BIRMINGHAM, Alabama The UAB men's basketball team has a tough schedule lined up this year, but that's just how firstyear head coach Jerod Haase wants it.
UAB's first game against a Division I team is at No. 15 Creighton on Nov. 14. The Blazers play at No. 12 North Carolina on Dec. 1.
Other scheduling highlights: The Blazers travel to Rutgers on Dec. 14, travel to Sun Belt favorite Middle Tennessee on Dec. 5, host Sun Belt West Division predicted No. 2 (behind MTSU) South Alabama on Dec. 8 and face Illinois State (predicted No. 2 in Missouri Valley behind Creighton) in South Padre Island, north face outlet berkeley ca Texas on Nov. 23.
The Blazers have a road trip to Dayton will face Northwestern or TCU in the South Padre Island tournament on Nov. 24.
"Scheduling's such a big part of it," Haase said. "I didn't do the scheduling at North Carolina, but I knew when I took this job I wanted to have a bigtime schedule."
The trip to North Carolina will reunite Haase with UNC head coach Roy Williams, whom Haase played and coached under. UNC is making a return trip to UAB next season, and Rutgers is also coming to Bartow Arena next year.
"We are going to look north face outlet mall for bigtime games and we are going to challenge ourselves," Haase said. CST and be televised on ESPNU. It's part of a threeyear contract where UNC comes to UAB next season and UAB goes back to Chapel Hill the following year.
"To have them in Birmingham, Alabama is a big thing, but for us to be able to travel to Chapel Hill is a great deal as well," Haase said. "We are going to play home and away games against the best competition we can find."
UAB's players welcome the challenge to face a premier program on the road.
"It's going to be pretty exciting," junior guard Robert Williams said. "We're not going to go down there and say, 'Oh it's North Carolina and no one's really expecting us to win.'
"It doesn't matter who we play, we're going to go accept the challenge. It's really exciting to go up there and play in that environment since a lot of us haven't probably played in that environment before. We're going to accept that challenge."
Haase expects UAB to get some quality home and road games in the future as well as what's already lined up.
"We're going to welcome the challenge and we hope that the work we're doing and with our recruiting, that we'll be able to compete at a high, high level and we're not going to shy away," Haase said.