 |
| |
|
 |
 |
|
|
Posted: Thursday October 31, 2002 4:25 PM Updated: Thursday October 31, 2002 5:00 PM UAB Blazers
The following preview is provided by Blue Ribbon. For the most thorough preview available of the upcoming season, order the 2002-03 Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, on sale now at 1-800-775-2518. Team Preview | Blue Ribbon Analysis
It took a while, but Mike Anderson finally fulfilled a career goal last spring when he was hired to succeed Murry Bartow at UAB. Faced with a program that was on the decline, flagging attendance and a cash shortfall in the athletic department, UAB administrators felt a sense of urgency to correct as many of those problems as they could with one move. After Bartow, the son of Gene Bartow, the man who built UAB basketball from the ground up, stepped aside last March, the school went for a familiar name to replace him. Anderson is a Birmingham native who played high school basketball at Jackson-Olin and two years of junior college ball at Jefferson State. After two years there, Anderson signed with Tulsa, where he began a 22-year association with Nolan Richardson. Tulsa won the NIT in 1981 and Anderson joined Richardson’s staff a year later. In 1985, Anderson followed Richardson to Arkansas, where he helped his boss build one of the top programs in the nation in the 1990s. The Razorbacks played in the Final Four in 1990, 1994 and 1995, winning the national championship in ’94 and finishing runner-up a year later.
From that high point, the program began a gradual decline. All the while, Anderson was hoping to parlay Arkansas’ previous success into a head-coaching job. He twice applied at his alma mater, Tulsa, but was passed over for Buzz Peterson and John Phillips, respectively. Anderson thought he had a shot at the Murray State job when Mark Gottfried left for Alabama, but the school hired long-time SEC assistant Tavester Anderson. After those disappointments, Anderson resigned himself to continuing his apprenticeship under Richardson in the hope of eventually succeeding him at Arkansas. But when Richardson, feeling pressure during the Hogs’ worst season in 17 years, lashed out at the media last March and invited Arkansas administrators to buy out his contract, his bosses took him up on the offer. With Richardson out, Anderson was given a courtesy interview at Arkansas, but there was no way the school would have hired anyone with such close ties to Richardson. For a time, Anderson wondered what the future held for him, but when Bartow resigned at UAB, his next destination was clear. "Through the years, this has been a job that always interested me," Anderson said when he was hired. "The UAB program has a tremendous legacy of excellence. I am honored and truly excited that I will have the opportunity to extend that legacy." For Anderson, the chain of events that led to his homecoming couldn’t have been more perfectly timed. "Sometimes timing is important in a job," Anderson told the Birmingham News. "There were jobs coach Richardson actually told me -- even with the Tulsa job -- ‘Mike, don't worry about it, you don't need to go there.' You've got to get to the right situation. I had a good situation at Arkansas. I see some guys who jump every time a job opens, but that wasn't me. I knew I was good at what I did. I knew eventually one day, someone would recognize that." Anderson will lean heavily on what he learned at Arkansas, and in fact one of his first official acts was to surround himself with allies. Anderson quickly hired former Arkansas assistant Scott Edgar, who was looking for a job after Billy Tubbs resigned at TCU. Edgar helped recruit several of the players who helped Richardson turn Arkansas into an elite program. Without a doubt, the Blazers will play the same way Arkansas did in its glory years. Look for UAB to try to dictate tempo with full-court defensive pressure and score in transition. It might take Anderson a while to get the Blazers up to speed. After three players from the 2001-2002 team -- Tom Frericks, Asa Woods and Antonae Roberson -- left school for various reasons in June, Anderson was left with just 11 scholarship players. Only five players return from a year ago. The list of returning players is topped by a pair of undersized guards in 5-foot-11 junior Morris Finley and 5-10 senior Eric Bush. A year ago, Finley (11.3 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 2.1 apg) finished as the Blazers’ second-leading scorer. He played in all 30 games and started 19 times, averaging 28.3 minutes. Finley is the Blazers’ top returning 3-point shooter (.386), having made 61 of the 158 shots he hoisted from behind the arc a year ago. Finley scored in double figures 17 times, second best on team. His season high of 19 came in a win over Memphis. Bush (7.3 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 5.4 apg, 2.1 spg), will run the point. Last season, he finished third in Conference USA in assists and second in steals. Bush had perhaps his best game of the season against Southern Miss, putting together a double-double (12 points and a season/career high 12 assists). He also didn’t make a turnover. Bush had another double-figure assist game against South Florida (11) and passed for seven or more assists nine times. He scored a career-high 18 points against South Florida, and in the last two games of the season, averaged 15 points and 8.5 assists. Anderson could have a far worse guard tandem than the one he inherits. UAB’s only returning post players are 6-8 senior Cedric Davis (1.9 ppg, 3.5 rpg) and 6-7 junior Lee Cobb. Davis started the last nine games of 2001-2002 and 11 overall, all in C-USA play. Though Davis’ statistics were modest, he showed signs of becoming a solid rebounder and defender. He had the first double-figure rebounding game of his career with 10 against TCU and also came up with nine boards and three blocks in the win over Memphis. Davis tallied six points and seven rebounds against South Florida. Cobb (0.5 ppg, 0.2 rpg), a transfer from Birmingham-Southern College, played in just six games last season, but has good offensive skills. The fifth returning veteran is 6-4 sophomore Jeffrey Collins (5.1 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 1.1 apg), who played well in the two starts he earned last season, scoring 10 points and grabbing five rebounds against TCU and coming up with 12 points and five rebounds against Memphis. Two players return after sitting out medical redshirt seasons in 2001-2002. Senior swingman Sidney Ball, 6-5, averaged four points and nearly four rebounds two years ago and enjoyed a solid C-USA Tournament with nine points, six rebounds and three assists against Louisville and six points and nine boards one night later in a quarterfinal against Cincinnati. Tony Johnson, a 6-4 junior, missed the last seven and eight of the final nine games of 2000-2001 with a stress fracture in his left foot. Johnson, who averaged four points and three rebounds as a sophomore, can play all three perimeter positions and is a good defender. Anderson had no time to settle into his job, considering how many scholarships he had to fill. He was able to take advantage of his Arkansas experience to put together a solid recruiting class, bringing in four recruits to go along with Derrick Broom, a 6-5 freshman who was signed by Bartow’s staff last November. Broom, from Woodland High School in Cartersville, Ga., is a versatile athlete who played all five positions in high school, but he projects to be a shooting guard in college. He's an excellent shooter and rebounds well from the guard spot. During the summer, he played in the Georgia-Florida All-State game and scored 19 points and grabbed six boards against a team full of Division I signees. Brandon Tobias, a 6-7 freshman from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., actually signed with Arkansas last fall. But when Richardson was ousted, he waited around to see what Anderson was going to do. When Anderson resurfaced at UAB, Tobias asked for his release and promptly signed with the Blazers. Tobias led Dillard High School to three straight Florida Class 6A state championships. Last season he averaged 15 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks as Dillard compiled a 24-9 record and became only the third school in state history to win three straight championships. "Brandon is a tremendous athlete and plays like a warrior," Anderson said. "He’s also an outstanding rebounder." Anderson also drew on his Arkansas connections to sign DeMario Eddins, a 6-7 freshman who played last year at Winchendon Prep School in Winchendon, Mass. He played high school basketball at Julian High in Chicago. Eddins averaged 17 points and nine rebounds at Winchendon and was chosen second-team all-league in the New England Prep School Athletic Conference. "DeMario gives us a very versatile player on the wing," Anderson said. "He has great size and runs the floor really well. I had the opportunity to sign him last year when I was at Arkansas before he went to prep school." Another newcomer is 6-4 freshman Richard Jones, who is from Douglass High School in Oklahoma City, Okla. "Richard Jones is a scoring guard with the physical build that fits our style of play," Anderson said. Jones was a first-team Oklahoma all-state selection after averaging 23.4 points and 9.8 rebounds. He shot 65 percent from the floor. Jones was also selected as one of the state's "Super 5" by the Daily Oklahoman. Anderson also went looking for inside help, and didn’t have to go too far to find it. Gabe Kennedy of Bevill State (Ala.) Community College, is a 6-9, 235-pound junior who averaged 15.8 points and 12 rebounds in 18 games last season. Kennedy played high school basketball at Wilcox Central High School in Camden, Ala. "He gives us the inside player we really need," Anderson said. "I think he makes this an outstanding recruiting class." After several years of trying, Anderson has finally landed a head-coaching job. Considering he’s now working in his hometown of Birmingham, perhaps it was meant to be that Anderson had to wait so long to take over his own program. If Anderson can sign one or two of the best players in the city each year, he can sustain his program. UAB might struggle in Anderson’s first couple of seasons, though. Anderson has some solid guards, but he’ll have to find help in the post. Perhaps it will come from freshman Tobias and junior college transfer Kennedy. If Anderson can find some low-post scoring, he might be able to make the Blazers fairly competitive this season, provided they can adapt to the new fast-paced style and a new coach. Here’s a bit of advice for all those who plan to play for Anderson: Get in shape.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
