UAB Basketball starts practice in defense of aac title

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - September 26, 2024

The UAB men’s basketball team opened up official practice on Monday, marking the final step in preparation of a 2024-25 season filled with lofty expectations.

“Yesterday we were six weeks away from starting,” UAB head coach Andy Kennedy said while the team was running individual drills in Tuesday’s practice. “When I think about that, I think about all the things that we have yet to even address, it makes me a little nervous, but I think we've got a good base. I've had to adapt as most coaches in this new transfer portal world, and sometimes you've got to go a little slower than a coach wants to go. We open up against Vermont on November 4th, and Vermont's been to the last three NCAA tournaments. They've been one of the most dominant mid -major programs in the country, and I know that if we're not ready for everything, it's not like we can leave things out of our package and then build it as the season progresses. That's not how it works in our sport, simply because you don't know what the opponent is going to throw at you. I say all that to say, I've got a good group, I've got a great core returning, five of our top seven, (and) I really like our new guys.”

Four of the five players who started in UAB’s NCAA Tournament loss to San Diego State – Yaxel Lendeborg, Christian Coleman, Efrem “Butta” Johnson and Alejandro Vasquez – return. Tony Toney is the other rotation returnee from last year’s AAC Tournament championship team. Key additions included junior college guard Ja’borri McGhee, who is pushing to be the point guard starter, transfer portal additions Greg Gordon, Bradley Ezewiro and Tylen Moore and freshman Makhi Myles.

Finding a season-opening rotation is a work in progress.

“Well, I'll tell you this, and I'll give you the scoop, I think we're going to start Yaxel,” said Kennedy, whose team will play an exhibition game at Western Kentucky on Oct. 27 and could have another preseason game, either exhibition or secret scrimmage, against a power conference team. “I think he's going to probably be a starter at the four and I’ll probably work some angles to try to get Butta some shots. But, I mean, we've got so many new guys and so much that's moving, to be honest with you, going into the Vermont game. You know, this year we've got two exhibitions, so we'll play those exhibitions against other Division I teams, and they'll both be on the road for us just because of budget stuff. We’ll do that and I want to win those games. Of course, you always want to win, but that's not the most important thing to me. I want to give these guys some opportunities and then when we get to the Vermont game, it'll be based on who earned that right. I can see this team playing 9 or 10 guys, I don't know honestly. Usually, eight guys are pretty happy in a rotation, that ninth one's probably going bitch a little bit and then the 10th one ain't gonna like it at all.”

Toney’s offseason work has solidified his spot in the rotation for what will be his fifth season at UAB. Toney was Kennedy’s first high school recruit as the UAB coach. Because of Covid-19 restrictions, the recruitment took place with Zoom calls and Kennedy said the two didn’t meet in person until Toney reported to campus. UAB has 101 wins, two NCAA Tournament appearances and a NIT championship game trip in Toney’s first four seasons.

“He's been right there with us and every year he's evolved,” Kennedy said. “He's gotten better and better and better and again this summer has been the best summer that he's had. He's playing with great leadership (and) consistency, which we have so desperately needed. He's taking advantage of the opportunity that this team is going to present him.”

Overall, Kennedy knows he has a roster that has the potential for a special season. He also knows there is a ton of work to get to that point.

“I have some concerns, I have a lot of concerns right now, but I've got six weeks to address them, you know,” Kennedy said. “I'm a guy that, I try not to be this way, this is not a choice and it's something that I work on daily. But you know you've heard some people are glass is half full, some people are glass is half empty. I'm a glass is broken guy. I try not to be that way, it's a miserable way to go through life, but I'm always looking at things with the naked eye and I'm very critical of it. Thank goodness I watch the tape, so I can watch the practice and I not only see the wrong, I see a lot of right as well, so yeah, there's some things that we've got to get better at.”

Perimeter shooting is one of those areas. Kennedy said it starts with Vasquez, Johnson and Toney being more consistent from long range. It also includes Lendeborg, who Kennedy said put in the offseason work to potentially double or triple the 12 3-pointers that he made in his first season at UAB. Georgia Southern transfer Tyren Moore also needs to be an outside threat for the Blazers.

That’s just one area that is still a work in progress over the next six weeks.

“I've got a group that I think has got a real chance,” Kennedy said. “They got a good spirit about them, they compete, they work, they get along, and I think we've got all the pieces needed to put together a pretty good puzzle.”