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2015 NCAA Tournament: Who The Heck Are The UAB Blazers

By Daniel Tran

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The 2015 NCAA Tournament has their first Cinderella story coming out of the South Region, who turned a lot of heads after their win against Iowa State.

Buried deep in SEC country lies the other Alabama university that is capturing the intrigue (and, in many cases, anger) of college basketball fans across the nation. Look out, America. The University of Alabama-Birmingham is coming for your bracket.

UAB was looked at as a formality by most experts going against a strong Iowa State Cyclones team. However, the Blazers proved that even a 14 seed is something to be reckoned with in college basketball’s greatest spectacle.

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After falling victim to Iowa State’s stout defense early in the game, UAB recovered from the haymaker that the Cyclones delivered and started handing out punishment of their own.

UAB began to assert themselves on the boards and fought their way back into the game even though their shots weren’t falling consistently. The Blazers showed great resolve on the glass, grabbing 18 offensive rebounds and getting extra possessions to catch up to Iowa State.

By the end of the game, UAB outrebounded Iowa State 51-34 for an astounding 17 rebounding advantage. Down the stretch, UAB was unfazed by the pressure, with Robert Brown and William Lee hitting go-ahead shots with less than a minute left to win the game for the Blazers.

If you were not expecting that kind of production from them, you would not be the only one, nor would it be completely unjustified.

The Conference USA dweller took an interesting route to the NCAA Tournament. UAB started by playing a ridiculous non-conference schedule by losing to teams like Wisconsin, Florida, UCLA, LSU, and North Carolina. They recovered during conference play, but still finished tied for fourth in the league.

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    • Still, they caught fire in the Conference USA Tournament and secured the conferences only NCAA Tournament bid by winning the conference tournament title. With a Kenpom ranking of 122, and strength of schedule of -0.76, they weren’t expected to make any sort of noise in the 2015 NCAA Tournament.

    However, their prowess on the glass that led to their huge win against the Cyclones should not be any surprise. They are the 35th best rebounding team in the nation, which results in 1907 field goal attempts (38th most in the nation).

    UAB may not have been known to many outside of Birmingham before the faced off against Iowa State, but believe me when I say that the rest of the region and many fans with crumpled up brackets know who they are now.

    Next: Dayton Wins Controversial First Four Home Game

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