Sweet Sixteen Preview – St. Louis Region
(4) Kansas vs. (9) UAB
After their upset of Kentucky and receiving national media coverage all week, the Blazers and their ’40 Fastest Minutes of Basketball’ are no longer one of the best kept secrets in college basketball. UAB’s reward after knocking off the top No. 1 seed in the tournament is a date with the No. 4 seeded Jayhawks, Friday night in St. Louis. Even more so than Kentucky, Kansas will attempt to combat the Blazers up-tempo style by slowing the game down and dumping the ball inside to Wayne Simien and Jeff Graves. If Kansas is going to win this game, it will likely be thanks to Simien. He has been relatively quiet during KU’s first two tourney wins, if you can consider 15.5 points and 10.5 rebounds relatively quiet. He has controlled the glass and scored when needed, which has not been too often. Friday though Kansas will need to see the Simien that torched Missouri for 31 points in the Big 12 tournament.
While the Blazers starting guards of Carldrell “Squeaky” Johnson and Morris Finley are receiving all the attention from the media, the Blazers are a very deep squad in the front and backcourt. Gabe Kennedy is the team’s best true big man and has a complete game of scoring, rebounding and defense. Sidney Ball is more of an outside shooter on offense, but will guard the big men and also is a good rebounder. These two will be the primary defenders on Graves and Simien. On the perimeter, Johnson and Finley will face another challenge in Aaron Miles, Keith Langford and J.R. Giddens. Both units are solid. Keys to look for in the game: turnovers and spurts. The Blazers win by not necessarily forcing a large number of turnovers, but by having a big disparity in turnover margin. If the Jayhawks can force as many as turnovers as they commit, they are in good shape. As UK found out, if you let the Blazers hang around they will bite you in the end. Spurts, especially late, will be crucial. A player like Giddens, who can get extremely hot from outside, could make the difference.
