Oct. 18, 2005

Talent ... depth ... experience ... tenacity: All words to describe the stable of thoroughbreds Mike Anderson and the UAB Blazers have waiting for their call to the post in 2005-06. The Blazers are coming off a 22-11 campaign in which they made their second straight NCAA Tournament appearance and eye-popping postseason upset. They led the nation in steals for the third straight season - something no other program has ever done. Astonishingly, only three players do not return for 2005-06. Any coach will tell you the key ingredient to winning in college basketball is players. Having players is Mike Anderson's business. And business is good.

Couple a roster which includes 10 returning letterwinners, three of whom were starters, with Anderson's oft-heralded coaching prowess and the 2005-06 UAB Blazer men's basketball team could be primed for a fourth straight 20-win season and postseason appearance and third straight run to the NCAA's Big Dance.

"Every year, our goal is to win a national championship," Anderson said. "I don't know when it's going to happen, but that's my goal. That's our goal as a program. As long as we keep working toward that, good things will happen. We have a group of coaches and players who want to win. We play an exciting brand of basketball that is fun for them to coach and play and we enjoy it."

Chief among the enjoyable returning players for Anderson's club in 2005-06 will be one of the nation's top point guards in Carldell "Squeaky" Johnson and an often underrated, but equally as impressive slashing forward in Demario Eddins. The duo have combined to lead the Blazers to 44 wins and two NCAA Tournaments in their two seasons together. Both are already on UAB's all-time steals list while Eddins is already one of the most prolific scorers in school history with a season yet to play. Talent is certainly a quality those and a host of other Blazers possess.

Throw in fellow senior Marvett McDonald, who does plenty of throwing in of his own with 77 three-point field goals a year ago, at the off-guard position and remaining roster that includes four more seniors and three other veteran players and you can see from where the experience label comes. Add to that five new players, including two heralded freshman post players, a top-tier junior college guard and a major NCAA Division I transfer in Wen Mukubu, and there's your depth.

UAB's tenacity stems from Anderson's coaching style. For a team that has led the nation in steals in each of the last three seasons and forced an unheard of 20-plus turnovers per game from its opponents last year, tenacity is the name of the game. Anderson calls his team's play, "The Fastest 40 Minutes in Basketball." This year, it will again be fast, but will also feature experience, depth and considerable talent.

THE BACKCOURT
UAB's backcourt in 2005-06 might be one of the more versatile and explosive ones in the country. Not only is depth prevalent with no fewer than six potential starting guards on the roster, but four of them are seniors. The combination of experience, depth and talent makes the Blazers' backcourt one of the more formidable ones around. At the head of the proverbial dragon, few point guards in the country are better than Squeaky Johnson. The tenacious defender has been called the best pass-first point guard in college basketball by some. After the senior from New Orleans led UAB to an upset of then-No. 17 Cincinnati in his sophomore season, Bob Huggins lauded Johnson as, "the best player on the floor," despite the fact Johnson failed to score a point.

"Squeaky doesn't have to score a point to beat you," Anderson said. "He is like a coach on the floor. He helps you win. He never panics. Too many people get caught up in stats and don't notice a guy like him, but he can do nothing but take 10 charges and be the happiest guy on the floor."

Already on pace to become UAB's all-time steals leader in just three seasons of play, Johnson is the leading returning assist man in Conference USA. He led the league in assist-to-turnover ratio for the second straight season in 2004-05 after leading the nation in that category in 2003-04.

Perhaps the biggest upside to Johnson's game is that he has a wealth of untapped potential as a scoring threat. In fact, in the final 13 games of last season, Johnson picked up his scoring, going for double figures in five of those contests after not hitting double digits all season. The threat opened the door for UAB to reverse a four-game losing skid, close out the regular season with four straight wins and make a postseason run that included upsetting SEC West champ LSU in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

"I think you will see him step his game up a little more this year because he has a nice shot," Anderson said. "He can shoot the basketball. He can get to the free throw line and make things happen. When you lose the quality of players we did last year, you need some folks to step-up and I think Squeaky will do that.

The 2005-06 Blazers will also be blessed with one of Conference USA's deadliest shooters in the two guard position. Senior Marvett McDonald averaged 10.8 points per game and hit 77 three-pointers in his UAB debut last season. The former junior college national champion at Southeastern Iowa Community College burst on the scene with 15 points in a hard-fought road victory at Marshall last year. He wound up starting 20 of the team's 33 contests and was the Chevrolet Player of the Game in the LSU win, lighting the Bayou Bengals up for 21 points on five-of-eight shooting from downtown.

McDonald will provide both scoring from the off-guard position and an adequate backup for Johnson at the point as well. He averaged a pair of assists per game last season and dished out a season-high six in the road win at Saint Louis.

Senior guards Richard Jones and Derrick Broom will again provide depth on the perimeter for Mike Anderson's club. Jones averaged 4.2 points in 32 appearances last year for the Blazers. He scored in double-figures three times and went for nine in the season-ending loss to Arizona in the NCAA Tournament. Broom appeared in all 33 contests, scoring 3.5 points behind a career-best 29 three-point field goals.

Sophomore Paul Delaney has a chance to emerge as a backcourt mainstay in 2005-06 for UAB. The Decatur, Ga., product returned to competitive basketball after missing his entire prep senior season with a broken foot last year and scored 3.1 points per game off the bench for the Blazers. His defensive tenacity won him playing time and his abovethe- rim play and slashing moves to the basket enamored him with the Bartow Arena faithful. Delaney hit 57.1 percent of his field goals last year and notched 30 steals on the season in just under 10 minutes of play per game.

The lone newcomer to the backcourt will be junior college combination guard Maurice Gibbs. The 6-2, 195-pound guard was the second-leading scorer on last year's National Junior College Athletic Association national runner-up squad at Moberly Area (Mo.) Community College. A point guard with scoring ability and range, Gibbs shot 40-percent from three-point range and 56-percent from the field last year.

Walk on Reid Davis is certain to be another fan favorite at Bartow Arena this year as well. The Birmingham native appeared in a career-high eight contests last year. Mike Anderson Jr., will don the Blazer uniform as well this year, after sitting out 2004-05 as a redshirt.

"All the returning players are going to be instrumental for us this year with the exodus of Ronell and Donell (Taylor) ... you lost some pretty good players there," Anderson acknowledged. "The returning guys in the backcourt are going to have to continue to take it to another level and give us even more. I'm talking about all of them -- Squeaky, Marvett, Paul Delaney, Richard Jones, Derrick Broom and even a new guy like Moe Gibbs. When you talk about depth, it's there. Now we've got to get those guys in the mindset of getting in and giving us quality minutes and productive minutes, defensively as well as offensively."

THE FRONTCOURT
UAB's frontcourt under Mike Anderson has always looked a bit different than the traditional small forward, power forward and center alignment. Anderson's up-tempo style and frenetic defensive transition game dictates all five players be fast, active and energetic. The 2005-06 Blazers may have the most ideal frontcourt lineups in Anderson's tenure in Birmingham with four returning forwards, including Demario Eddins, who has already solidified himself as one of UAB's all-time greats. Add to that three talented newcomers to the wing and post corps and Anderson has to like his team's makeup down low. "There's one thing about it, we have never been known for size," Anderson admitted. "But at the same time, if we're active down low, we can cause some problems.

Sometimes our size comes back to haunt us, like in the Arizona game (in last year's NCAA Tournament). But again, we've got some depth and some talent down there and the potential to be a very good, active low post team."

Eddins enters his senior season ready to write a final chapter on what has already been a career for the ages in the Green and Gold. He has started 90 of 99 games in his three years at UAB and already ranks 16th on the all-time UAB scoring list with 1,084 career points. His slashing style and versatility were hampered a bit last season by moving to the power forward position defensively where he would normally guard players much heavier. The addition of Wen Mukubu, who sat our last season in his transfer year from Arkansas, and heralded freshman Lawrence Kinnard to UAB's forward corps will likely free Eddins up to be more of a scoring threat this year.

"Sometimes it happens that way with the way we play and Demario will have to be guarding those bigger players," Anderson cautioned. "Hopefully, though, we'll have it where we can have some more guys out there with size so he can roam a little bit. He's a lot more effective when he can do that."

The 2004-05 season not only saw Eddins take on the role of defensive presence in the post, but saw him emerge as the go-to player in the clutch for the Blazers. His last-second three-pointer against DePaul in the Conference USA Tournament drove a dagger through the Blue Demons and was the likely play which vaulted UAB off the NCAA Tournament's proverbial bubble. Eddins scored in double figures in 23 of his 33 games last year. He averaged career-bests in points (12.5), rebounds (4.8) and steals (1.7) in his junior campaign.

Fellow senior Brandon Tobias will again be counted on for both on- and off-court leadership and valuable minutes in the post for the Blazers in 2005-06. He appeared in 32 games last season, starting seven, while recording averages of 2.4 points and 1.7 rebounds. His six points off the bench against LSU in the NCAA Tournament gave the Blazers a much-needed answer to LSU's Brandon Bass down low. Tobias' strength on the blocks and ability to defend against larger players will parlay him into an important factor in this year's success.

Mukubu, a 6-6, 210-pound athletic forward who came off the bench for two seasons at Arkansas from 2002-04, brings a long wingspan, defensive intensity and athleticism to the Blazer frontcourt. He was spectacular in last year's Green-Gold scrimmage, scoring 22 points on nine-of-11 shooting while dishing out five assists. While the year off from game experience is always a question mark for transfer players, Mukubu's athleticism and quickness are sure to provide the Blazers with an additional weapon on the wings.

"He's one of those blue collar guys," Anderson said. "He's one of those guys who gets dirty. He takes charges, gets deflections and is just an active basketball player. He's going to do some things offensively that will get people excited ... on fast breaks, catching alley-oops and what-not. But I really want him to be one of those guys who will hopefully be one of our better defensive players."

Junior Ernest Little proved to be ready to contribute significant minutes in the thick of Conference USA play last year as now-departed senior Marques Lewis battled injuries. Little was called upon to play a big role at Saint Louis and helped UAB snap a four-game losing skid with six points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots -- including one at the buzzer to seal the win -- in 26 minutes of play against the Billikens. Little's performance came in a stretch of nine contests in which he averaged 16 minutes per game. Little's scoring (3.4) and rebounding (2.4) both elevated during his sophomore season and his maturation into a dominant defensive force inside should continue in 2005-06.

Frank Holmes rounds out the returning post players for Anderson's club for the upcoming season. Holmes averaged 1.5 points and 1.5 rebounds in his freshman season, but showed flashes of brilliance and displayed his impressive athleticism with a strong inside game. He went for six points and six rebounds (both season-highs) against Murray State. He grabbed four or more rebounds four times on the season despite playing just eight minutes per game.

The newcomers to the Blazer frontcourt could be the X-factor for UAB this season. Lawrence Kinnard comes to UAB as one of the more heralded prospects for the Blazers in years. The 6-6, 186-pound slashing forward was rated as the 70th best high school prospect in the country by The Sporting News and came in at 18th nationally in Rivals.com's list of prep small forwards. The Memphis, Tenn., product led his Raleigh- Egypt squad to a state runner-up finish in Tennessee as a senior and his AAU squad has been one of the most dominant club teams in recent history.

"Lawrence Kinnard is a very heralded high school player who potentially has a chance to be a very good player for us," Anderson said. "He gives us a versatile basketball player on our roster."

Fellow freshman Roderick Ollie, an all-state small forward from Gentry, Miss., and Indianola Gentry High School was the MVP of the Mississippi-Alabama All-Star Game last spring after averaging 23 points, 13 rebounds, four blocked shots and three steals per game as a senior.

"Roderick Ollie is one of those guys who, the more he's here, the better he'll get," Anderson said. "He's very gifted physically. I think it's just a matter of getting that college competition."

Kinnard and Ollie could see plenty of playing time early in Anderson's up-tempo system. However, as with most freshmen, Anderson will allow the duo to develop at their own pace.

COACHING
Few coaches in American can boast the accomplishments Mike Anderson has produced in his three seasons as a college head coach. Anderson has guided UAB to three straight 20-win seasons and postseason appearances. The Blazers have appeared in two straight NCAA Tournaments and are one of only two teams to pull off first-round upsets in both years.

The 2003-04 Ray Meyer Conference USA Coach of the Year, Anderson has led the Blazers to upset wins over No. 1 overall seed Kentucky in the 2004 NCAA Tournament and SEC West Division Champion LSU in last season's Big Dance. He also guided UAB to the NIT Elite Eight in his rookie coaching campaign in 2002-03. He has amassed 65 wins in three seasons and has won 66-percent of the games he has coached in that span. His all-time postseason record, including the Conference USA Tournament, is 10-5. The victories are in large part due to his pressure defense. An offspring of the "40 Minutes of Hell" made famous by his mentor, Nolan Richardson, at Arkansas where Anderson was a 17-year assistant, UAB's "Fastest 40 Minutes in Basketball" has produced the national leader in steals in each of Anderson's three years. No other program has ever led the nation in steals for three straight years.

"I've been how we've done that a lot and, quite frankly, I don't know," Anderson laughed. "I do know that it's not something we're going to change. We're going to continue to get after people defensively. The pressure we do put on people is hard to handle. Our guards extend the floor and make it more than a half court game. Our forwards, though, have to be in-tune to what's going on as well. It's really a read situation on defense. There are instincts involved, but there's a method to the madness."

"It's remarkable that we've led the nation in steals three straight years and that's something no one else has ever done," Anderson said. "Nobody has been able to figure it out, neither have I and I'm not going to try to."

Anderson's staff is arguably one of the best in college basketball as well. Top assistant Chris Giles, one of UAB's all-time great players, handles the post players and is well respected as one of the top recruiters in the South. Matt Zimmerman, who has overseen opponent scouting for the last three years, was an outstanding high school coach in Arkansas before coming to UAB in 2002-03. Birmingham native T.J. Cleveland is the newest addition to the coaching staff. The Arkansas Razorback guard served as UAB's video coordinator each of the last three years and brings the experience of being one of the Southeastern Conference's top guards from 1998-2002.

In addition, former Montevallo head coach and a junior college teammate of Anderson's, Jeff Daniels joins the UAB staff this season as Director of Basketball Operations. "With Jeff joining us, we have a tremendous group of coaches," Anderson said. "They're in tune to what we're doing and we're all on the same page. They don't work for me, they work with me. It's a good situation. We've got a good staff that's in tune with one another."

THE VERDICT
Without question, UAB has one of the more experienced and talented teams it has seen taking the floor in 2005-06. Couple that with the knowledge that the Blazers are winners of 20 or more games for three straight years, have wins in each of the last two NCAA Tournaments and have seen the postseason in every year of the Mike Anderson era, and one can see why Blazer fans have reason to be excited about the upcoming season. Anderson's club will also face a new-look Conference USA this season which many feel the Blazers and fellow carryover Memphis will immediately rise to the top as the league's best teams. The new league will be no pushover, however, with recent NCAA teams Tulsa, UTEP and UCF, along with nationally-prominent programs in Marshall, Rice and SMU on board.

UAB's non-conference schedule is one Anderson calls, "the most difficult, yet exciting since I've been here." The Blazers open in the Hall of Fame Tip-Off Classic in Springfield, Mass., against UMass. The home slate includes top-25 programs Oklahoma State and Old Dominion, Colonial power Virginia Commonwealth and Sun Belt favorite Western Kentucky. Road dates for the Blazers this season include visits to Big 10 upstart Minnesota, Big 12 darkhorse Nebraska and former C-USA, now Big East contenders DePaul and USF.

"You look at our non-conference schedule and we've got our work cut out for us," Anderson said. "You add the unknown element of our new conference opponents and it's an exciting schedule. For the fans, it's without a doubt one of the more exciting schedules we've ever had at UAB. The competition is unbelievable. If we don't get our brains beat out, it will put us in position to compete for a conference championship and the postseason again."

However difficult the challenge presented by the 2005-06 schedule and the new-look Conference USA, Mike Anderson knows his team has the ingredients for another successful run this year. With the returning talent, considerable depth, volumes of experience and an ever-present tenacity on his teams, Anderson's Blazers are ready to run in 2005-06.