It’s a tough day for the Blazer nation as the father of UAB athletics, Gene Bartow, passed away yesterday at age 81. “Clean Gene,” as he was known  put UAB on the map by building a basketball program from scratch in the late ’70’s and taking his teams to the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 in 1981 and ’82 respectively. He took his teams to 10 NCAA tournaments in 18 years. He retired from coaching in 1996. The basketball arena was named after Bartow in 1997 and is a gem still today nationally. My cousin, Craft, and I always comment on what a pleasure it is to drive 10 minutes from your home and see some quality college basketball.
Bartow brought football to UAB as well in 1991 and led them to FBS level in 1996.While the football program hasn’t achieved the success UAB fans would have hoped for, with the hiring of Garrick McGee, the future looks bright. Bartow also took UCLA and then Memphis State to the Final Four as coach in the 70’s leading the Tigers to the championship game in 1973 where they lost to Bill Walton, John Wooden and UCLA in a game where Walton may have put on one of the greatest individual performances in a national championship game as he scored 44 points.

As you know, Murry, Gene’s son, coached the basketball team from 1997-2002, and while Murry didn’t achieve the success he wanted to, he brought in some pretty quality players and ran a clean, respected program. Mike Anderson took over from Murry and reestablished the Blazers’ status in the college basketball world, taking them to the Sweet 16 in 2004. Mike Davis has taken over and has done a good job. He’s got some good players this year and could get into the tournament again. Should be exciting. Gene Bartow laid the foundation for UAB athletics and I’m sure all Blazers are most appreciative of the coach. He was a good one.

The Blazers (5-8) have a gotten off to a tough start, but I think they’ve refocused, particularly Davis. Davis suffered three tremendous tragedies when his mom and two nephews, whom he was close to, passed away between July to October of last year. He admitted that he just wasn’t into it early in the season, but went on to say that he owed it to his players and the UAB fans to refocus and now he’s back on track.

Blazers lost to an outstanding Florida team last night, 79-61. Florida was 15-27 from trifecta (55%), an incredible number. Erving Walker was seven-of-nine and Kenny Boynton was six-of-10 from triple range. They are very fine guards and could take the Gators a long way in March. Patric Young is a specimen at 6’9″, 250 and scored 15 inside and pulled down seven boards.

The Blazers fought hard though and cut a 20 point lead to nine with about five minutes to go. Cam Moore had 15 points and seven boards, point guard Quincy Taylor had 16 points, forward Ovie Soko had 13 and 12 boards. They’ve got some quality players. Jordan Swing of Vestavia Hills is a fine player who can shoot the three with the best of them when he’s on. Preston Purifoy needs to get better shooting, but he’s a quality player. Taylor looks like he’s settling in at point guard. He only had one turnover last night. The Blazers had been plagued by turnovers going into last night averaging 21 per game, but only had 10 last night, a good sign. Robert Williams is strong off the bench and freshman K.C. Whitaker sure likes to jack it up but also looks like a hustler and a guy who can get hot from three. That could help. There’s not a ton of depth which could be an issue, but they could be OK. It would be very helpful if St. Joseph’s transfer, Todd O’Brien, could play. The 7’0″ center would really help. St. Joseph’s is being petty about this not allowing him to play. Jay Bilas and Dickie V have both called out St. Joseph’s for their lack of integrity in this matter. He has graduated and has a fifth year, so St. Joseph’s should do the right thing and let him pursue basketball elsewhere. So far they have refused. If O’Brien can become eligible that would really help the Blazers immensely.

Next up is Memphis Saturday at Bartow. Eight PM on CBS College Sports. It would be nice to have a full house for the game. Craft, I’m interested if you have an extra ticket. Otherwise, I’ll drag somebody down there. Looking forward to this game. Would be huge for the Blazers. Tigers are 8-5, but have played a quality schedule. They’ve lost to No.9 Gtown twice, 91-88, in the Maui Tournament, and 70-59 at Georgetown. They lost to Louisville, 95-87, at the ‘Ville. ‘Ville is No.11. They lost to No. 16 Michigan, 73-61, at the Maui Invitational, but beat Tennessee there, 99-97, in overtime. They also lost to Murray State, which is No. 19, 76-72, at home. Those are all high quality teams that should go pretty deep in March. A couple of them, Louisville and Georgetown and even Murray State, are Final Four contenders. Memphis’s RPI is 34. UAB’s is 170, so they need to start winning a lot. Saturday would be a big step in the right direction. Memphis has won 11 in a row over UAB. Need to turn that around. Saturday presents a great opportunity.

‘Bama looked awesome last night but against a Georgia Tech team that has no clue how to play defense. Tide won 73-48 and I think it was a mixture of the Tide being a very good team and Georgia Tech, at least at this stage under a first year coach, a pretty bad team. But the Tide gained a lot of momentum heading into conference play this Saturday against Georgia. Tide at Georgia at 6 PM CT on CSS.

Tony Mitchell is playing like an NBA first round pick. He’s on fire. Mitchell had 14 points last night, but he was a huge factor with six rebounds and a couple of blocks. He had a couple of monster slams, too. He is terrific. JaMychal Green is back, which is good. He had nine and five. Trevor Releford is playing phenomenal basketball right now at the point. He was eight-of-eight from the field last night and had 17 points. He also had four assists and five boards. He’s another guy with NBA potential. Andrew Steele came back to the lineup for the first time since 2009 and it was good to see him. Steele could be big boost with his leadership and talent. He is a senior. He was two of two from the field and five of five from the free throw line. Charles Hankerson came in late and hit a couple of shots. I still think he’s a player. The freshmen are coming along and getting better. They’re going to have to help in conference play.

Good basketball team. Looks like a tourney team. The West looks to be between ‘Bama and State with LSU as a darkhorse.’Bama goes to State on Saturday, January 14, at 3 PM on the SEC Network. Both games with State will be huge. ‘Bama hosts LSU next Wed., Jan 11, at 8 PM on CSS. ‘Bama has a 23 RPI; good number.

Auburn ( 10-3) is playing pretty decent basketball right now. Their RPI is 196, so that needs to improve. Play at Florida State this afternoon at 5 on ESPN3. FSU is 8-5 and has lost to Florida, 82-64, UConn, 78-76 in overtime, and Harvard, 46-41. Those three are tournament teams. Harvard has been good in November and December so they could be a March team. FSU’s best win is probably over UMass, 73-53, though don’t know how good UMass is. Florida State has a couple of 6’10” guys so they can hit the boards. 6’10”, 240 Bernard James is averaging 10 points and nine boards. 6’11” Xavier Gibson is averaging 5.8 rebounds. Their leading scorer is Michael Snaer, who is averaging 13 points and four rebounds.

AU will then go to Vandy on Saturday for a 12:30 PM tipoff on the SEC Network and then play Kentucky at home at 7 PM next Wednesday on the SEC Network.

6’8″ forward Kenny Gabriel had a triple double against Bethune Cookman on Monday with 24 points, 13 boards and 10 blocked shots. Gabriel is averaging 12.8 points per game and 8.2 rebounds. Frankie Sullivan is averaging 12.5 and is 29-72 from trifecta (40%). Rob Chubb is averaging 10.6 and 4.5 rebounds. I’m sure Tony Barbee would like to see that rebounding number go up. Chris Denson is at 10.6 and Varez Ward is at 10. Auburn is shooting 33 percent from 3.

For the Blazers, Tide and Tigers they all need to shoot better. Blazers need to defend better from three or that may cost them. Blazers and Tide good defensive teams, particularly Tide. Tide needs to improve from three point land. They are shooting 70 percent from the line as are the Blazers. Auburn a little bit less than 70.

Should be another exciting year of basketball in the state. SEC looks very good this year. Kentucky has their usual load of five star freshmen on their roster led by Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Anthony Davis. They’ve also got sharpshooter Doron Lamb back, and while big man sophomore Terrence Jones has not played that well early, he should come on. ‘Cats will be tough. This Ky team doesn’t look as good to me as last couple of years– don’t think they shoot the ball as well– but they could come around in January. Calipari’s teams seem to improve and are ready come March. These freshmen are talented. Not the best shooters, but play exceptional defense and board well.

Florida looks excellent. With Walker and Boynton and a solid inside game led by Young, Florida is a legitimate contender for the crown like they usually are. Haven’t seen State play, but know they have a lot of talent. Vandy has four seniors who start and are talented. And their junior, John Jenkins, may be the best shooter in the country along with the guy for Wisconsin, Jordan Taylor. LSU will be better and probably pretty tough at home. Looks like a three team race in the East between Ky, Florida and Vandy, and a two team and maybe three team race in the West with State, ‘Bama and LSU. LSU is the darkhorse. If I had to pick  the conference and  tournament champions today, it’s between Florida and Kentucky with State, Bama and Vandy right there. Should be fun.

Wow, it came down to the kickers Monday Night and last night. Tires you out staying up for these games. Stanford’s kicker missed a 35 yarder that cost his team the Fiesta Bowl in regulation then missed a 43 yarder in overtime as Ok State beat Stanford, 41-38. And then Va Tech’s kicker missed from 37 in overtime after their wide receiver almost made a sensational catch in the end zone, but  was ruled to not have possession of the ball when he came down, which was the right call.The Michigan kicker made his kick (37 yards) to give the Wolverines the 23-20 overtime victory. Oklahoma State looks impressive offensively with Justin Blackmon a beast at wideout. Still, their defense is just not up to ‘Bama or LSU’s standards and I think both teams would beat them.

Thought Stanford’s offensive coordinator got too conservative and didn’t put the ball in Andrew Luck’s hands enough at the end of regulation and overtime. I think he cost them the game as much as their kicker did. Luck was sensational Monday Night completing something like 27-of-31 for over 347 yards and two TDs. He’s my first pick in the draft though it will be interesting to see what Indy does since Peyton could be around for three or four more years. Luck may not want to go to Indy either. Like Luck over RGIII in the draft with Trent right behind them. Not sure RGIII will be a great pro. He played against some pretty weak defenses in the Big 12, so his numbers were a little inflated by that. Trent is a sure thing in my opinion. He should go number three if Indy and St. Louis pick Luck and Griffin respectively. But both clubs have interesting decisions. St. Louis has Sam Bradford and they’ve invested 60 M guaranteed in him, so not sure what they’ll do with that. And of course Indy has Peyton. It’s rumored that if Indy were to trade their top pick they could get a couple of first round picks and two seconds for it. That is pretty enticing. Should be a fun draft. A lot of great players. Looking forward to seeing where the ‘Bama players go and how many will be in the first round. I look for Dont’a and Courtney to go along with Barron if he can get healthy.

(Gene Bartow passes away at 81; Tony Mitchell flying high for ‘Bama.)