By Uncle Tom George
GAME NOTES
https://uabsports.com/documents/2024/3/21/UABMBB_GameNotes_2324_San_Diego_State.pdf
WATCH
Friday’s game will air on TNT with Lisa Byington, Steve Smith, Robbie Hummel and Lauren Shehadi on the call.
LISTEN
David Crane and Mo Finley will call the game for the Blazers on 100.5 ESPN JOX 2.
WESTWOOD ONE
The game will be available nationally with Ryan Radtke and Dan Dickau on the call for Westwood One.
SERIES HISTORY
The Blazers won the only meeting between the two programs during the 1989-90 season when UAB head coach Andy Kennedy was a player. Kennedy scored 27 points in the win.
LAST TIME OUT
The Blazers captured the American Conference Tournament title on Sunday with an 85-69 win over Temple. Alejandro Vasquez scored a career high 29 points while Eric Gaines added 15 points, six rebounds, nine assists, five steals and three blocks.
LENDEBORG NAMED DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR, FIRST TEAM ALL-AAC
After a standout debut season in Birmingham, forward Yaxel Lendeborg was named AAC Defensive Player of the Year and First Team All-Conference. Lendeborg is UAB’s first Conference Defensive Player of the Year since William Lee in 2016-17 and he joins Squeaky Johnson and Cameron Moore as the only Blazers to earn first team All-Conference and Defensive Player of the Year honors in the same season.
MOST WINS OVER FOUR SEASONS IN PROGRAM HISTORY
With the Blazers’ win over East Carolina on January 20, 2024, Andy Kennedy earned his 90th win at UAB, which is the most by a UAB coach over his first four seasons. Mike Anderson previously held the record with 89 wins from 2002-06. Additionally, Kennedy’s tenure marks the most wins over any four-year period at UAB, surpassing 1983-87 under Gene Bartow. Kennedy reached 100 wins in Birmingham faster than any coach in program history, doing so in only 136 games.
STEPPING UP
Highlight-reel plays marked Eric Gaines’ first season in Birmingham with two SportsCenter Top Ten appearances and numerous high-flying dunks. After averaging 11.5 points and 4.3 assists per game, Gaines has played an even larger role this year as the only returning player to average double-digit points per game last season. Gaines has upped his scoring numbers while maintaining his defensive prowess this season for UAB, averaging 12.2 points, 3.9 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 2.4 steals per game. He scored 17 points and dished out 10 assists in a win over Temple, his third 10-assist outing of the year. Gaines is No. 30 in the nation with 5.5 assists per game and No. 9 in the nation with 2.4 steals per game.
2024-25 SEASON TICKETS
Season tickets for the 2024-25 UAB men’s basketball season are now available. Season ticket packages will feature all home games during the 2024-25 basketball season and provide the most cost-effective way to attend games at Bartow Arena. Fans may purchase new season tickets or request more information on season ticket options here. Season ticket renewal applications will be available in the coming month leading into the September 1, 2024 men’s basketball priority seat deadline. For more information about season ticket pricing, call the UAB Athletics Ticket Office at (205) 975-UAB1.
POWER UP
UAB Athletics is excited to officially compete in the American Athletic Conference and needs Blazer Nation to Power Up by becoming a 2024 Blazer Boosters member. Join Blazer Boosters today as UAB student-athletes complete for championships, graduate with honors, and make a difference in our community.
FOLLOW THE BLAZERS
For more information on the UAB men’s basketball team, follow @UAB_MBB on Twitter and Instagram.
SPOKANE, Wash – The San Diego State, the 5-seed in the East Region, opens play in the 2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship with a first-round matchup against 12-seed UAB on Friday morning at 10:45 a.m. PT at Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena in Spokane, Wash.
OFF THE BOUNCE
The Aztecs are making their 16th appearance in the Division I event, owning an 11-15 record. Head coach Brian Dutcher has been on the Aztec sidelines for 23 of the program’s 26 all-time tournament games and all 11 of the program’s victories.
This is the fifth NCAA appearance for Dutcher, the two-time Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year, in his seven seasons as head coach with a likely appearance in the 2019-20, when the Aztecs were 30-2, canceled because of the COVID pandemic.
This is the program’s 11th tournament appearance in the last 14 seasons that a champion was crowned. That total does not include the 2019-20 season when SDSU was 30-2 and ranked sixth in the AP poll when the season ended prior to the tournament.
San Diego State will compete in the East Region for the first time in program history. In first and second round games, SDSU has a 5-3 record in the South Region, a 4-5 mark in the West Region, and are 0-3 in the Midwest Region for an overall record in the first weekend of 9-11.
The Aztecs come into the NCAA Tournament having played in its seventh consecutive Mountain West Tournament championship game, its 10th in the last 11 years and over all its 16th in the 25 years of the conference’s existence.
The Aztecs metrics rank among the best in the nation. Through the games of March 16, the Aztecs were ranked No. 18 in the NET, No. 15 in KPI, No. 18 in Kenpom, No. 29 in T-Rank and No. 35 in BPI. San Diego State’s NET strength of schedule is No. 28.
San Diego State owns a 132-33 record (80.0 percent) since the start of the 2019-20 campaign. That’s the THIRD-BEST record in the nation, trailing Gonzaga’s 146-20 (88.0 percent), and Houston’s 146-26 (84.8 percent), and ahead of Baylor’s 127-34 (78.9 percent) and Kansas’ 133-36 (78.7 percent) records.
San Diego State owns the SIXTH-BEST record in the nation since the start of the 2009-10 campaign, 359-115 (.757), and is 160-90 (.640) road and neutral site contests in that time frame which is the SEVENTH BEST in the nation.
San Diego State and UAB are meeting for the second time with the Blazers owning the lone victory in the series. The first meeting came on Dec. 23, 1989, in the championship game at the UAB Classic in Birmingham. The Blazers cruised to a 91-46 victory.
San Diego State is 12-19 all-time against the current membership of the American Athletic Conference, and won its last game against the conference, 72-71 over Florida Atlantic in last year’s Final Four game in Houston.
With its win over No. 18 Utah State (March 15), San Diego State improved to 14-9 (.609) under Brian Dutcher against AP Top-25 teams. The Aztecs were 29-98 (.228) against AP Top-25 teams prior to Dutcher taking over as head coach in 2017-18. SDSU’s .609 winning percentage against AP Top-25 teams since the 2017-18 season is the highest in the country (min. 20 games). Rounding out the top 5 are Kansas (.602), Virginia (.591), Duke (.588) and Gonzaga (.587).
Seven of San Diego State’s 10 losses this season have come on the road against Quad 1 opponents, and six of those seven defeats have come by nine points or less. SDSU has lost Quad 1 road or neutral site games, eight in all, by 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 & 18 points. The other Quad 1 loss came in its last regular-season game, 77-79, vs. Boise State in Viejas Arena. The Aztecs loneother loss was a Quad 2 game at UNLV, 71-74, on the Rebels Senior Night.
San Diego State’s 36 conference tournament wins since the 2008-09 season are the most in the country over that span (Gonzaga is second at 33).
Senior forward Jaedon LeDee has been named a second-team All-American by The Sporting News and Field of 68, a third-team honoree by the Associated Press and an honorable mention performer by the USBWA. In addition, he is a finalist for the Karl Malone Award, which recognizes the nation’s top power forward and is on the national ballot for the John R. Wooden Award for the national player of the year, but strangley did not win the Mountain West Player of the Year as voted on by the coaches in the league.
Brian Dutcher is in his seventh season as San Diego State’s head coach and his 25th season on the Aztec sidelines. In his six-plus seasons as head coach, he has led the Aztecs to five conference titles, seven Mountain West championship game appearances, a 175-56 (.758) overall record, the 2023 NCAA national championship game, has been named the national coach of the year, and twice the Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year.
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