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BREAKING NEWS: Gary Williams sprouts feathers - BlazerFromMD - 06-07-2007 10:24 PM
Apparently Coach Williams is :feathers:
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B'ham News info on Bball schedule
Schools avoid playing Blazers
Thursday, June 07, 2007STEVE IRVINENews staff writer
The lofty expectations that UAB men's basketball coach Mike Davis has for his team apparently has carried outside Birmingham.
Davis said on Wednesday that he's having a difficult time filling the non-conference portion of the schedule for next season. One reason, according to Davis, is that transfers Robert Vaden, Walter Sharpe and Channing Toney will be eligible and heading up a stellar group of first-year UAB players.
"The first mistake I made last year was sitting those three guys in suits at every game," Davis said while speaking at the Birmingham Rotary Club luncheon at the Harbert Center on Wednesday. "When they saw those three guys sitting down there, coaches know that next year that UAB is going to be a very good basketball team."
Partly because of that, Davis said, filling out a schedule has been difficult.
"We've called team after team after team and (most have) said no," Davis said. "We've called (teams from the) ACC, Big Ten, SEC, Big 12, all the major conferences."
Davis said during his talk at the luncheon that he's spoken to every SEC school except for Alabama and Tennessee and none have agreed to play the Blazers. Other schools he mentioned that have been contacted include Georgia Tech, Kansas and Maryland but, according to Davis, that is just a few of many. Davis said that he is seeking home-and-home series but would accept two road trips for one home game.
"We're not in a situation where we can be choosy but we want to make sure we have enough home games to keep our fans excited," said Davis, whose team played nine road games in a 14-game non-conference schedule. "Last year we didn't have enough home games. It was like we never had a (home) season."
Road trips currently scheduled for the upcoming season are a trip to South Florida, which is the third game in a four-game series, the start of a home-and-home series with Wichita State in late December and the final three days of the Glenn Wilkes Classic Tournament in Daytona Beach. At this point, UAB is slated to open the tournament with a home game against Stetson and then play Rhode Island, Georgia Southern and Florida State in Daytona Beach.