ROCK HILL, S.C. — UAB opens its 2026-27 men’s basketball season Monday against McNeese in the Field of 68 Opening Day Marathon at the Rock Hill Sports & Event Center. Tipoff is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. CT, with the game streaming on YouTube.
The opener pits UAB coach Andy Kennedy against a familiar face on the other bench. McNeese second-year coach Bill Armstrong is a 2001 UAB graduate who played for the Blazers from 1998 to 2001, when Kennedy was a UAB assistant coach, and served as a UAB graduate assistant in 2001-02. Kennedy later hired Armstrong at Ole Miss.
McNeese enters the season off a 28-6 campaign that included a third straight Southland Conference tournament championship and NCAA Tournament appearance. Sophomore guard Larry Johnson returns after averaging 17.4 points per game as a freshman, when he broke Joe Dumars’ 44-year-old McNeese freshman scoring record with 597 points. Armstrong added six high-major transfers, the most in school history.
UAB, meanwhile, starts nearly from scratch. Sophomore guard Salim London is the only returning player from last season’s roster; the Blazers welcome 11 newcomers. London, a Hoover native, appeared in all 32 games as a freshman with 12 starts and averaged 4.9 points per game.
Kennedy is 145-62 at UAB with six straight 20-win seasons. Among the newcomers, scoring threats include Justyn Fernandez, Deuce Jones and Elijah Duval, with size inside from 6-foot-11 center Matt Mbole and 6-foot-10 forward Aleks Alston.
UAB makes its home debut Friday against Nicholls at 6:30 p.m. at Bartow Arena, on ESPN+.