The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Basketball Holds Media Day
10/26/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
QUOTES
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The UAB men's basketball team held its annual media day on Wednesday from Bartow Arena. Local media gathered and visited with head coach Robert Ehsan, juniors Nick Norton and Chris Cokley and senior Tyler Madison.
The Blazers won Conference USA last season with a 16-2 record in league play and were recently selected in a vote by the league coaches to repeat as champions.
Head Coach Robert Ehsan
Opening Statement:
We're excited to get the season started in my first year here as a head coach. We've been working extremely hard. I think today is the 17th practice we've had, so I'm really looking forward to coaching a veteran team now made up primarily of a lot of juniors and seniors and a couple of new faces.
On his coaching strategy:
We've definitely done some new stuff defensively, that's kind of been our main focus since the off season started - with some full court pressure kind of things and some defensive schemes a little bit different than we've done in the past. Offensively, I think will be pretty similar to last year. We're going to try to push the ball and play a little bit faster than we have in the past, but I think offensively you'll see a lot of the same stuff that you've seen. These guys are so comfortable with the system that we implemented two years ago and have gotten pretty good at it.
On creating new plays:
We've built off of what we did last year, and I will definitely add some more plays. We will definitely have a couple of different looks. One of my jobs and one of my challenges is coaching a team that's so versatile and has guys that can do many different things on different areas of the basketball court. I'm going to try to put these guys in the position offensively to be successful.
On what the fans would notice is different defensively:
I think the number one thing we're trying to do is be more physical and be a little better rebounding defensive team. Those two areas have been our primary area of focus. In addition to that, a little more full court pressure and a little more up tempo play. Hopefully we'll create some steals and play defense against a shortened clock by using pressure defense.
🏀🔄: @UAB_MBB fell victim to an early tourney upset last year, but are favorites in 2016... Can they get it done??
📲: https://t.co/9SFCIuNn64-- Conference USA (@Conference_USA) October 26, 2016
