UAB Takes on FAU At Bartow Arena On Senior Night
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - March 5, 2025
The disappointing loss to Memphis is in the rearview mirror. While the pain won’t easily dissipate, Andy Kennedy and his UAB basketball team have no choice but to look forward.
“So now we're just focused on ‘OK, what’s next?’” Kennedy said earlier this week during his conversation with David Crane on Blazer Sportsline.
“Senior night, last game in Bartow for a lot of these guys (with) a lot on the line, although we've already got the double bye (in the American Athletic Conference Tournament). That’s done. We don't have to win another game, and we're gonna have to double bye.”
But there is work left to secure either the No. 2 or 3 seed. That work begins on Thursday at 6 p.m. in an American Athletic Conference matchup with FAU. North Texas currently holds sole possession of second place by a game over the Blazers and two games over Tulane heading into Thursday’s game. UAB (19-10 overall, 12-4 AAC) can clinch the No. 3 slot – at worst – with a win on Thursday and a loss by Tulane at East Carolina. UAB can grab the No. 3 spot with wins over FAU on Thursday and a victory at Tulane on Sunday.
“We're still solidly in control of the (third seed),” said Kennedy, whose team won’t begin play in the ACC Tournament at Dickies Arena until a week from Friday. “Alot of different things can happen, I won’t bore you with all the details, but ultimately we need to win games. I want to be in that in that three (because) I want to play Memphis again for the championship. I don't want to play them on night two, I want to play them on night three.”
For now, though, the Blazers’ task is to send the seniors out with a win in what could be their final game at Bartow Arena. Tony Toney, Yaxel Lendeborg, Alejandro Vasquez, Christian Coleman, Tyren Moore, Ryan Donohoo and Chance Beard will be honored during Senior Day festivities. Toney is the lone scholarship player who has officially used up all his college eligibility. At this point, it appears that Lendeborg, Vasquez Coleman and Moore each have a year of eligibility remaining if they choose to take it.
Thursday’s focus, following the ceremony, is getting back in the win column after the 88-81 loss to Memphis
“We need to figure out who we are defensively,” said Lendeborg, who spent nearly half of Sunday’s loss to Memphis on the bench because of foul difficulty. “You know, I feel like we lack a lot on the defensive end. And our offense has been, like, here and there. So that's going to come, regardless. If we want to win a championship, we have to figure that out on defensive end.”
The late season quest to accomplish that begins with a FAU team that dropped an 81-76 decision to the Blazers on Jan. 12 in Boca Raton. UAB led by as many as 12 points in the game but the Owls had a two-point lead with 2:58 on the clock.
“It was probably our best defensive conference game, even though they scored 76 points,” Kennedy said on Blazer Sportsline. “We held him like 40 percent (from the field). I'm talking against a quality opponent. You go into their building, I thought we really defended. We were really connected. We were down one with about three to play, came up with three consecutive stops and scores to push us up by five or six. And we got that thing to the finish line.”
Kaleb Green, a 6-foot-7 Louisville transfer, who was offered by UAB, leads the Owls with 12.9 points, 6-foot-7 Trey Carroll averages 12.1 points and 5.3 rebounds per game and 6-foot-11, 215-pound Baba Miller averages 11 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. KyKy Tandy, who transferred to FAU from Jacksonville State, is one of the top 3-point shooters in the conference with 64 treys. But he scored in double figures in one of the past eight games and played nine scoreless minutes on Sunday against South Florida.
FAU (16-13 overall, 9-7 AAC) has won six of its past eight games and is currently in a fifth-place tie with East Carolina.