Gene Bartow Game Features 2 of his 3 Elite 8 Schools - UAB vs UCLA

Results UAB 2025 vs. UCLA 2008 in the (Gene Bartow Memorial) to follow when game is complete here:

Yaxel Lendeborg (16 points, 9 rebounds) put up an epic battle against Kevin Love (11 points, 11 rebounds) and Tony Toney's 3-pointer with 2 minutes to play pulled UAB to 78-77. However UCLA held on for an 84-78 win to advance.

We will add the result here after, but the reason we were happy the seeds in our 16 games between a 2025 new Value Add Basketball Game and one of the 16 teams still alive in the All-Time Great Player tournament yield UAB vs. UCLA is to tell the story of Gene Bartow.

This UAB 2025 team does not have anyone at the level of one of the greatest of all time that their UCLA 2008 opponent has in one of the greatest players of all time in Russell Westbrook, or even his excellent teammates from that year Kevin Love or Darren Collison, so heavy favorite today for the team Bartow left to head to UAB.

 

Gene Bartow’s Astonishing Decade: From Memphis State to UCLA to UAB

We’ll add the result of our 2025 Value Add Basketball Game matchup later, but the reason we were so delighted that the seedings produced UAB vs. UCLA in our 16-game All-Time Great Player tournament is simple: it lets us revisit the incredible story of Gene Bartow.

A feature in the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star in my hometown once retold one of the wildest games of the early ’80s: UAB’s first-ever recruit, Oliver Robinson Jr., outscoring 7-foot-4 National Player of the Year Ralph Sampson. That game capped perhaps the most remarkable 10-year stretch any college basketball coach has ever produced.

The Rise at Memphis State

Just a decade earlier, Bartow took over a Memphis State team that opened his tenure 0–3. From there he orchestrated a stunning turnaround—upsetting three top-10 opponents, getting Memphis into the AP Top 10 for the first time in school history, and leading them to their first ever Final Four.

The Toughest Job in Sports History

After that success, Bartow was handed what many still call the toughest coaching assignment in sports: replacing John Wooden at UCLA. Wooden had just completed the greatest run in college basketball history, yet Bartow led UCLA right back to the Final Four in 1976, where the Bruins lost only to the last undefeated national champion in men's basketball: Bobby Knight’s 1976 Indiana Hoosiers.

Building UAB from Scratch

Next came an even bigger challenge. Bartow flew to Birmingham to build a program from scratch at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). His first recruit? Oliver Robinson Jr.

In only the program’s second year, UAB reached the Sweet 16. In year three came the shocker: UAB 68, Virginia 66, sending the Blazers to the Elite Eight and putting Bartow one win away from taking three different programs to the Final Four—something no coach had ever done, and something he nearly completed in just 10 years.

Only Two Coaches Have Ever Accomplished It

Only two coaches have managed to lead three schools to the Final Four, and both took much longer:

• Rick Pitino – 18 years (Providence 1987, Kentucky 1993, Louisville 2005)

• John Calipari – 15 years (UMass 1996, Memphis 2008, Kentucky 2011)

Bartow almost beat both of them to the achievement—and in a much tighter time frame.

Why This UAB Team Appears in the Game

Creating accurate cards from earlier eras can be difficult, or we would have loved to include the 1982 UAB team here. But with UAB giving defending national runner-up San Diego State a scare two years ago, then making a dramatic Elite Eight NIT run last year, and nearly toppling UC Irvine to reach Madison Square Garden this past season, it felt like time for a modern UAB entry in the Value Add Basketball Game.

And fittingly, the Blazers draw one of Gene Bartow’s former Final Four teams—UCLA—even if it’s long after his time there.

UVa Starters	MP	FG	FT	FTA	Reb	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
Ralph Sampson	37	8	3	6	21	2	0	2	1	4	19
Jeff Jones	33	9	0	0	1	4	0	0	4	3	18
Tim Mullen	30	3	1	1	3	1	0	0	2	5	7
Jim Miller	26	3	4	4	5	1	0	0	3	4	10
Craig Robinson	21	2	2	2	4	0	0	0	6	3	6
Reserves	MP	FG	FT	FTA	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
Ricky Stokes	26	1	0	1	3	2	2	0	0	2	2
Kenton Edelin	23	2	0	3	7	2	2	0	2	3	4
Othell Wilson	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
School Totals	200	28	10	17	44	12	4	2	18	24	66
UAB Starters	MP	FG	FT	FTA	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
Oliver Robinson Jr	40	8	7	7	5	9	1	0	5	2	23
Chris Giles	40	2	1	2	6	2	1	0	2	3	5
Luellen Foster	37	4	4	5	3	4	2	0	0	1	12
Jonathan Nicholas	27	4	3	4	5	0	2	1	0	3	11
Norm Anchrum	27	2	1	3	3	0	1	2	2	3	5
Reserves	MP	FG	FT	FTA	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
Donny Speer	16	4	2	2	2	0	1	1	2	4	10
Craig Lane	7	0	2	2	1	1	0	0	0	1	2
Raymond Gause	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
School Totals	200	24	20	25	25	16	8	4	11	18	68

a;kald