Steve Irvine Previews UAB MBB vs Tulsa
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - January 18, 2026
UAB returns to Bartow Arena on Sunday for a critical American Conference game against Tulsa. Is coming back home good news or bad news for the Blazers?
Surprisingly, UAB struggled at home during the early portion of American Conference play. The Blazers are spotless on the road, winning all three games, but dropped both of their games at Bartow Arena. They head into their sixth game of the conference season, which tips off today at 2 p.m., sitting in a sixth-place tie with Charlotte. But they are also just one game in the loss column after being tied with the league leaders.
“I told our guys, I just told them, we're still in the hole that we dug,” UAB head coach Andy Kennedy said after Friday’s practice. “You know, we dug it and then we fell in it. We're still not out of that hole yet. And one of the reasons is we have not done a good job of protecting home court. That's got to change. Hopefully it will Sunday.”
Historically speaking, the Blazers have done a good job of protecting home court in Kennedy’s tenure. Over the first five seasons, Kennedy’s teams were 74-13 at home overall and 39-7 during conference play. Only two of his teams prior to this season have lost twice in conference play at Bartow Arena. The only time a Kennedy-coached UAB team lost back-to-back home games in conference came in 2022-23 when the Blazers dropped Conference USA contests to Western Kentucky (80-78) and North Texas (63-52). The only time his team dropped more than two games during the entire season came in 2023-24 when the Blazers finished 12-5 at Bartow Arena. This year’s team has four home losses thus far with the two conferences losses and setbacks to Alabama State and Troy.
The next opportunity to get back on track at home comes against a Tulsa team that put together the most successful non-conference performance among American conference teams. The Golden Hurricane was 12-1 entering conference play but are just 2-2 in The American. Tulsa is coming off a road win at Charlotte on Wednesday.
“They're really good,” said Kennedy, whose team is 12-6 overall. “I don't want to speak for another man on his team, but it's the most successful team (in Eric Konkol’s four-year tenure) to this point in the season.”
Tulsa leads the nation in 3-point shooting efficiency and sixth in the country in free throw percentage. As a team, Tulsa has 175 3-pointers and are shooting 39.3 percent outside the arc. Tulsa has six players hitting over 37 percent from outside the arc. UAB has just one player – Salim London at 38.9 percent – shooting better than 37 percent. Tulsa shoots 78.8 percent from the free throw line and has made more free throws (345) than every other team in The American except for South Florida (364). UAB is third in the conference in free throws made (314) and the Blazers are shooting 70.9 percent from the line.
“They’re really dynamic,” Kennedy said. “And they've got a young man that we're somewhat familiar with because he was at Louisiana Tech with Eric earlier in our tenure here, David Green, who has just been lights out, especially in league play. He's been good all year, but in league play, he's putting up monster numbers.”
Green, a 6-foot-7, 225-pound graduate student, spent two seasons at Louisiana Tech under Konkol and the past two seasons at Rhode Island. In four conference games this season, Green is averaging 23.2 points and 5.2 per game and made 11-of-17 3-pointers. He made 66 percent of his shots overall and is shooting 64.7 percent from outside the 3-point arc. He had 34 points in a home loss to South Florida. Overall, Green averages 16.1 points and 4.9 rebounds per game.
Green is one of three double digit scorers for Tulsa. Point guard Tylen Riley averages 14.5 points and 3.6 assists and Miles Barnstable averages 13.7 points. Barnstable leads the team with 41 3-pointers and Ade Popoola is next with 36 3-pointers.