The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
NOTEBOOK: Fans Get Glimpse Of UAB's Future
12/14/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Steve Irvine, UABSports.com
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- UAB’s men’s basketball program gets a glimpse of its future during every game. On Sunday, it was very apparent that the future is bright as the Blazers’ freshmen and sophomores played a big role in a 79-71 victory over UNC Asheville at Bartow Arena.
Jerod Haase used four freshmen – William Lee, Lewis Sullivan, Nick Norton and Chris Cokley - on Sunday and they contributed 24 points, 18 rebounds, six assists and two steals. The sophomore class, represented by Denzell Watts, Tyler Madison, Hakeem Baxter and Tosin Mehinti, chipped in with 33 points, seven rebounds, six assists and five blocked shots in the win.
“What a great opportunity, in terms of long term,” UAB head coach Jerod Haase said when asked about his freshman class. “I’m not just thinking long term with this team at all because we need to do well in the short term. The experience these guys are getting, the experience for the freshmen and the sophomores, it’s really a big deal. We’ve played against a lot of top 25 teams, we have LSU coming up, North Carolina coming up and that experience, I think, is going to pay dividends in the long run to really prepare those guys. The first part of their non-conference freshman year, they’re going to see everything they can possibly see in college basketball – from arguably the best or second best team with Wisconsin, to a road game at North Carolina, to a SEC team coming here to three top 25 games three days in a row.”
Lee became the second member of the heralded freshman class to start in a game. The 6-foot-9, 210-pound Lee, who was slowed by a knee injury early this season, started in place of senior C.J. Washington. Lee had six points, five rebounds and a blocked shot in 17 minutes.
“I see him getting a lot more comfortable, even just talking to him about the game,” Watts said. “He’s getting back to playing how I saw him play at the high school level so he’s coming along. Once he gets back ready to playing where he can be, we’ll be a much better team.”
*The Blazers shared the basketball well for the second consecutive game. UAB was credited with 18 assists on 24 made baskets in the win over Asheville. Robert Brown had a team-best six assists and Watts and Norton each contributed five assists.
“A couple things we stressed the last few weeks have been shot selection and sharing the ball and instinctively moving the basketball,” said Haase, whose team had 10 turnovers on Sunday. “We still had a few careless turnovers but I think the attitude of sharing the basketball is really good and it’s leading to high quality shots. I thought we missed some easy ones tonight. I guess the simplest way to put it is I think the guys like playing with each other, they really do, and I think they enjoy each other’s success.”
*Free throw shooting was a strength for UAB on Sunday. The Blazers made 27-of-35 from the free throw line, including 11 of 12 in the final three minutes. Watts was 8-of-8 overall, including six in the final 2:51.
“That was huge, especially when there’s been a couple of games where if we made more free throws we would have ended up winning,” said Robert Brown, who was 7-of-11 from the line. “It shows that we are growing and that people who need to work on things are working on them.”
*UAB had nine blocked shots while UNC Asheville was not credited with a blocked shot. Mehinti led the Blazers with four blocked shots.
