QUICK TURNAROUND FOR UAB AS BLAZERS HOST NORTH TEXAS IN KEY AAC TILT
Photo courtesy of UAB Athletics and Ken Shepherd
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - February 3, 2025
Bradley Ezewiro’s recent surge came at the same time Christian Coleman started struggling. Now, the task for UAB head coach Andy Kennedy and his staff is to get both going at the same time.
That begins with finding ways for Coleman to break out of a personal slump, preferably, for the Blazers, beginning on Monday night at 8 p.m. in a critical American Athletic Conference game against North Texas at Bartow Arena.
When he’s playing well, the Blazers(14-8 overall, 7-2 AAC) can build their defense around the athletic 6-foot-8, 205-pound senior, particularly when he’s playing at the top of the 1-3-1 trapping zone that Kennedy likes to mix in. He disrupts opposing offenses and is the key to getting the Blazers points on the fastbreak. When he’s not playing well, though, the Blazers aren’t nearly disruptive on the defensive end.
“It's kind of going south on us,” Kennedy said of his team’s defense following the 96-78 home win over Charlotte on Saturday afternoon. “It's been a problem for us all year. Then I thought we had it fixed early in league play, and now it's just, it's back. And a lot of it, quite frankly, some guys wouldn't say this, I'll say it, a lot of it is Chris Coleman. Chris Coleman is not playing to his standard over the last three or four games, you don't need even know he's in the game. He's one of our better defenders, we can switch with him more fluidly. He doesn't block a ton of shots like (Yaxel Lendeborg), but he alters a lot of shots. His activity level really changes us on that end. He's got probably the highest basketball IQ on our team. When he chooses to share that, we're really effective, especially when the defense is away from our bench.”
Coleman also struggled on offense the past three games, partly because his defense often leads to his points. Over the past three games, he averaged just four points and four rebounds while hitting a combined 5-of-14 shots from the field and 2-of-8 from the free throw line. In the first 18 games, he averaged 12 points and nearly eight rebounds with 12 double-figure scoring games.
“I've tried it all,” Kennedy said of getting it turned around for Coleman. “Holy water, Voodoo, he's a Louisiana guy, we've done it all. I've done mean cop, nice cop, man, Kumbaya. We're trying it all, and we'll continue to try.”
It could turn around at any point for Coleman, who is definitely a proven talent. In the meantime, Ezewiro, a 6-foot-9, 265-pound bruiser, who is on his fourth college stop in four seasons. He showed flashes at points during the season but hasn’t been consistent until the past three games. Over the first 18 games, he averaged 6.4 points and 4.6 rebounds. During the last three games, beginning with a 19-point, seven-rebound effort at Memphis, he averaged 13 points and 7.6 rebounds per game. He’s also given UAB a physical presence inside.
“He played his best basketball in the last (three) games,” Kennedy said. “He was good against Memphis and maybe our only bright spot. I thought he really played hard and physical. Confidence is such a strange thing, man, for all us as humans but for basketball players especially. He’s starting to figure out. We’re his fourth school in four years and with that comes you know a little bit of an acclimation, that as a coach, you’re not real patient with. But, the reality is it takes a little bit of time.”
Both Ezewiro and Coleman complement Yaxel Lendeborg, who is putting together what is possibly an AAC Player of the Year season, in the frontcourt. The Blazers need all the production they can get on Monday against a North Texas team that opened AAC play with a come-from-behind 78-75 win over the Blazers on Dec. 31 in Denton. UAB led by 17 points at halftime in that game but couldn’t hold off North Texas, which got a 3-pointer by Atin Wright at the buzzer to win the game.
North Texas (16-5 overall, 7-2 AAC) followed that with a 68-64 loss at Memphis before winning six in a row. The winning streak ended on Saturday when UTSA beat the Mean Green, 58-54, on North Texas’ home floor. UAB is 7-1 since losing at North Texas with the lone loss coming at Memphis.
UAB enters Monday’s game leading AAC teams in scoring offense at 84.6 points per game while North Texas leads in scoring defense at 58.7 points per game. In the first meeting, UAB shot 46.4 percent, hit 7-of-11 3-pointers and was 15-of-16 from the line in the first half. After halftime, UAB shot 35.7 percent, was 3-of-7 on 3-pointers and got to the line just five times with four made free throws.
Both enter the rematch with little time to prepare. UAB’s Alejandro Vasquez, who had 26 points in the win over Charlotte, was asked how they would handle the short preparation time following the win over the 49ers.
“Just stay the course,” Vasquez said. “We’re going to watch the film, study them and I think on Monday we just have to come out hard (and) set the tone.”