UAB Prepares To Host PraIrie View A&M

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - December 6, 2024

How much will the playing rotation change for a UAB basketball team that has not matched expectations? The answer comes on Friday night’s 6:30 p.m. non-conference matchup against Prairie View A&M at Bartow Arena.

Andy Kennedy promised things could look different for his team following last Sunday’s home loss to Middle Tennessee. Kennedy tinkered with the lineup during the game, adding Marquis Hargrove and Makhi Myles to the mix, at least in a limited basis, and said afterwards that things could look different moving forward.

“Yeah, you're going to see a lot more of that,” Kennedy said at the time. “I wanted to make this crystal clear. This is not okay with me. We're going to start making a lot of changes because what we're getting is it relates to the opportunities. With those opportunities come a lot of responsibilities. I don't think those responsibilities are getting met to the level that we need them to in order to win games. That's about right. We're not doing a job so good. There's a lot of opportunities.”

Kennedy said at the time that game-day minutes will be determined by what happens in practice.

“I typically lean more towards veteran returners because they have a substantiated body of work that you're always going to give them the benefit of the doubt,” Kennedy said. “But  when you're nine games in and you're seeing plays that are not winning plays from some of your upperclassmen, I think it would be foolish for the coach not to look for alternatives.”

Obviously, one of the biggest issues thus far, at least offensively, has been outside shooting. UAB (4-5) is last in the AAC and 327th in the country in 3-point field goal percentage.  Tyren Moore has a team-high 13 3-pointers but is shooting just 31.7 percent outside the arc. Efrem “Butta” Johnson is next with 11 3-pointers and is shooting 23.9 percent from long range. Yaxel Lendeborg, who is 7 for 18, has the highest percentage in the playing rotation at 38.9 percent.

Prairie View A&M opened the regular season with a win over the College of Biblical Studies and have lost all six games since then. This will be the seventh game of what is a 12-game stretch of road games. The opener was at home on Nov. 4 and the next home is the SWAC opener against Grambling on Jan. 4.

Nick Anderson, a 6-foot-5 junior, averages 19.1 points per game and has a team-high 17 3-pointers. Tanahj Pettway, a 6-foot-2 grad student, averages 14.9 points per game and 6-foot-7 sophomore Marcel Bryant averages 10 points and six rebounds per game. The average 82.1 points per game and are allowing 99 points per contest.