UAB Hosts Memphis In Battle for First Place In AAC

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - March 1, 2025

UAB’s response to what happened inside the FedExForum is exactly what Andy Kennedy hoped would happen for his team.

Now, the Blazers didn’t exactly shake off the 100-77 loss to Memphis, which was punctuated by an unneeded 3-pointer by PJ Carter at the end of a shot clock with seven seconds left in the game. You don’t simply shake off a lopsided loss in a rivalry game. But you can respond in a positive way to a frustrating outing and that’s exactly what UAB did.

Since that afternoon in Memphis, UAB is 7-1 in American Athletic Conference play with three of those wins on the road. The Blazers avenged a loss to North Texas and cooled down a red-hot Wichita State team during that span. Now we’ve come full circle, in a way, as UAB and Memphis get together once again. This time, the Blazers are playing host to the Tigers at Bartow Arena on Sunday at 3 p.m. in a nationally-televised ESPN game that should include a sellout crowd.

The AAC standings show the impact of Sunday’s game. Memphis (23-5 overall, 13-2 AAC) lead UAB (19-9, 12-3) and North Texas (21-6, 12-3) by one game in the AAC standings with three games left to play. If UAB wins on Sunday then the Blazers join the Tigers in first place. North Texas doesn’t play again until Wichita State comes to Denton, Texas on Monday night.

What will it take for UAB to pull off the win over the 18th-ranked Tigers?

The formula probably begins with slowing down 6-foot-9, 265-pound senior Dain Dainja, who had 21 points, hitting 10-of-12 from the field, and eight rebounds in just 25 minutes during the first meeting. The Illinois transfer didn’t have a 20-point game in 20 games at Memphis before that afternoon. Since then, he has four 20-point games in eight games. He’s coming off double-double efforts against FAU (22 points, 11 rebounds) and Rice (25 points, 10 rebounds).

Dainja not only outplayed UAB’s Yaxel Lendeborg in the team’s first meeting but also supplied an extra slap afterward when he said in the postgame press conference that he’d never heard of Lendeborg before beginning preparation for the game. Lendeborg, the AAC Preseason Player of the Year, responded after that game with his best stretch of the season.

But the battle in the paint is more than just Lendeborg and Dainja. Memphis’ Nicholas Jourdain doesn’t need to score to have an impact and 6-foot-11 Moussa Cisse is capable of being a force on defense and the boards. UAB needs to get production from Christian Coleman and Bradley Ezewiro.

The 6-foot-9, 260-pound Ezewiro could be a key for UAB today. He had perhaps his best game in a UAB uniform in the first meeting with Memphis, contributing 19 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field and 7-of-7 from the free throw line. He also grabbed seven rebounds in 23 minutes and played a big part in Dainja fouling out of the game. His emergence has been important because he is the team’s most physical front court presence.

“He's a big kid,” UAB head coach Andy Kennedy said of Ezewiro, who is playing in his fourth college program. “He's 260 pounds and when he got here he was like 290. We had to get him down where he was able to play. I think he's a lot more comfortable. You know, we do a lot different things that he's done in the past, but I think he's playing really, really good. We're going to play Yax as much as humanly possible. That's obvious and then Chris and Brad split that time. You've got to have a three-man post rotation and those three guys have done a good job for us up front.”

Efrem “Butta” Johnson had a big game, particularly in the first half, in the first meeting with Memphis. Johnson had 21 points in that game, including five 3-pointers. In the past two games, Johnson is 0-for-9 from the field with misses on all five 3-point attempts. It was the only two times all season that he was held scoreless. Getting him back on track is important. Alejandro Vasquez is coming off a career-high 29 points in the win at Wichita State.

Memphis guard PJ Haggerty is sixth in the country in scoring with 21.3 points per game. Tyrese Hunter, who averages 14.3 points per game, and Colby Rogers combined for 131 3-pointers in 28 games. UAB point guard Ja’Borri McGhee, who is one of the team’s top perimeter defenders, needs to avoid foul trouble if the Blazers hope to limit the Tigers backcourt scoring.