UAB basketball returns to the floor to begin defense of aac title

Photo by Ken Shepherd

JUNE 11, 2024 - BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA

By Steve Irvine

The first step toward meshing a group of newcomers in with seven UAB men’s basketball returnees began at the Blazers practice facility on Monday afternoon.

“The first day of the summer with a new team,” UAB head coach Andy Kennedy said after the team’s first summer practice. “It’s like I’m a kindergarten teacher because they don’t know the terminology that leads to the disciplines that leads to what you are trying to get accomplished. I know that. I got good veteran leadership and I got willing spirits from our new guys and we got some talent.”

The Blazers return the core of a team that advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in the past three seasons. Four of the returnees – Yaxel Lendeborg, Christian Coleman, Alejandro Vasquez and Efrem “Butta” Johnson – started in the AAC Tournament and NCAA Tournament. Overall, the Blazers return 72 percent of their scoring output from last season. Three transfer portal additions – Tyren Moore (Georgia Southern), Greg Gordon (Iona) and Bradley Ezewiro (St. Louis) – averaged double digit scoring last season, which gives UAB six players who reached double digits scoring per game in 2023-24. Coleman fell just short of being the seventh player to average double figures but he did average 13 points over the final seven games of the season.

“I think we addressed some of the needs that we needed,” Kennedy said, “whether it be replacing a Javian Davis with his size and his ability to score on the block, whether it be perimeter shooting, which I thought was somewhat of an issue for us last year, (and) versatility on the wings. I think we checked a lot of boxes in this recruiting class.”

 Monday was the beginning of bringing everything together. Teams are allowed four hours of time on the court and four hours of organized strength and conditioning over eight weeks during the summer. Kennedy said his team will hold three practices each week with some weeks affected by recruiting schedules.

“This is very important,” Lendeborg said of Monday’s first step. “We got to get all the mechanics right (and) figure out who we’re going to be. We got to figure out what the roles are going to be for the guys and how we’re going to attack this year so we can be the best that we can be.”

One of the highlights of the practice session came when Moore stepped in front of Lendeborg to draw a charge. Moore laughed when asked about the play afterward.

“That probably won’t happen again because Yax is probably going to try to dunk it on me the next time,” Moore said. “I’ll probably get out of the way. I knew I was going to get him today.”

For the most part, though, Monday was for Moore and the other newcomers getting a taste of what Kennedy and his staff want from the players.

“I would say it’s very important to get out here, get acclimated with the team and find everybody’s strengths and weaknesses, so I can see how everybody plays and how I’m going to fit in with the rest of the team,” said Moore, who led Georgia Southern with 17 points per game last season. “It’s definitely an adjustment because I’m coming from a team where I was the main go-to option. Now I’m surrounded by a bunch of great players. I would say that’s the most different part about it.”

Overall, there were some ragged moments during Monday’s work, which was expected, but the pieces are there for the Blazers.  

“Right now, everybody is going so fast, not really knowing,” Kennedy said. “They’re just trying to go fast, play hard and do all the things we’re asking them to do but they don’t really know what we’re doing yet. Schematically, it will take them a little while to understand. New voices, new terminology.”