Saturday, December 18
Birmingham, Ala.
5:00 p.m.
West Virginia University
at
UAB
Photo by: USA Today
WVU-UAB to Meet Late Saturday Afternoon in Birmingham
December 17, 2021 12:53 PM | Men's Basketball
| Tale of the Tape |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Points Per Game | 82.7 | 69.8 |
| Points Against | 60.9 | 60.7 |
| Field Goal Percentage | 46.8 | 45.0 |
| Field Goal Percentage Against | 38.2 | 43.3 |
| 3-PT Field Goal Percentage | 35.5 | 31.4 |
| 3-PT Field Goal Percentage Against | 35.7 | 31.2 |
| Free Throw Percentage | 68.8 | 62.7 |
| Rebounding Margin | +2.5 | -1.0 |
| Turnovers Per Game | 11.2 | 11.9 |
| Turnovers Per Game Against | 21.2 | 18.6 |
| Steals Per Game | 13.3 | 8.9 |
| Blocks Per Game | 5.2 | 5.3 |
The game is the result of Bob Huggins' long-time relationship with UAB coach Andy Kennedy, who once worked as an assistant for Huggins when the two were together at Cincinnati.
Kennedy eventually replaced Huggins there before moving on to Ole Miss where his teams won 20 or more games 11 times during a 14-year period. Following Kennedy's final season at Ole Miss in 2018, he joined the SEC Network as a college basketball analyst before getting back into the coaching profession at UAB last year.
"I've spent a lot of time with Andy and Andy is a great offensive mind and he was a great player," Huggins said Friday.
In 2020-21, Kennedy led UAB to a 22-7 record with a roster full of transfers. This year, he has even more.
Top scorer Jordan Walker began his college career at Seton Hall, transferred to Tulane, and is now leading the Blazers in scoring with an average of 16.4 points per game. The 5-foot-11, 170-pound guard scored 22 in UAB's most recent 79-61 win over Grambling.
Second-leading scorer Quan Jackson (11.6 ppg.) started his career at Georgia Southern, third-leading scorer Michael Ertel (10.0 ppg.) got his collegiate start at Louisiana Monroe while top rebounder Trey Jemison (8.1 rpg.) is a 7-footer who comes from Clemson.
Other key transfers include K.J. Buffen (Ole Miss), Jamal Johnson (Auburn) and Josh LeBlanc (Georgetown).
UAB has lost just twice in 11 games so far this year by three points at South Carolina on Nov. 18 and by two versus San Francisco in Las Vegas on Nov. 26.
Since then, the Blazers have won four in a row against East Tennessee State, Saint Louis, Millsaps and Grambling.
UAB's other wins have come against UNC Asheville, Morehead State, Rhodes, Alabama A&M and New Mexico.
The Blazers are averaging 82.7 points per game while surrendering just 60.9 per contest. They are shooting 46.8% as a team and are forcing teams into committing an averaged of 21.2 turnovers per game.
"They do force turnovers, they continually switch defenses which I thinks throws people off-guard, but we've had three or four days to work on UAB, which I don't think we usually get that much time," Huggins said. "So we should be at least prepared."
Saturday's game will have important NCAA NET implications for both teams. UAB is currently ranked 33rd while West Virginia jumped up to 56 following last Wednesday's 56-53 victory over Connecticut.
Since then, the 9-1 Mountaineers outlasted Kent State 63-50 at the WVU Coliseum on Sunday, Dec. 12. In that game, guard Taz Sherman poured in 27 points to boost his season scoring average to 21.8, which ranks sixth in the county heading into this weekend's action.
The senior guard has scored 20 or more points in each of his last three games and four out of the last five.
Senior guard Sean McNeil is the only other WVU player averaging double figures at 13.2 points per game.
West Virginia is scoring at a 69.8 points-per-game clip while surrendering 60.7. Numerous points have been left at the free throw line throw line in the first 10 games, however, as the Mountaineers are making just 60.3% of their charity attempts this year.
WVU was 12 of 27 from the line in the UConn win and was only slightly better against Kent State, hitting 13 of 24.
Saturday's game will only be the fourth meeting between the two schools and the first since Dec. 28, 1991 out in San Francisco when UAB defeated West Virginia 88-84 in the Cable Car Classic championship game. The brief series began on Feb. 3, 1987 in Morgantown with WVU coming away with a 79-64 win. The other game was played in Birmingham on Dec. 8, 1987 where UAB won 66-62.
This will be West Virginia's fifth game at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex. West Virginia played two NCAA Tournament games there in 1984, defeating Oregon State before falling to Maryland, played UAB in 1987 and also faced Auburn there in the 2007 Big East/SEC Challenge.
Huggins is 2-0 in games against Kennedy when he coached at Ole Miss.
"They deserve a lot of recognition when you look at their (NET) numbers," Huggins said. "They're in the low 30s and those are numbers we try and make sure our guys are aware. I just don't want at the end of the year them saying to us, 'I wish you would have told us' so we do try and tell them."
This is only West Virginia's fourth game away from the WVU Coliseum. WVU was 2-1 down in Charleston, South Carolina, for the Shriners Children's Charleston Classic Nov. 18-21, defeating Elon and Clemson and losing to Marquette.
"At times we played well down in Charleston and other times we played poorly," Huggins said.
Saturday's game will tip off at 5 p.m. ET and will be televised nationally CBS Sports Network (Chick Hernandez and Pete Gillen).
Mountaineer Sports Network coverage with Tony Caridi and Jay Jacobs will get things started at 4 p.m. on stations throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the popular mobile app WVU Gameday. Sirius/XM coverage is on XM channel 375 and the SXM app channel 375.
West Virginia will meet Youngstown State at the Coliseum on Wednesday night to wrap up play before Christmas.
Players Mentioned
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