Patience Paid Off for UAB’s McPherson When Blazers Needed It Most
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - January 4, 2026
Waiting for his turn is not quite the most accurate term for the way that Quaran McPherson spent his first 14 games on the UAB basketball roster. Working for his turn is probably a better description.
McPherson, a 6-foot-4 transfer from Northern Illinois, played in 12 of the first 14 games but it wasn’t always with as big of a role as expected. His season-high in points, prior to Sunday’s 109-106 double overtime win at South Florida, was 11 in a victory over High Point and the most he played in the game was 21 in a blowout win over UNC Asheville. McPherson played just three minutes and didn’t record a stat in the American Conference opening loss to Wichita State.
Through it all, McPherson went through the daily grind of college basketball and generally gave the team a spark when on the floor.
“Like Coach (Andy Kennedy) says, it's about our approach to the game every day,” McPherson said. “Are you going to come in and work every day? If you don't want to work, you're going to lose. So it's all on how you approach it every day and just continue to build as a team (and) individually.”
On Sunday, in the 15th game of UAB’s season, Kennedy played a hunch and started McPherson for the first time this season. The work paid off. McPherson hit three 3-pointers in just over a minute during the first half of what turned into a double overtime victory at South Florida. The first was a contested shot from the left corner and he followed with a wide open 3-pointer from the top of the key on the next possession. Not long after, he found himself wide open from the top of the key in transition and he drilled another long-range shot. That probably wasn’t part of the South Florida scouting report worries considering McPherson was 2-for-12 on 3-pointers coming into the game.
“Coach got me in the game, let me take advantage of the moment and I just knocked ’em down,” said McPherson, who may have earned his second UAB start when the Blazers play host to FAU on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in an American Conference game at Bartow Arena. “Trust your work, that's all that was. Coach, most of the time, he has me on scout team (in practice). So with that, it’s given me an advantage to continue to work on my offensive game. If it's against the (other) team or if it's against our team in practice, I'm able to still take this same shot like it actually was in practice.”
The key buckets kept coming. Early in the second half, he hit a runner in the lane and followed with his fourth 3-pointer. In the final seconds over overtime, McPherson took a pass from Ahmad Robinson in the left corner, dribbled away from a defender and hit a 17-footer to tie the game.
“I was going to shoot a three at first, but I caught it and I kind of bobbled it,” said McPherson, who finished with a season-high 17 points. “(The defender) closed out kind of hard and he gave me the right hand. Coach preaches to us to take your strong hand. I’m right-handed, so I went right, pulled up and knocked it down.”
For McPherson it’s just the latest big game in a basketball journey that started on the playgrounds of Queens, New York.
“I've always been around basketball, that's been my outlet,” McPherson said. “That's what I love to do, just play basketball. And that's what everybody in my family does. So, my family was like, “Alright, cool, Q, it's your turn now to go play.’ I just did my thing. I always played up and then as I got older, never played against nobody my age. When I played against my age, it was too easy, so it's like no point even playing against them. Playing against older competition, you test your skills against them to see where you can get better. Most of the time, it kind of helped me.”
He weaved his way through high school, beginning as a freshman at national powerhouse St. Patrick School in New Jersey before coming back closer to home at Christ the King in Brooklyn. He was a standout as a sophomore but suffered a knee injury as a junior.
“That's where I kind of like, I had the keys just to play,” McPherson said. “I was just scoring, scoring, scoring, just playing games, getting high recruited. And then from there, I got hurt. From that point, my dad was like, do you want to go back to (the same) school? He thought, for me, it was going to be like a harder task. Like, I’m going to have to come back and have a bigger role, score. At that point, I was already averaging in the 20s, as a sophomore. I got hurt my junior year. He was like, let's try to move you to a point guard.”
So McPherson became a big point guard at Woodstock Academy in Connecticut before looking for a college home.
“Then, Covid happens, shuts the world down,” McPherson said.
McPherson looked for prep school options and ended up what seemed like a world away from home in Branson, Mo. at Link Academy. After playing there and scoring 19 points a game for a team that made the post-graduate national championship game, he signed to play at Nebraska. McPherson redshirted as a true freshman and expected to play a role the following year. But, his second season never got underway because of an ACL injury suffered in preseason work. He moved on to Northern Illinois, where he played in 13 games with one start in 2023-34. Last season, McPherson averaged 12.1 points and five rebounds in 23 appearances with 12 starts.
He decided to move once again after last season and landed in Birmingham.
“For me, it's a new challenge,” McPherson said. “It's always a challenge for me. It's like, how you going to attack it? You going to lay down and go with it? Or are you going to go out there and do what you got to do? You got to be ready. Always stay ready. You don't ever know when your number is going to be called I feel like that's like me also being older than some players is part of that. You got to mature. You can't always think about yourself, it's about the team. But of course, you individually want to do good, but it’s what is good for the team at that moment.”