Men's Basketball

UH preps for talented UAB

The path gets no easier for the Cougars this time of year.

After stumbling on a difficult road trip this past week, the Cougars come home to take on UAB at 5 p.m. Saturday at Hofheinz Pavilion.

The Cougars (12-14, 4-9 Conference USA) will have to handle a UAB team that is tied at the top of the conference with Memphis and Southern Miss.

Senior forward Maurice McNeil said the Cougars’ ability to hang in with Memphis could benefit them against the Blazers.

“You definitely learn from it,” McNeil said. “We know we can compete with the top teams in the conference. We just need to calm down and get this win at home.”

Zamal Nixon said despite the fact that the Cougars lost both games on the road trip, he still sees promise.

“Even though we lost both games, I think we’re taking a lot of the proper steps towards the direction we need to go,” Nixon said. “We’re playing decent but not well enough to win.”

UAB (19-7, 9-4 C-USA), has gone 7-3 in its last 10 C-USA games. The blazers are coming off a 63-58 victory against UCF.

Saturday’s matchup against the Cougars will have added significance since the Blazers still have a chance to finish atop the standings.

“We’re not going to finish as high as we thought we could,” head coach James Dickey said. “That’s disappointing but there’s nothing we can do about that. What we can do is control how much better we can get in practice and how we prepare for the next game. That’s the approach we’re going to take.”

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