UAB’s talented point guard Nick Norton has been at three schools in three years.
Before one prematurely concludes the 19-year-old can’t find a home for his basketball talents, it should be noted that his dad, Randy Norton, – the current UAB women’s basketball coach - has something to do with the “let’s get out the GPS and see where we go next” lifestyle.
Nick, a true freshman starting guard, and his 5.4 point per game and 2.4 assists per game average and his UAB Blazer teammates (4-7) are in town tonight to face the UTC Mocs (6-6) in a non-conference game at McKenzie Arena.
Norton brings to McKenzie Arena an impressive prep resume as he earned first team all-state in Illinois a year ago and led Central Catholic HS (Bloomington, Ill.) to the 2014 2a state title and was also first team all-state as a junior for Rock Bridge HS in Columbia, Mo. while his dad was an assistant women’s coach for the U. of Missouri. Randy is in his second season as UAB’s head coach.
UAB holds a 10-2 series advantage and has won the last four meetings, including a 67-52, win in Birmingham last December.
It should be a battle of the guards as UTC’s talented duo of Greg Pryor and Ronrico White have the assignment to slow down the Blazer freshman from adding to his 48 season assists and 17 steals.
Pryor, who is averaging 11 ppg, 2 assists and just under 2 steals a game, has four consecutive multi-steal games. He’s pilfered 19 in the last seven games, a 2.7 average.
White is scoring at a 9.8 a game clip with 35 assists and eight steals.
Norton leads Conference USA in assists/turnover ratio (2.82)
Mocs Leaders: UTC is led in scoring by Casey Jones (12.6 ppg) and Justin Tuoyo leads in rebounding (64, 5.3) and blocks (37, 3.0).
UAB is led by Robert Brown with 13.1 ppg, while Tosin Mehinti has 7.5 ppg and 4.1 rbpg and 21 blocked shots. (3.0).
Mocs Notes: UTC is 17-3 at home under Will Wade ... The Mocs and Blazers have one common opponent, Wisconsin. UTC lost 89-45 at UW, while UAB dropped a 72-43 decision in the Bahamas.
contact B.B. Branton at william.branton@comcast.net