The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Talented Freshmen Shaping UAB Men's Basketball
2/17/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Steve Irvine, UABSports.com
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The makeup of his roster dictated that UAB men’s basketball head coach Jerod Haase would rely on a talented freshman class this year. Haase knew that much.
What the third-year UAB head coach didn’t know at the time, however, was which freshmen would be filling those roles. And he certainly couldn’t have foreseen the mature approach that his first-year group maintained while handling their roles.
“I didn’t know they’d be able to execute the way we’ve been executing,” said Haase, whose team has a huge C-USA game on Thursday night against Western Kentucky at Bartow Arena at 7 p.m. “We’re still making some freshman mistakes and they have a long way to go but I have been pleased with their overall production.”
Put all of their contributions together and Haase’s team is getting 23.5 points and 13 rebounds per game from the scholarship freshman class.
Truthfully, the freshman scholarship class of William Lee, Nick Norton, Chris Cokley, Lewis Sullivan and Jarvis Calhoun have their collective fingerprints all over the team’s rugged beginning in non-conference play as well as the successful run thus far through Conference USA action. Most importantly, they took the early lessons of college basketball and put them to work in the past seven weeks of conference play.
“I’m a lot more comfortable,” Lee said. “I just go out there, play my game, don’t worry about anything, just play and have some fun.”
That was part of a plan that was formulated long ago by Haase and the members of his coaching staff. It began, in a way, with the team’s week-long trip to Spain to play in three exhibition games. Lee, who was nursing a knee injury at the time, was the only scholarship freshman who didn’t get a chance to take advantage of those games.
However, that was just the beginning of the plan.
“I remember having conversations in November and December with my staff about practice planning back then based on what we want to do in February and March,” Haase said.
Haase said a lot of the information – at least from him – in the meetings came from remembering when he was a true freshman at Cal-Berkely during the 1992-93 season. The coaching staff then went about making sure the plan worked.
“We try to keep it fun and fresh to a certain extent – not every practice is a grind,” Haase said. “We try to push them and know what buttons to push. I do think the freshmen, when I talk to them, are still mentally and physically fresh and excited for this stretch run.”
There is no doubt the freshman class is playing a big role. Factor in only C-USA games and three of UAB’s top six scorers are freshmen. UAB also has four of the past five C-USA Freshman of the Week honorees with Norton grabbing two and Lee and Cokley adding one each.
Norton, a 5-foot-10 point guard, who started 23 of the 25 games he’s participated, including all 13 C-USA games, is averaging 8.3 points with 44 assists and 23 turnovers in conference play. He set a career high with 26 points, including six 3-pointers in an overtime win over Charlotte.
Cokley, a 6-foot-8 Savannah, Georgia native, has played in all 26 games with no starts. He is averaging 8 points and 3.8 rebounds in C-USA play with double figure scoring in six conference games.
Lee, who coming off his first two consecutive double-double games, is averaging 7.8 points and 6.5 rebounds in 13 C-USA games. He’s played in 23 of the team’s 26 games but his numbers have increased sharply as he became more healthy. He’s started the past 17 games and his showing why he was such a prized recruit.
Sullivan’s numbers don’t jump out – 1.9 points and 1.9 rebounds per game in 20 appearances – but he has shown promise. He had 13 points in a loss to UCLA and the 6-foot-7 forward is capable of contributing if UAB encounters foul troubles. The 6-foot Calhoun played in just eight games thus far but he’s an important player for the Blazers and has a bright future.
“I really think it’s fun,” Lee said. “It’s fun to be around people in the same grade as you and just go out there and compete together and make a statement for UAB basketball.”
UAB and Western Kentucky tip off at 7 p.m. CT Thursday in a matchup of two of the top teams in Conference USA.
