The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Year In Review: Young Blazers Build Championship Foundation
4/6/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ---- On November 18, 2013, the future of the UAB men's basketball program took a huge step forward. That leap came in the form of four highly-recruited prospects -- William Lee, Chris Cokley, Jarvis Calhoun and Lewis Sullivan -- who all signed on to play for head coach Jerod Haase and the Blazers.
Those four freshmen, along with the signing of Illinois point guard product Nick Norton in April, 2014, combined to make up one of the top recruiting classes in UAB history and set in motion a season that the City of Birmingham and Blazer fans will not soon forget.
"The mixture of talent and character with all of these signees is exciting," Haase commented back in the fall of 2013. "This is a class that believes in what we are doing at UAB, and together we believe big things can happen. While this is mostly a local recruiting class, it will bring national attention to our program."
Mission accomplished. Fast forward to March 19, 2015 and a 60-59 upset win against No. 3 seed Iowa State in the NCAA Tournament. Just as Haase predicted nearly a year and a half before, national attention was garnered on a young team from Birmingham that sent shock waves throughout college basketball.
But how did this year's journey to a program-first Conference USA Tournament title and an impressive run in the NCAA Tournament begin? How did such a young roster that featured nine newcomers and 10 underclassmen jell together so well down the stretch? The answer to those questions may lie 5,000 miles away and a summer trip that made a lasting impact on the young Blazers.
"The human element, the personalities, the chemistry, the camaraderie, was the biggest purpose of that Spain trip," Haase said. "I vividly remember early on that trip, we sat down for a team meal, and I don't think there was one thing said. They all kind of looked at each other -- nine new faces, four guys that had put on a UAB jersey the year before. So, by the end of the trip, they were like a flock of geese, hanging out as a group. Anywhere one went, the others went. So you can say that trip was really the foundation for what we experienced on a personal level this season."
After going 2-1 against Spanish professional teams and taking in the sights and sounds of the Spanish cities of Madrid and Barcelona, the Blazers returned home to begin practice and prepare for the upcoming season.
There was plenty of work to be done as UAB went through long practices in the fall. Not only were the Blazers a young group, but Lee, UAB's highly-recruited prize of the 2014 signing class was busy recovering from a torn meniscus in his knee -- an injury that would sideline him for the first two games of the year.
The Blazers limped into their exhibition game, falling to UNC Pembroke, 72-71, before dropping a 74-65 decision to ULM in the season opener at Bartow Arena. After starting the year 2-2, UAB then set its sights on the 2014 Battle 4 Atlantis and three games in three consecutive days against a trio of ranked opponents -- a tall task but a chance for the Blazers to mature early in the season.
"We knew when we were invited to play in the Battle 4 Atlantis we would be going against some of the best teams in college basketball," Haase said. "Playing a Final Four team in Wisconsin was a great opportunity for our team and really created exposure at a national level for UAB basketball early in the season."
Even though the 4-9 non-conference record wasn't what Haase and his staff envisioned at the start of the year, the Blazers had grown up and were now ready for a run in Conference USA.
The Blazers started against the team they would finish against in the Birmingham-hosted C-USA Tournament. UAB opened C-USA play on the road at Middle Tennessee -- a 54-49 win that set in motion a remarkable run through the league schedule. UAB never lost in Birmingham against a C-USA foe, with all six conference losses coming on the road by a combined 24 points. UAB earned a No. 4 seed and a first-round bye in the conference tournament with an impressive 12-6 record.
First up for the Blazers in the C-USA Tourney was the No. 5 seed WKU in the quarterfinal round. The Hilltoppers entered the final minute of the game up 52-48 as a large crowd of Blazer fans began to turn their disappointed looks towards the exits of Legacy Arena. A clutch 3-point shot by Norton with 52 seconds on the clock, followed by a WKU turnover and a Robert Brown jumper with 18 seconds to go gave the resilient Blazers a 53-52 victory and sent them to the semifinals vs. C-USA regular season champion Louisiana Tech.
Against LA Tech, the Blazers led by as many as 16 points in the second half before the Bulldogs stormed back to force overtime. UAB hung on and then ran past Middle Tennessee for a 73-60 win in the 2015 Conference USA Championship game. The three-day run through the league tournament capped off a magical week in Birmingham and gave the city a title and something to cheer for.
"We have tremendous fans," Haase said. "I thought we did a good job as a staff and as a basketball team of really narrowing our focus and focusing on the task at hand, trying to improve our team and trying to win basketball games."
UAB gave the Birmingham community even more to cheer for in the NCAA Tournament, as the No. 14 seed Blazers knocked off No. 3 seed and ninth-ranked Iowa State, 60-59, in the NCAA Second Round. UAB then fell to UCLA, 92-75, two days later to cap off the 2015 season.
In the end, the Blazers came up short of a NCAA Sweet 16 berth, but each of the 13 players on UAB's roster will remember this season and will be remembered for building a foundation for the future of UAB basketball.
"When we decided to build this group, we decided that we were not going to just take junior college and transfer-type kids," Haase said. "We were going to try to build it with a core of freshmen and junior college when it was appropriate. I do believe that we've built a foundation that is extremely strong."
2014-15 UAB Team Accomplishments
· UAB captured its first-ever Conference USA Tournament Championship and won its first league tournament title since winning the 1987 Sun Belt Conference Tournament Championship.
· The Blazers earned their 15th all-time bid to the NCAA Tournament and their 26th postseason appearance in just 36 years of existence.
· With its win against No. 3 seed Iowa State, UAB won its first NCAA Tournament game since 2005. Iowa State was one of the highest-ranked seeds UAB has defeated in the NCAA Tournament. The Blazers have wins over two No. 1 seeds (No. 1 Virginia in 1982 and No. 1 Kentucky in 2004) and one No. 2 seed (No. 2 Kentucky in 1981).
· The Blazers were the third youngest team in NCAA Division I men's basketball this season and were the youngest team in the 2015 NCAA Tournament field with only seven years of combined NCAA DI experience at the beginning of the 2014-15 season.
· UAB recorded 12 regular season Conference USA wins for the first time since the 2010-11 season.
· The Blazers were 9-0 vs. C-USA opponents at Bartow Arena and were 12-0 against C-USA foes in Birmingham (includes 2015 C-USA Championship). It marks just the third time in school history that UAB has finished perfect at home vs. C-USA opponents (2003-04 and 2005-06).
· The Blazers recorded 184 blocked shots this season as a team, which ranks second all-time in a single season in UAB history. The record is 187 blocks, which was set during the 1988-89 season.
· UAB shot 73.8 percent as a team from the free throw line this season, which is the fourth-best single-season team average in school history.
· Blazer junior guard Robert Brown was named to the 2015 All-Conference USA Third Team, while freshmen William Lee and Nick Norton were tabbed to the 2015 C-USA All-Freshman Team. Fellow rookie Chris Cokley was tabbed the C-USA Sixth Man of the Year.
· Freshman Nick Norton was named one of 21 finalists for the 2015 Kyle Macy National Freshman of the Year award, given annually to the top freshman in NCAA Division I men's basketball.
· UAB sophomore forward Tosin Mehinti finished with 68 blocks this season, which ranks as the fifth-best single season mark by an individual in Blazers men's basketball history. Mehinti now ranks fifth on UAB's career blocks chart with 103.
