday against East Carolina. The Blazers enter the contest with a 12-2 overall record and are receiving votes in both the latest AP and ESPN/USA Today Coaches polls released on Monday (received 29 votes in AP poll and 9 in coaches poll).
After falling in a close game at Virginia to begin the week, UAB earned a hard-fought 73-72 victory at SEC foe Arkansas on Saturday. Howard Crawford, who finished with 13 points and eight rebounds, dunked home the game-winning basket with 1-second left to lift the Blazers to the win. Junior guard Elijah Millsap led UAB with 22 points, to go along with seven rebounds and four steals.
Millsap leads UAB in scoring (16.7 ppg), rebounding (9.7 rpg), steals (2.0 spg) and free throws made (67) and attempted (99) entering Wednesday's game. The Louisiana-Lafayette transfer has led the Blazers in scoring and/or rebounding in 12 of their 14 games this season.
Crawford is second on the team with 13.2 points per contest, while junior guard Jamarr Sanders adds 11.1 ppg and leads the team in three-pointers made (28) and attempted (72). Junior point guard Aaron Johnson adds 8.9 points and leads the team in assists (4.2).
As a team, the Blazers are shooting 44.9 percent from the floor and 33.5 percent from beyond the arc on the year. UAB also boasts a +6.6 advantage on the boards (37.5-30.9). Furthermore, the Blazers are holding the opposition to 59.6 points a game and have held nine of 14 opponents to under 60 points.
UAB head coach Mike Davis is now in his fourth season at the helm of the Blazers' basketball program and his 10th season as a head coach. He boasts a record of 72-41 (.637) at UAB and a 187-120 (.609) record overall.
East Carolina comes into Wednesday's contest sporting a 6-8 overall mark on the season and are 1-3 in true road games. Most recently, ECU had five players reach double figures as the Pirates captured a 68-58 victory over North Carolina Central on Sunday.
ECU is led by junior point guard Brock Young, who leads the team in scoring 15.3 ppg), assists (6.5 apg) and steals (1.7 spg). Young leads the lead in assists per game and is eighth in the conference in scoring.
Junior guard Jontae Sherrod (12.6 ppg), sophomore forward Darius Morrow (12.1 ppg) and junior forward Jamar Abrams (11.1 ppg) all averaged double-figure scoring for ECU. Junior center Chad Wynn, who collected a double-double with 12 points and 13 boards against the Eagles, adds 9.6 points and 5.9 rebounds a game to the cause.
Four players average over 31 minutes per contest for ECU entering the game. As a team, the Pirates are averaging 71.2 ppg and shoot 45.3 percent from the floor and 32.8 percent from beyond the arc. Defensively, East Carolina allows the opposition to shoot 42.5 percent from the floor and 37.2 percent from deep, giving up 75.1 points a game.
Head coach Mack McCarthy is in his third season at the helm of the ECU program and has an overall record of 30-44 (.390). Now in his 19th season as a head coach, McCarthy boasts a record of 339-221 (.605).
UAB vs. East Carolina: The Series
UAB and East Carolina will play for the 10th time in series history when the two teams step on the hardwood Wednesday night. The Blazers have dominated the series to this point, captured wins in eight of the previous nine contests. The only win by the Pirates came at Bartow Arena in a 67-64 win over the Blazers on Feb. 16, 2005.
Quotables
Junior Guard Elijah Millsap On the team losing some steam after Christmas break: "We are getting there. We've really been working hard to get our wind back and are doing everything necessary to get back to the team we were."
On the momentum off the Arkansas game: "It is a positive momentum. That was a long, grueling game and coach told us that they would come out and be physical with us, and that's exactly what they did. The referees let a lot of plays go. I think the last two games that we played will really help us be physical going into conference play."
On heading into conference play against ECU: "We want to go in with a clean slate knowing that we can get better. Teams aren't going to take it easy on us just because we went 12-2 in non-conference play. We just want to build on that."
Senior Guard George Drake
On starting conference play: "We talked about it in the locker room and it's a new season for us starting Wednesday with conference play. You have to take out the same mentality on the defensive end and just play with energy every day."
On allowing over 70 points against Virginia and Arkansas: "Sometimes we would come out slower than usual and that would bring our defensive play down a little. Like coach always says you have to come out with that focused effort on the defensive end and we just have to take it one game at a time and that's what we focus on. For us to be a great team we have to come out and maintain the defensive effort and energy."
On being picked to finish 10th in C-USA: "It's motivation. We have a bunch of new faces on this team and we're all playing together for the first time this year. For us to just come out and do as well as we've done and for conference play to be starting, we can use all of that as motivation and just come out and give it our all out on the court. It's very important to come out and make a statement and play hard like we've been doing."
Head Coach Mike Davis
On starting conference play: "It's a new season for us, one that we've worked hard to get to. That's why in your non-conference schedule, you always try and play some road games and experience some tough situations. The non-conference is really to work on your rotations. Our guys have that down and understand their role on the team.
"We feel really good about the conference play. We feel like we've played at Virginia and Arkansas, two teams that could match any venue in our conference. We played Cincinnati and Butler at home. We had big crowds at those games, so now our first game against Memphis is not our biggest crowd so our guys don't feel that pressure of coming out and playing well."
On giving up over 70 points in the last two games: "They were road games. The Virginia game they had time off, being ranked and maybe feeling too good about ourselves and not being sharp defensively. We worked on our defense for about an hour yesterday. We want to hold teams to under 70 points defensively."
On being able to win even if they aren't sharp defensively: "It all depends on who we play. Against a good team it's hard to win, against a bad team then you can win. With us, we don't just light the stat sheet up. What we want to do is get our turnovers down, our assists up and our rebounds up. Those are the things that you want to do and play well defensively. We are 12-2. Those 12 games that we won, we played well defensively. Those two games that we lost, our defense was so so."
Last Time Out
Howard Crawford scored on a dunk off an inbound play at the :01 mark to lift then-No. 24 UAB to a 73-72 win over Arkansas on Saturday. The Blazers trailed 72-71 with 2.2 seconds left and called a timeout to set up a final play. Crawford raced down the lane unguarded and easily scored the winner for the Blazers.
Junior guard Elijah Millsap led UAB with 22 points and Crawford added 13, Cameron Moore had 11 and Jamarr Sanders 10.
UAB built the lead to 39-31 at halftime; however, Arkansas opened the second half with a 7-0 run to pull within 39-38. The score was close for the rest of the game with Arkansas finally taking a 53-52 lead on Michael Washington's layup with 10:49 left. The Razorbacks led by as many as five points late in the game, but UAB outscored them, 7-2 over the final two minutes.
UAB In Conference USA Openers
UAB, one of the founding members of Conference USA, will begin its 15th seasons in C-USA on Wednesday at home against East Carolina. The Blazers, 11-3 in C-USA home openers, have a six-game winning streak in home league-opening contests. The last time UAB lost a conference home opener came back on Jan. 14, 2003 to Charlotte (78-58).
Third-Best Non-Conference Record In School History
With the 73-72 victory at Arkansas on Saturday, UAB finished its 2009-10 non-conference schedule with a record of 12-2. That is the third-best non-conference record in school history. The only other seasons the Blazers finished with a better non-conference record game during the 1991-92 (16-1) and 1993-94 (14-1) seasons.
Another Player Of The Week For Millsap
Elijah Millsap was selected as the Conference USA Player of the Week, league officials announced on Monday. The award is the third weekly honor Millsap has received from the conference, as he was the league's Rookie of the Week on Nov. 16 and the Player of the Week on Dec. 21.
Millsap had a pair of outstanding performances in two road contests last week at ACC foe Virginia on Wednesday and SEC foe Arkansas on Saturday. In the 73-72 win at Arkansas, Millsap collected a game-high 22 points to go along with seven rebounds and four steals. Despite not scoring the game-winning basket against the Razorbacks, Millsap still found a way to make an impact on the play. It was his screen to occupy a pair of defenders that freed teammate Howard Crawford for the game-winning dunk with one second left.
In a hard-fought 73-64 loss against the Cavaliers, Millsap was nearly unstoppable, collecting 27 points on 13-of-22 shooting from the floor to go along with 11 rebounds. His 13 field goals are the fourth-most in a game in school history. Additionally, the game marked his league-leading seventh double-double of the season.
On the week, Millsap averaged 24.5 points, 9.0 rebounds and 2.5 steals per game. He also connected on 20-of-36 (.556) shots from the floor and 2-of-4 from beyond the arc.
Sir "Cam"alot
Sophomore forward Cameron Moore provided a big spark off the bench in the Blazers' victory at Arkansas last Saturday. The San Antonio, Texas native collected a season-best 11 points, a career-best four blocked shots and five rebounds in 25 minutes of action. Entering conference play, Moore is averaging 3.6 points, 3.3 rebounds and 0.8 blocks per game.
The Comforts Of Home
There is a big different in junior guard Jamarr Sanders when it comes to playing games on the road compared to Bartow Arena. In UAB's seven road contests (including two neutral site games), Sanders is averaging just 8.0 points and 4.4 rebounds a game, while shooting 36.2 percent from the floor and 37.0 percent from beyond the arc. However, in the Blazers' seven home games, Sanders' averages improve to 14.1 points and 5.4 rebounds per contest, while he shoots 47.9 percent from the floor and 40.0 percent from three-point range.
Free Throw Improvement
There is no denying that Elijah Millsap scores a lot of his points getting to the foul line. He has connected on 67-of-99 (.677) foul shots and has made 11 more than the next highest Blazer has attempted (Howard Crawford has attempted 56 free throws this season).
His percentage of 67.7 percent this year is a vast improvement from his previous two seasons at UL-Lafayette (2006-08). As a freshman, Millsap connected on just 53.1 percent (52-of-98) from the charity stripe, followed by 58.3 percent as a sophomore (74-of-127). Entering this season, Millsap had a career free throw percentage of just 56.0 percent (124-of-205).
Defensive Dominance
A calling card for this year's UAB squad has been its defensive prowess. The Blazers held then-25th-ranked Cincinnati to just 47 points, which was a season-best. In fact, in UAB's 14 contests on the year, it has held nine opponents to under 60 points and held 11 foes to 64 or less. As a result, the Blazers are holding teams to 59.6 points a game, which ranks second in C-USA. Additionally, the Blazers are third in the league in three-point field goal percentage defense (.293) and are sixth in field goal percentage defense (.398).
Dominating The Paint
UAB had a distinct advantage inside the paint against Virginia on Wednesday. The Blazers outscored the Cavaliers, 42-24, in the loss. In fact, 30 of UAB's 35 first-half points came from inside the lane. The paint has been a big advantage of the Blazers throughout the season. UAB has outscored the opposition, 458-336, which equates to nearly a 10-point per game advantage (32.7-24.0).
