1980–81 UAB Blazers men's basketball team
American college basketball season / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 1980–81 UAB Blazers men's basketball team represented the University of Alabama at Birmingham as a member of the Sun Belt Conference during the 1980–81 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. This was head coach Gene Bartow's third season at UAB, and the Blazers played their home games at BJCC Coliseum. They finished the season 23–9, 9–3 in Sun Belt play and fell in the championship game of the Sun Belt tournament. They received an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament as No. 7 seed in the Mideast region. After beating No. 10 seed Western Kentucky in the opening round, UAB upset No. 2 seed Kentucky to reach the Sweet Sixteen. The Blazers fell to No. 3 seed and eventual National champion Indiana in the Mideast regional semifinal, 87–72.[1]
1980–81 UAB Blazers men's basketball | |
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Conference | Sun Belt Conference |
Record | 23–9 (9–3 Sun Belt) |
Head coach |
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Home arena | BJCC Coliseum |
Seasons |
Conf | Overall | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Team | W | L | PCT | W | L | PCT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
VCU † | 9 | – | 3 | .750 | 24 | – | 5 | .828 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
South Alabama | 9 | – | 3 | .750 | 25 | – | 6 | .806 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
UAB | 9 | – | 3 | .750 | 23 | – | 9 | .719 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
South Florida | 7 | – | 5 | .583 | 18 | – | 11 | .621 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jacksonville | 4 | – | 8 | .333 | 8 | – | 19 | .296 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
UNC Charlotte | 3 | – | 9 | .250 | 10 | – | 17 | .370 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Georgia State | 1 | – | 11 | .083 | 4 | – | 23 | .148 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
† 1981 Sun Belt Conference tournament winner Rankings from AP Poll |
This season marked Coach Bartow's first trip (of nine total) to the NCAA tournament as coach of the Blazers, and started a string of seven consecutive bids to the “Big Dance.”