The series with UAB was hailed by fans and media alike when it was announced, a natural matchup of solid mid major programs that struggled to get big names to play them. And with good reason: the Blazers were coached by Bob Knight protege Mike Davis, were coming off a 22-9 season that ended with a Conference USA regular season title and a NCAA Tournament berth (their fourth straight postseason trip), and seemed poised to take a place alongside Memphis among C-USA elite.
Creighton went into Bartow Arena for UAB’s season opener a year ago, and when they fell behind early it looked like the Blazers remarkable 38-game home non-conference winning streak would become 39. Then the Jays rallied for a hard-fought 70-60 victory, a win that sent the teams in two vastly different directions. It was the kind of game the 2010-11 Jays would have lost, but when they came back to win on the road in a hostile environment it set the tone for what was to come from the 2011-12 squad. Meanwhile, UAB blowing a lead at home sent them into a tailspin. They lost again at home three days later to Murray State, and started the season 2-7, effectively turning what once looked like a marquee win for the Jays into just another line on the resume. The Blazers never really recovered from that rough start, finishing 15-16. Fans stayed away in droves as the season dragged on, and following the season Davis was fired.
The man they hired to replace him, Jerod Haase, played for Roy Williams at Kansas and later spent 13 years on his staffs both at KU and North Carolina. Rather than Davis’ defense-first slow-down-the-game style, Haase prefers to play up-tempo and play in transition as much as possible. That means we shouldn’t expect a repeat of last year, when UAB slowed the game down and held the Jays to their lowest point-total in the non-conference slate. The Blazers have just two players taller than 6’6″, but have enough depth in the backcourt to pressure the ball on defense and run in transition on offense.
Obviously, there will be some growing pains since their personnel doesn’t quite mesh with that fast-paced style yet. In their exhibition game against North Alabama, they turned it over 22 times including a ghastly seven times by starting guard Terence Jones. The Blazers cleaned things up somewhat in their regular-season opener, but it came against Young Harris College, a DII team in the second year transitioning from NJCAA, so everything that happened in that game has to be looked at with a basketball-sized grain of salt.
Jones is a senior playing in his first year for UAB, transferring without sitting out a year after earning his degree from Texas A&M Corpus Christi last spring. He’s an experienced guard with a deadly stroke from outside, burying 68 three-pointers last season en route to averaging 13.7 points a game and Honorable Mention All-Southland Conference honors. Unfortunately, he’s also a guard who has turned it over 37 more times than he’s dished out an assist in his career; last season alone, he had 55 assists vs 86 turnovers and in two games with the Blazers has continued that trend. Last season was a bit of an aberration, to be fair, but even in his first two seasons he was just under a 1:1 A/T ratio, so he is what he is: a guard with a nice shooting touch, but one who dribbles too much and has an uncanny knack for turning it over. As the season progresses, Jones may relinquish his starting job to Quincy Taylor, UAB’s starting point guard of a year ago who suffered a season-ending knee injury last March. Taylor is still not 100%, and played 18 minutes off the bench in their season opener, dishing out three assists against zero turnovers.
Their other starting guard is Robert Williams, who is one of the Blazers most versatile players as he led UAB in three-point shooting at 50.0 percent (15-of-30), ranked third on the team in rebounds per game, fourth in field goal percentage (41.7 percent) and fourth in assists per game (1.2), and had 13 games of five rebounds or more.
In the frontcourt, Jordan Swing, a 6’6″ junior leads the way. He had 17 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and was 6-6 at the free-throw line in their win over Young Harris. Swing played in 28 contests a year ago, making 24 starts at a variety of positions including point guard, shooting guard and small forward. He’s the team’s leading returning scorer (11.2 ppg) and three-point shooter (38.7 percent), and made 48 three-pointers a year ago. He scored 14 points and grabbed 3 rebounds in the game against Creighton last year.
Rod Rucker is an undersized forward at just 6’5″, but is a physical player that plays bigger than his size. The #10 JuCo recruit in the nation last year, he averaged 12.4 points and 10.0 rebounds per game for NW Florida State CC. He nearly had a double-double in his first game at the DI level, scoring eight points and grabbing 10 rebounds in the win over Young Harris.
At center is another newcomer, Fahro Alihodzic, a Bosnian native who was recruited heavily by Nebraska coach (and noted fan of European players) Doc Sadler, but wound up committing to Fordham. He transferred to a community college in Iowa after one season at Fordham, and comes to UAB with two seasons of eligibility remaining. Alihodzic had a nice debut, scoring 16 points on 6-9 shooting with 8 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals, albeit against an undersized opponent.
UAB will struggle to defend the paint against Creighton, and probably will lose the battle of the boards by a healthy margin. They can shoot the ball well, however, so if they can keep their turnovers to a minimum, they could give the Jays a tougher game than they got from North Texas on Friday. It should still be a 10-15 point win for Creighton, though.
About the Blazers: The Blazers enter Wednesday’s tilt with a 1-0 record after defeating Young Harris College (DII) last Saturday, 105-59 … In the season opening win, six players reached double figures, led by Jordan Swing and Robert Williams who each charted 17 points … Their 105 points scored tied for the 13th most in program history, and marked the most by a Blazer squad since defeating Belmont 107-76 back on Dec. 15, 2004 … UAB shot 53.6 percent from the floor along with making 11 of 21 3-pointers (52.4 percent) and 20 of 24 foul shots (83.3 percent) against YHC … UAB is one of six schools from across the country that does not have a freshman on its roster, along with Ohio, Portland State, Savannah State, SIUE and Valparaiso.
One Big Paragraph with Lots O’Dots™: Creighton is ranked 13th in this week’s USA Today Top 25 Coaches poll and 15th in this week’s Associated Press poll. They’ve been ranked in the top-15 of the AP poll in just four prior seasons (1973-74, 1974-75, 2002-03 and 2011-12), including an all-time best of No. 10 the week of January 20, 2003 … Ethan Wragge had a career-high three blocked shots in 13 minutes off the bench last Friday, after just 12 career blocked shots in 1,204 career minutes spanning 78 games. Wragge’s three rejections are the most in a season-opener by a Bluejay since Jeffrey Day had five blocks vs. Alcorn State on Nov. 15, 2004.
The RUN-DMD Show: Doug McDermott was named MVC Player of the Week on Nov. 12th for his performance in a Nov. 9 win vs. North Texas. McDermott had 21 points and 11 rebounds to produce CU’s first double-double in a season-opener since Kyle Korver in 2001-02. The award was the sixth of McDermott’s career, something only Hersey Hawkins (14), Bob Harstad (8) and Korver (7) can top.
The Last Time They Played: Creighton won 70-60 last November in Birmingham, snapping the Blazers’ 38-game home non-conference winning streak. Doug McDermott scored 27 points on 11-18 shooting to lead the Jays.
The Series: Creighton leads 1-0, and they’re 5-1 all-time against teams from the state of Alabama. CU is 1-0 against UAB, Alabama State, Samford and South Alabama, and 1-1 versus Auburn.
Gratuitous Linkage: WBR’s own Patrick Marshall contributed a breakdown of the Jays to AL.com as part of their pre-game coverage of the game.
This Date in Creighton Hoops History: On November 14, 1998, Creighton rolled over Towson State 93-48 in their season opener. Rodney Buford led the way offensively, scoring 24 points on 10-14 shooting, but it was Doug Swenson who dominated, grabbing 14 rebounds while scoring 12 points and dishing out four assists and blocking three shots.
Completely Random, Totally Rad Music Video of the Day: The Boss plays the CenturyLink Center one night after Creighton and UAB play there Wednesday. Seems like a great time to watch Bruce play a pretend game of baseball with himself, no?
The Bottom Line: Creighton wins big in a fast-paced game, but doesn’t cover the line.
Jays 88, UAB 74
