UAH sets sights on historic NIT opportunity

Harry · November 12, 2012

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- During the sneaker-squeaking symphony of a recent basketball practice, Lennie Acuff abruptly halted drills.

"Fellas, North Texas is gonna ..." and he proceeded to explain in detail an upcoming opponent's tendencies.

The UAHuntsville basketball coach was going totally against the "one-game-at-a-time" grain, what with the Chargers' opening night date with Point Loma Nazarene, a school on a lovely chunk of land above San Diego.

That formality has now been handled.

UAH, ranked No. 3 in the nation in NCAA Division II, methodically but hardly masterfully knocked off the Sea Lions 58-44 Friday night in an uber-physical game at Spragins Hall.

"A good start for us," said Acuff, who played 13 different players and used nearly that many different lineup combinations.

The attention can now turn to North Texas and the most ambitious stretch of scheduling in UAH history with its imminent appearance in the NIT Season Tip-Off.

Not that attention hasn't been there already.

"It's been hard," senior forward Zane Campbell confessed. "Sometimes you'll catch yourself thinking about 'Monday night, Monday night.' We had to fight not to skip over this game because they were a tough team and we needed to be prepared."

The Chargers are the first Division II team invited to the Tip-Off. They'll be facing North Texas, the Sun Belt Conference preseason favorite, Monday at 9:30 (CST) in Manhattan, Kans. UAH will face either host Kansas State or Lamar on Tuesday. Two more NIT games, site and opponents to be determined, await the following week.

The Mean Green is led by NBA-draftee-to-be Tony Mitchell, a 6-foot-8 sophomore forward who was picked as Sun Belt preseason player of the year.

UAH assistant coach David Ivey recently scouted a North Texas exhibition game and said Mitchell was "a combination of JaMychal Green and the Tony Mitchell from Alabama."

Read more: http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2012/11/uah_opens_with_victory_over_po.html