Recap: UAB 91, Alcorn State 74
The Blazers (7-6) took care of business in their final non-conference game, crushing the visiting Braves (0-13).
That went better than last time.
In a welcome departure from 2023’s pitiful showing, the UAB men’s basketball team smashed Alcorn State in a stress-free Sunday matinee — no Butta Johnson heroics needed. The offense hummed along, capitalizing on its talent and size advantages in a way it couldn’t last November. Led by Bradley Ezewiro’s season-high 19 points, the Blazers scored at a rate of 1.40 points per possession in today’s victory, their best performance of the year.
Seven different players contributed seven or more points, with Ezewiro, Yaxel Lendeborg, and Christian Coleman combining to make 17 of 21 field goals. Although Alcorn State scored at a 1.14 PPP rate in response, much of the Braves’ offense was carried by heroic three-point shooting performances from guards Keionte Cornelius and Jalyke Gaines-Wyatt.
Of course, all is not perfect in paradise: Andy Kennedy criticized UAB’s weak perimeter shooting and lack of assertiveness in his postgame presser, Greg Gordon is still sick with the flu, and Makhi Myles missed today’s game with the same ailment.
With the victory, UAB improves to 10-0 all-time against Alcorn State. The Braves now hold the honor of being the Blazers’ second-most-dominated opponent, tied with Alabama State and trailing only Alabama A&M. UAB also improves to a smooth 69-0 all-time against the SWAC, which is apparently a more impressive feat than it may appear.
Chris Cokley Cupcake Crusher Player of the Game Award
This award is christened in honor of former Blazer forward Chris Cokley, who scored more career points against sub-.500 opponents than any other UAB player of the last 20 years. Today’s recipient is forward Bradley Ezewiro, who enjoyed his finest game to date in a UAB uniform, grabbing four rebounds, shooting 5/5 from the floor, and making all nine of his free throws. Ezewiro said:
The adjustment [coming into the season] was hard. The first couple games, I wasn’t shooting the ball well, I wasn’t really defending the way I should have. I just needed a game to hang my hat on and just know that I can do it at this level with this team. We have a really talented team, a lot of good frontcourt guys, a lot of good guards, so just trying to find your way every night and trying to find where you fit in every single day — I find joy in that, finding what I can do for this team every single day.
Ezewiro broke ten points for only the third time this season, a performance that encouraged Kennedy, who said:
”It’s the fourth time that [Ezewiro] has had to learn new plays, new terminology, new expectations, new everything. My hope is that he’s — even though he’s not a junior college kid — if you remember our JUCO guys [last season], especially Chris and Yax, they started finding their form right around Christmas, and it helped them propel into being really good players in conference [play]. My hope is that’s what Brad is going to do too, that that is his trajectory, and today was a great example of him being aggressive at the basket and finishing.”
Honorable mention: F Yaxel Lendeborg
Another suitable candidate for the award is Lendeborg, who received the KenPom game MVP while nearly making history. With five points, six rebounds, and four assists at halftime and 10/10/6 at the 11:30 mark, the senior forward was briefly on pace for UAB’s first triple-double since 2009. Although he didn’t end up getting it, benched for good around the five-minute mark with a statline of 14/12/6, Lendeborg became the closest UAB player to a triple-double since… himself, three weeks ago.
But I bring up Lendeborg less to discuss the triple-double chase, which I’ve talked to death recently, and more to segue into a point Kennedy made after the game: this team struggles to shoot and needs to become less perimeter-oriented.
Clean looks, again, for our first time viewers, mean the right guy taking the right shot for him, typically a perimeter shot. It doesn’t have to be a three-pointer, but it’s just gotta be clean, a good look for him. I’ve been doing this stat for — this is my 18th season and I’ve only had one team shoot under 50%. The goal is about 55% on clean looks, because you’re going to have to take some contested looks, and those contested looks are certainly not scored at the same efficiency. So clean looks need to be around 55%, and I’ve only had one team in the history of my coaching career that was under 50%, and that was last year’s team. [They were] right around 49%.
Coming into tonight, this team [was at] 35%. Tonight, [they go] 10-28, so that number will go down again. We have to start making shots or it’s going to put an incredible pressure on the rest of us.
Kennedy’s assertions are backed up by publicly available data: UAB is shooting just 30.3% on jump shots Synergy classifies as “unguarded,” a rate that puts the Blazers in the 4th percentile nationally. Against Alcorn, UAB made 32% of its threes and 37.5% of its unguarded jump shots. Kennedy’s struggle has been getting the Blazers — and Lendeborg in particular — to recognize this and be more assertive in attacking the basket. As Kennedy described in the presser:
This team does not play with enough force. I can’t get certain guys — one of which wears number 3 — to roll to the basket. Everything’s perimeter. And this team cannot live on the perimeter…
… So I’m saying we have to win the points in the paint, so let’s roll, let’s roll against an Alcorn State who, obviously, you have a size advantage [over] and against an Alcorn State who was doing like us and switching all ball screens, meaning big to little, little to big. Many times we had Yax on a roll — I thought in the second half he did a much better job of being assertive — but he’s just not being as assertive as I know he’s capable of.
What’s Next?
Despite the two-game winning streak, there is much work to be done. UAB finishes non-conference play 7-6, having lost every game it has played against a KenPom top-200 team. As it currently stands, the Blazers’ best win is KenPom #217 Southeastern Louisiana. Their worst loss is KenPom #239 Vermont. The AAC preseason favorites are perhaps the sixth-best team in the conference today.
Kennedy acknowledged his team’s disappointing start in today’s presser — “it’s not nearly what any of us expected” — but emphasized the importance of learning from the losses and using Christmas break as a reset button.
Conference play begins on Tuesday, December 31st when UAB takes on North Texas at the Super Pit, a venue where the Blazers are 6-3 all-time. Despite losing nearly their entire team to the transfer portal, the Mean Green have perhaps improved since last season. They currently sit at #72 in KenPom with wins over Oregon State and Minnesota.