Gene Bartow was hired as both athletic director and basketball coach and immediately went to work making this program a national player.  With his background he immediately was able to give legitimacy to his team and was able to get the ‘Blazers’ some big time competition early.  He was also instrumental in getting ‘his’ program into the powerhouse new league of Conference USA with some mighty big and older dogs who have dominated independent and smaller leagues in middle America for quite some time.  UAB had only spent a year in the Sun Belt but showed they could play as Bartow is a master motivator and tactician who took a bunch of young kids and made them competitive in their first year.  The Blazers shocked the world by qualifying for the post season and even won a game at the friendly confines of the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Center (say that real fast three times).  Now entering the new super conference there were high expectations in the ‘Pittsburgh of the South’ as Bartow and company are trying to make basketball cool in Bama!  The one thing that you know the Bear has always been able to do in Tuscaloosa is recruit top notch athletes.  There are not many High School hoopsters in the state named after the country band that the two major programs don’t get so Bartow had decided to go back to his ‘roots’ and bring in some talent from Tennessee.  This might seem like sacrelig in the red clay state but Memphis has shown that it has more than enough talented players and Bartow will get talent wherever he can especially when you are starting a new program and you immediately have to win right now or be left behind the football programs for the fans hearts in Birmingham. 

The University of Alabama at Birmingham Blazers are one of the youngest Division 1 programs anyway you count it.  The college has only had a program for a few short years and the players that play here are young as well.  Coach Gene Bartow has decided to go the route of building a program from the ground up and is sticking with his four year recruits instead of going with JC transfers.  Well, for the most part.  He has basically only underclassmen on his roster and the inexperience is both a blessing and a curse.  Combine that with competing in one of the most difficult conferences in the country and no wonder this program might show some growing pains!     The fact that this team is not in a media and urban hub like Chicago or Milwaukee and is not an established program like Louisville or Cincinnati does not help either.  And finally with Bartow’s style of play and the fact there are no superstars on this team does not bring ESPN to Birmingham or too many of their games.  But they do have Bartow and after what he has done at Valpo and Memphis there is great hope in Birmingham as he attempts to bring basketball to football country.  How to build a program 101! 

First, bring in an experienced Coach who knows how to teach young players to be their best and to work within a team structure.  Enter the Great Bartow who has a ton of experience in college basketball and knows how to mold a winner.  Make sure you put in a system that is high octane and fast paced because kids want to play that style of ball and it makes it easier to recruit better players.  Bartow had that style of offense that is fun and exciting to watch.  Up and down the court.  Next, get in a conference that is on tv often and has a wide region of coverage especially in big cities.  Need we say more.  Conference USA is one of if not the best young conferences in America and it’s girth covers most of the country.  That is very helpful in recruiting when you go everywhere from Wisconsin to South Florida and are in big cities such as Chicago, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Miami and St. Louis.  Get some great facilities and make sure you have great fans.  Check.  Check.  The BJCC is a state of the art arena that holds almost 20,000 fans and gives the home team a heck of an advantage at home.  The Blazer fans are rabid and sometimes they will blow the roof from Bartow arena.  Yes, he it that good that they have already named the arena after him.  Finally, make sure your players can play.  Triple Check!   

Coach Bartow has put together a team of over achievers who are as fun to watch as any team in the country.  Nobody wanted to see the Blazers on their schedule and boy these guys can play.  His first class is filled with go getters and player haters.  Bartow had a bit of an advantage when it came to recruiting as he was able to go walking in Memphis and find some players through his vast underworld of connections.  His first and most exciting player however was not a Memphian.  The best player on the team is Sophomore Oliver Robinson.  He is a Birmingham native and was the first player that Bartow recruited when he came to town.  Robinson led the team in scoring as a true freshman and uses his 6 foot 4 frame to his advantage.  He can run the court and can finish with the best of them.  He can play defense and has good range on his jump shot.  Best of all he is a leader.  His best ability is his tenacity and his desire to succeed.  Robinson set the tone from the first time he entered the gym that he was here to win and that he has done.  Robinson is as important to the success of his team as any player in this conference or perhaps any player in the country.  Yes, I said that right.  The Blazers are not filled with world class talent and especially do not have much size.  They will have to compete with the monster teams of this conference and Bartow has instilled a pressure defense that comes at you from the opening bell.  Robinson is the key to this on both ends.  He earns his athleticism to harass the other team in the press and cause turnovers with his length and when he gets a chance to finish, he finishes.  With emphasis.  He might not score 20 a game but he is the best offensive player on the team as he does it all from finishing at the rim, to distributing the ball, to hitting contested jumpers.  He is a special player and the perfect person for Bartow to build this program around.  He is also ultra popular in Birmingham as he loves the fans and they love him.  The only guy more popular in Birmingham may be George Wallace and it is debatable if this kid ran against him if he would still be the Governor?  Of course every politician has to have a good running mate and Bartow found his perfect sidekick to run besides Robinson from his beloved Memphis. 

Fellow Sophomore guard Steve Mitchell came to Birmingham with one thing in mind and that was to win basketball games.  Once he met Robinson on a recruiting trip he decided right there and then this is the guy he wanted to play besides and it was a match made in Blazer heaven.  Mitchell was a big time recruit from Memphis and once he decided to come to Birmingham many of his friends followed later dubbed the ‘Memphis Connection.’  This would become the nucleus of the Blazers program and a thorn in the side of the hated Tigers.  John Calipari is recruiting nationwide (he’s on your side, yeah right) now.  This point guard is the real deal.  No, he is not as quick as Rod Strickland and he doesn’t have a jump shot that he comes off the floor three feet to shoot but he makes up for it with smarts and desire.  Don’t get me wrong, Mitchell can flat shoot from anywhere, but like everyone else is getting used to the three-point line but he sure seems to like it.  At least at home.  Mitchell is a bit of an enigma with his shooting as he prefers a certain brand of basketball (Spalding top flite-100) which the Blazers have at home but he struggles on the road.  His scoring and shooting percentages were almost 30 percent different which meant Mitchell had to become more of a distributor on the road.  Mitchell is also a terrific passer so this did not matter but on this motion offense he does not have the ball in his hands at all times and thus did not average five assists a game.  He could have but he needed to score on this team.  Bartow has put the reigns of his program in Mitchell’s hands and he has not disappointed.  He is a leader in every sense of the word.  He does whatever it takes to win.  He is also by the way a gifted player with skills in all departments from passing to shooting to defense.  Any team in the country would be lucky to have Steve Mitchell but he made the right choice leaving Memphis to help start this program in Birmingham.  After all whatever program has a guy like Robinson he gets to play next to every night?  The combination of Robinson and Mitchell are as good as it gets and they do not back away from anyone. 

The front line for the Blazers was a little more complicated.  Sophomores Jerome Mincy (of the famed Memphis Connection) and Dylan Howard will begin the season as the starters.  Mincy is a tough as nails board guy who can score some in the post but is best known for his toughness.  Howard is a good defensive player and is a great ‘glue’ guy but does not bring much offensively.     He teams with Mincy to give the Blazers a solid if undersized front line.  This duo really helped the Blazers ‘hang tough’ down low but they are new kids on the block in this power league and will be trying to hang with Mikan and Unseld now.  Mincy was a main part of the Memphis connection (though born in Puerto Rico and a member of the national team there) and though he is only six foot six gives the Blazers the type of rugged inside play every team must have to compete.  Mincy with the great fade (haircut not shot) is by far the best defensive rebounder on the team and plays the paint like he owns it.  He is a terrific offensive player but when he gets the ball on the block he knows what to do with it.  He is a true power forward though even undersized there but he did have to guard some much bigger guys on the blocks and did a fine job.  He is strong and tough and though he does not get the recognition of Robinson and Mitchell, he was just as if not more important than either one of these as these Blazers have no chance of competing in the rugged C-USA without some kind of presence in the middle.   The Blazers do not have much size up front except for Mammoth sophomore Alan Ogg.  Yes I said Ogg.  The seven foot two Ogg is a gifted shot blocker but is really limited everywhere else.  Still, he eats up space and showed some upside and when he gets a chance to finish he does finish.  With gusto!  And did I say he was big?  The shy kid who was living with his grandparents when Bartow came a calling to get this big kid to come to UAB. Ogg does not like the negative attention he was getting on the road games due to his size and unique look.  Ogg was barely playing when the Blazers went to Jacksonville in the lucky7th game of the year.  Bartow put in Ogg to try and combat the great Artis Gilmore, one of the best seven footers on the planet.  Gilmore is strong as an ox and pushed around Ogg the first half as the goofy named one got three fouls and at half time was reportedly so upset he was crying.  IN the second half Ogg got pushed down by Gilmore going for a board and the kid got mad.  He went wild scoring 10 second half points (mostly on dunks), grabbing 6 boards and blocking 5 shots and most importantly holding Gilmore in check as the Blazers staged an epic comeback to pull out the victory in overtime. 

The third player up front for the Blazers is sophomore Reggie Turner.  Turner goes 6’7 225 but is more of a perimeter player than inside the key.  The Blazers badly need a guy who could score from the perimeter as this befit Bartow’s style of play.  Bartow might be old school but he knows that the game is changing and one thing Clean Gene knows is how to change with the game.  Turner’s ability to hit shots opened things up for the Blazers and made their fast break that much more scary.  Bartow had to swallow his pride as Turner is not exactly a defensive presence but Bartow knows how to hide players in his press and he hid Kennedy.  Turner is a smart kid and works hard but primarily on shooting and man does he understand how to get open for his shot.  He is not much of a board guy which the Blazers could have used some help down low.  Bartow has decided to bring in a few JC kids to help in the key especially joining this new league.  6’7, 6’7 and 6’5 just will not cut it in this league of behemoths and even if Ogg develops quickly this team needs help in the paint. 

Now for the rest of the bench.  Bartow rotated several players throughout the first half (isn’t that what your out of conference schedule is all about?) of the year until he found the rotation he wanted and he stayed with for most of the second half.  Sophomores Glenn Marcus and  James Ponder was big on the JV as Bartow did not want to waste them not getting minutes in the back court. Both have tremendous potential though they will be hard pushed to find some minutes next year though Ponder could be the best perimeter shooter on the roster.  Fellow sophomore Michael Charles was the third guard on the varsity and did play well.  He brings size at 6’5 and does everything well.  He played more minutes than Bartow wanted him to at the three though he is a true guard and did well.  He is not as good as Mitchell and Robinson but man it doesn’t hurt having a jack of all trades with his kind of size as your sixth man.  There is also a large group of front court players coming back but many of these will be pushed by the new kids Bartow is bringing in.  Anthony Gordon, Donny Spicer, Marvin Ray Johnson and Larry Rembert all got some minutes bouncing from JV to varsity but none really took the ‘bull by the horns’ as White Good man would say.  All four of these kids are 6’8 or 6’7 and can play defense but are not dynamic enough offensively (or big enough) to hang in this new league for long. 

The UAB Blazers are a bunch of fresh-faced kids that nobody heard of and hardly anybody else recruited.  They do have one thing in common.  They love to play basketball.  They also are getting pretty good at it.  They also have one of the best basketball minds in the country to put the city of Birmingham on the national map.  Gene Bartow might not have the Robertsons or the Mikans of the world but he gets by with what he has got because these kids will die for Clean Gene.  Bartow was once the toast of Memphis and he has raided that fair city to bring talent back to his beloved new town in Birmingham.  Bartow know that not everybody can get All-American talent but he is building this program the way it should be.  He recruits four year players who love the game and (mostly) are committed to playing the defensive pressure he knows drives other teams crazy.  And when you got a coach like Gene Bartow pushing all the right buttons and a group of kids willing to work their tails off for the same goal anything can happen.