This being the first week of March means sports fans are about to enjoy one of the most exciting seasons of the year – March Madness.  This go ‘round, it looks like the UAB Blazers will be the state’s best chance of grabbing some attention from basketball fans once the ball is tipped off.

Although selection Sunday is still a few weeks away, already there are a number of reasons that the Blazers should already be penciled in.  There is no way to predict what might happen in the Conference USA tournament, but one can only assume, based on what the Blazers have done so far this season, that they will grab another win or two and will land a fairly nice spot in the opening round brackets.

This week will be a challenge for Coach Mike Davis and his squad closing out their season against Memphis mid-week, then UTEP on Saturday – two teams that the Blazers lost to a little over a month ago.  While UAB presently enjoys a 23-5 record, a win in one or both of these last two contests should spark the green and gold for bigger and better things before they wrap up their 2009-2010 campaign.

Questions abounded when, right out of the gate, UAB lost in their second game of the season at Kent State.  But the Blazer, one of only 17 teams nationally to have 23 wins this season, ran off a string of 10 straight victories before slipping up to Virginia by 9 on New Year’s Eve.

The Blazers hit a dry spell during the first two weeks of February, dropping 3 out of 4 games.

Still, UAB has a non-conference strength of schedule rated at No. 31 and enjoyed wins over non-Conference USA teams like Georgia (72-56), Cincinnati (64-47), Butler (67-57) and a one-point road win at Arkansas (73-72). And how about this for a statistic – since UAB downed Butler on December 22, the Bulldogs have not lost a game, racking up 18 straight wins.

Twice this season, the Blazers have been ranked among the top 25 teams in the AP basketball poll, and have had six wins over teams with an RPI top-100 rating.

UAB is averaging almost 70 points per game, they hit one out of every three 3-pointers they shoot, and they use a lot of players.

Bottom line, the team from the Southside of Birmingham is fun to watch. At the present time, coach Mike Anderson has the highest winning percentage of any UAB head coach, second only to Mike Anderson, and he has put this team in position to have more victories in one season than any other Blazer team in history, including the 1982 Blazers who made it all the way to the Elite 8. That team went 25-6.

No one knows for sure what might happen once conference tournaments begin, but UAB hasn’t been “dancing” since 2005-2006, and based on what we have seen from our other state schools, they should garner quite a following over the next several weeks.

Hit ‘em straight

Dale Jones is a staff writer for The Islander. Reach him at djones@gulfcoastnewspapers.com.