Darth Vaden… UAB’s Basketball Jedi

I got a chance to watch ConferenceUSA University of Alabama at Birmingham play SEC-powerhouse University of Kentucky yesterday on national television (ESPN-HD).  What an exciting game!  The first half had the team down, but not out.  Something changed in the second half, and his name was Robert Vaden.

Vaden got fouled early in the 2nd half on a 3 point attempt and sank three consecutive free throws.  He then went on to make so many buckets that he seemed unstoppable.  After each score, the TV cameras cut to his mother screaming in the stands.  Then, he missed two and proved he was human under that uniform.  In the end, Mike Davis put the ball in the hands of the hottest shooter on the field.  Vaden sunk the go-ahead 3-pointer to put UAB on top for good at 79-76.

It was an exciting national game for Birmingham’s own university to play such a formidable opponent.  Thank goodness the national sports media refers to UAB as “UA-Birmingham” most of the time, so that Birmingham gets credit for fielding such a great team.  Now, if we could only get the University of Alabama system to rename the school like the UNC, UC, and UT systems do!!  Oh well, that’s fodder for another blog posting some day.

After watching (Robert) Darth Vaden outscore the entire Kentucky team at times in the 2nd half, I have a renewed interest in heading down to Bartow Arena.  Maybe I’ll see you all there!