Kentucky basketball: Five things to know about UAB
Five things to know about Kentucky basketball’s opponent Friday night, the UAB Blazers:
The Blazers dismissed their best player
Zack “Scootie” Bryant, an All-Conference USA preseason selection, was dismissed on Nov. 17 for conduct detrimental to the team. The junior guard was averaging 11 points per game through UAB’s first three games. He scored 17 points in the team’s season-opening win over Troy.
A native of Hastings, Fla., Bryant averaged 13.6 points, 3.2 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game as a freshman. He averaged 14.9 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.9 assists as a sophomore. He also shot 32 percent from three-point range last season.
A former Franklin-Simpson star leads the team in scoring
Tavin Lovan, a 6-foot-4 sophomore from Franklin, Ky., is averaging 13.2 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game. Lovan scored 21 points in the team’s win over Alabama A&M. He had 16 in the win over Troy. Lamar held Lovan to just seven points, but the guard had nine rebounds in UAB’s 57-48 win over the Cardinals on Tuesday. He’s shooting 55.6 percent from the floor.
Lovan played three years for Franklin-Simpson before transferring to Hargrave Military Academy for his senior season. Lovan averaged 7.1 points and 3.9 rebounds per game as a freshman at UAB, with a season-high 16 points against Southern Miss. He scored in double figures 10 games for the Blazers last season.
UAB is coached by Robert Ehsan
The 37-year-old Ehsan is a Sacramento, Calif., native who played four seasons at UC Davis in California. He began his coaching career at Maryland before joining Seth Greenberg’s staff at Virginia Tech. He then joined Jerod Haase at UAB, where Ehsan was associate head coach. When Haase left for Stanford, Ehsan was promoted to head coach.
The Blazers went 17-16, 20-13 and 20-15 in Ehsan’s first three seasons. The Blazers reached the semifinals of the C-USA Tournament where they lost by two points to Old Dominion. Picked to finish sixth in C-USA, UAB is 4-1 this season with wins over Troy (76-75), Alabama A&M (74-52), Mount St. Mary’s (58-51) and Lamar (57-48). Its lone loss was 66-55 to Utah Valley.
UAB is second in the nation in offensive rebounding
The Blazers’ are rebounding 42.1 percent of their missed shots, which is the second-highest percentage in the nation behind only Illinois (46.6). Kentucky is 153rd in offensive rebounding at 29.0 percent. Will Butler leads UAB in rebounding at 6.6 per game. Makhtar Gueye is second at 6.4. Butler is a 6-8 senior from Jamaica. Gueye is a 6-10 junior from Senegal.
UAB ranks 153rd in the latest kenpom ratings. The Blazers rank 213th in offensive efficiency and 119th in defensive efficiency. UAB does not shoot the three-pointer well. The Blazers make just 26.2 percent of their three-pointers, which ranks 325th out of 353 teams. They are a good free throw shooting team at 75.3 percent, which ranks 54th.
The Blazers don’t run much. They are 322nd in adjusted tempo and their average possession length ranks 297th out of 353. Kentucky is currently 144th in adjusted tempo and 138th in average possession length.
UK and UAB have a notable basketball history
The teams have played just five times, with UAB winning three of those five games. Three of the meetings have come in the NCAA Tournament, with UAB holding a 2-1 advantage.
The two teams’ first meeting came in the 1980 UKIT where the Cats beat the Blazers 61-53 in the championship game. Coached by Gene Bartow, UAB turned the tables in the 1981 NCAA Tournament, upsetting Kentucky 69-62 in a Mideast Regional second-round game on March 15 in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
The two teams did not meet again until 2004 when, coached by Mike Anderson, UAB beat Tubby Smith’s Cats 76-75 on March 21 in an NCAA Tournament second-round game played in Columbus, Ohio. Kentucky was the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed.
Two years later, No. 8 seed Kentucky defeated UAB 69-64 behind Bobby Perry’s 25 points in a first-round 2006 NCAA Tournament game in Philadelphia. UK lost to No. 1 seed Connecticut 87-83 in the second round.
In their most recent meeting, UAB defeated Billy Gillispie and Kentucky 79-76 on Dec. 15, 2007, in Freedom Hall. Coached by Mike Davis, UAB fought back from a 12-point halftime deficit to beat the Wildcats. Robert Vaden scored 37 points for the Blazers.
Friday night will be UAB’s second game in Rupp, its first coming in that 1980 UKIT finals. UK head coach John Calipari is 14-3 against UAB, with most of those games coming when Cal was the head coach at Memphis.
This story was originally published November 29, 2019 at 9:43 AM.
