UAB retaining their talent is awesome... and important

Welcome to Don’t Forget About Us. The world’s first (unconfirmed) newsletter dedicated to mid-major basketball. We’ll get started with transfer portal talk soon, but first…

Did you know?

UAB is 1-0 all-time against Alabama, beating them 58-56 in the first round of the 1993 NIT. UAB took home “bronze” in the tournament, beating Providence in the third-place game. They also beat Clemson and Southwest Missouri State.

I mention UAB because today we’ll be talking about…

On the Docket:

UAB is running it back: After winning a share of the AAC Championship and making the NCAA Tournament, UAB has retained most of its talent, which is important.

Country Roads take me home… to Akron: Akron has added three transfers who used to play for West Virginia. Here’s how they can help Akron turn heads in postseason play.

One Big Thing…

UAB is running it back… and it rules

This felt borderline unimaginable after UAB’s end of the season.

After winning the AAC Conference Tournament to book their ticket to the NCAA Tournament, it seemed like some of their players, including forward Yaxel Lendeborg, would be hot priorities in the transfer portal and could move to the high-major level.

However, Lendeborg wasted no time, announcing on March 26 that he would be running it back with the Blazers.

It wasn’t just Lendeborg, though. Efrem Johnson and Alejandro Vasquez are also returning, as is key reserve Christian Coleman, who averaged 19.3 minutes per game.

NIL and collectives are double-edged swords for mid-majors. Sure, high-major programs have more money and resources, making them potential vultures for the top mid-major talents. However, it also allows mid-major programs to offer opportunities that keep talented players on the roster.

This is good news for mid-major basketball, but it’s also good news for college basketball. With all that’s changing around college basketball, seeing a player loyal to the school he committed to is refreshing. And it only helps to make the sport competitive across the board.

Andy Kennedy and his staff didn’t stop there, though. They dipped into the transfer portal, adding Iona transfer Greg Gordon and Georgia Southern transfer Tyren Moore.

The latter is the one that has me most excited. Moore proved last season that he can be a lethal individual scorer, averaging 17 points on 60.5% true shooting. However, he’s also a reliable point guard, posting a 25.6% assist percentage. These two things combined should add another dimension to the UAB offense and give them a solid replacement for Eric Gaines.

None of these things will guarantee UAB another piece of the AAC crown, but they’re in better shape than most. Schools like USF and FAU are undergoing full roster rebuilds after the transfer portal left them with few players under scholarship, and it’s hard to predict either to see similar success to last season.

But UAB has a roster that should have people ecstatic, especially with Lendeborg returning for another season.

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Let’s talk about Akron

No seriously, let’s discuss what Akron is doing in the transfer portal because it is legitimately interesting.

I’ve often thought that taking a bunch of high-major drop-downs isn’t a sound strategy, but I don’t have any numbers to support this claim. However, Akron has decided not to listen to me, taking three players with ties to West Virginia.

Seth Wilson and Josiah Harris come directly from the Mountaineers, while James Okonkwo transfers from North Carolina, where he played one season after transferring from West Virginia.

Wilson is a borderline perfect fit with Akron. He’s proven to be a reliable three-point shooter over the last two seasons, and Akron attempted 23.6 three-pointers per game. Their reliance on the long ball made them an intriguing Cinderella in the NCAA Tournament, but it’s also what ended their run, as the Zips shot just 6-of-28 against Creighton.

The same can be said for Josiah Harris, who shot 44.7% from three during Big 12 play last season.

Okonkwo didn’t play much for North Carolina last season, but he’s shown flashes of being a high-level defender during his time at West Virginia.

Akron ranked 138th in adjusted defense, according to KenPom, so Okonkwo should fix that. I think he helps Akron defend the rim, which was a major problem for them last season.

While I’m not in the business of naming conference champions in mid-April, I will say this: Akron will be a dangerous team if they make it to the NCAA Tournament.

Of course, it’ll all depend on how well they shoot the ball, but they have high-level shooters who could get hot at the right point. That might be all that it takes.

Some closing thoughts…

• High Point has the makings of a program that could be incredibly competitive in postseason play. I loved the acquisition of Bobby Pettiford from ECU, and he joins a roster that returns most of their key contributors from last season.

• This commitment didn’t gain much national attention, but Robert Morris acquiring Gannon (Division II)’s Josh Omojafo is intriguing. Omojafo is a bouncy guard who averaged 20 points per game for an incredibly talented Gannon team. I think that scoring can translate to the D1 level, and it wouldn’t shock me if we’re discussing him as an intriguing player in a few months.