The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Women's Basketball Releases 2013-14 Schedule
8/23/2013 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Aug 23, 2013
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ----- UAB first-year head coach Randy Norton released the entire 2013-14 women’s basketball schedule on Friday. The non-conference schedule is highlighted by homes games against Vanderbilt, Arizona and in-city foe Samford before the Green and Gold begin conference action in the new-look Conference USA.
“We are excited about our non-conference schedule to open the season,” said Coach Norton. “It will include a little bit of everything. We are traveling to two tournaments that will be great road tests for us. Then, we will host some of the top teams in the country with Arizona from the PAC 12 and SEC powerhouse Vanderbilt on the slate. I think it will prepare us well for Conference USA play, which always brings great competition.”
The Blazers, with eight letterwinners and five players with starting experience returning from last year’s team that finished 18-13 overall and 9-7 in C-USA, face a challenging schedule with three contests against teams that saw postseason action a year ago.
In addition to two exhibition games, UAB will compete in 13 non-conference games, with six of those matchups coming at Bartow Arena.
UAB opens the season on Friday, Nov. 8, against Fairfield at the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Tournament in Corpus Christi, Texas, while the Blazers’ home opener is slated for Tuesday, Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. against Lipscomb.
On Sunday, Nov. 24, Coach Norton’s group will renew the cross-town clash with Samford at Bartow Arena. This will be the first meeting between the two teams since Dec. 21, 2001, with UAB having won the only two previous meetings.
The Blazers will host Arizona at 7 p.m. on Dec. 5 before continuing their longstanding matchup with Memphis, who will be competing in the newly-founded American Conference this season, on Sunday, Dec. 7, in Memphis, Tenn.
The Green and Gold conclude non-conference play with a tilt against Vanderbilt, who made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, on Dec. 30. UAB fell to the Commodores 69-54 last season in Nashville.
UAB’s C-USA slate opens at home on Jan. 8 at 7 p.m. against UTEP. In a pair of closely contested games last season, the Blazers defeated UTEP, 61-57, in the regular season in El Paso, Texas but fell to the Minors, 61-59, in the first round of the C-USA Tournament.
The Blazers will be tested early in conference play. UAB will take on Tulsa, the defending C-USA Tournament Champion, on Jan. 15 in Tulsa, Okla., before returning home to face new conference member Middle Tennessee, who advanced to the NCAA Tournament after winning the Sun Belt Conference Championship last season, on Jan. 18.
The Blazers will also welcome FIU (Jan. 25), East Carolina (Feb. 8), UTSA (Feb. 12), Tulane (Feb. 22) and Rice (March 5) as part of their 16-game conference schedule.
Conference road games in 2013 feature trips to Marshall (Jan. 11), Tulsa (Jan. 15), Old Dominion (Jan. 22), North Texas (Feb. 1), FAU (Feb. 5), LA Tech (Feb. 15), Southern Miss (Feb. 26) and Middle Tennessee (March 1) for the Blazers.
The 2013-14 season will conclude with the Conference USA Tournament, which will be played in El Paso, Texas on March 11-15.
Fans can get their first glimpse of the Blazers when they play Georgia Southwestern (Oct. 28) and West Florida (Nov. 2) in exhibition games prior to the start of the regular season.
