UAB wants to run Tigers' big men

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LSU's Brandon Bass and Glen Davis are big enough and strong enough to cause UAB all sorts of problems inside if they can get set in the post.

But how deadly are Bass and Davis on the run?

The answer to the question could make the difference between UAB advancing to the second round of the NCAA men's basketball tournament for the second straight year or loading up on an airplane and heading home on Friday.






UAB (21-10) doesn't want to give the 6-foot-8, 252-pound Bass and especially the 310-pound Davis a chance to stand still when the Blazers tip off against LSU (20-9) at approximately 8:50 tonight at the Taco Bell Arena. CBS will carry the contest.

"We're just going to try and make them run," said senior guard Donell Taylor. "We need their big guys to get up and down the court."

If the Blazers' strategy succeeds, UAB will earn itself a Saturday afternoon showdown with the winner of Arizona-Utah State for the chance to advance to the Sweet 16.

UAB and LSU have gone against each other before. LSU beat UAB 78-62 in last year's Sugar Bowl Classic by dominating UAB on the boards 49 to 28. Bass and the departed Jaime Lloreda each scored 22 points, and they grabbed 22 rebounds between them.

While Bass and Lloreda were the biggest reason LSU won the contest, the play of Tiger guard Tack Minor was also important. In 19 minutes of action, Minor breezed through UAB's press and finished with 11 points and three assists.

LSU did have 16 turnovers in the game.

"I know they (the Blazers) are a good team," Bass said. "We played them last year. They like to run, and they can shoot."

LSU has played three Conference USA opponents this season, losing to both Houston and Southern Miss, two teams which UAB defeated. The Tigers defeated cross-state rival Tulane, while UAB went 1-1 against the Green Wave.

LSU will be UAB's first meeting with an SEC team since the Blazers' upset of Kentucky in the second round of last year's tournament.

"It's an SEC school and people call the SEC a powerhouse conference, so we're excited about playing them," said UAB junior guard Squeaky Johnson.

UAB averages 77.8 points a contest, while allowing 71.5. LSU averages 75 points a contest, while allowing 71.

UAB is forcing 20.5 turnovers a game, while LSU is averaging only 13.2 a game.

If the game is determined on the free throw line, UAB is in trouble. The Blazers shoot only 69.8 percent as a team, while LSU converts 73 percent of its foul shots.

UAB will also have to keep forward Marques Lewis out of foul trouble.

UAB's advantage lies in its bench. The Blazers go 12 deep, while LSU plays a rotation of eight players.

"Hopefully, we can create the tempo," said UAB head coach Mike Anderson. "We've got to use our bench. That's the strength of our basketball team."

 

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Steele braces for UWM's defense


Thursday, March 17, 2005

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Ed McCants, the star player at Wisconsin-Milwaukee, calls it organized chaos. Adrian Tigert, the center who is more comfortable launching a 3-pointer than posting up, says he would love to reveal the intricacies of UWM's full-court pressure defense but "there's less method to it than you may think."

It's the way the Panthers win games, though. It's the key ingredient of the Panthers' plan to put their name firmly on the college basketball map.

It's also Ronald Steele's introduction to the NCAA Tournament.






Steele, the Crimson Tide's freshman point guard, will be at the center of UWM's defensive storm today when the Crimson Tide (24-7), the fifth seed in the Chicago Regional, takes on the 12th seed Panthers (24-5) in the first round.

The Tide's plan to attack the pressure consists of more than Steele. Senior Earnest Shelton and junior Kennedy Winston will help with the ball-handling duties, forward Chuck Davis will help distribute the ball and Jermareo Davidson is the safety valve. But it is Steele, who led John Carroll Catholic High School to two state championships, who will have the basketball in his hands most of the time, which makes Alabama coach Mark Gottfried feel pretty comfortable.

"If I had to pick anybody in the country to handle a tough situation from the point guard position I would pick Ron Steele," Gottfried said. "He's answered the bell consistently for our team. The good thing, too, about Ron is he's faced some pretty talented guards this year (even though) he hasn't played against a team that has pressed as much."

Steele talked about the task Wednesday with the view of a veteran.

"I think any team that presses is really vulnerable to layups and open shots," Steele said. "They're going to give us some layups, we've just got to convert, make our open shots and try to get to the basket, not just shoot jump shots all night."

That makes plenty of sense considering Alabama's 6-foot-10 Davidson and 6-7 Davis have the inside size advantage on UWM's Tigert (6-7) and Joah Tucker (6-5). Alabama's starters are bigger at every position except at shooting guard, where McCants and the Tide's Shelton are both 6-3.

"We just plan on giving our big guys the ball, giving them the opportunity to get it inside and make plays," Shelton said. "We feel like we're taller, we're athletic inside. We're just going to try to give them the ball so they can make plays for us."

Tigert said another factor working in Alabama's favor is that its players play even bigger than their height.

"Along with their size, they're extremely long," Tigert said. "That's not something we've really faced. We played Wisconsin and their big bodies - they have a lot of height - but they're not necessarily as long as Alabama is. That's going to be something different as far as what we've faced previously this year."

One problem for Alabama is the Panthers' ability to hit the outside shots. The Tide has struggled with its perimeter defense at times throughout the season. The biggest threat is McCants, who made 94-of-254 3-pointers this season and has an admirer in Gottfried.

"I think the impressive thing about him is he makes tough shots at key times," Gottfried said. "It's one thing to be a good scorer and it's another thing to be a guy that finds ways to put the dagger in you. He's done that many times. He's finding that tough shot at tough times."

If McCants makes enough of those shots today then Alabama could be in trouble. But the Tide also has plenty of offensive spark with the outside shooting of Shelton, the inside scoring of Davis and the inside-outside combination of Winston, who twisted his left ankle Monday but should be fine by tipoff.

"The expectations are high coming into this tournament and people expect us to do really well," Shelton said. "We expect ourselves to do really well but you've got to take it one game at a time. You can't go in trying to win three or four games. You've got to come in and take one game, one at a time."