BIRMINGHAM – On April 6, head coach Andy Kennedy announced the addition of Philip Pearson, Ryan Cross and Sidney Ball to his men’s basketball staff.
UABSports.com will provide fans with an introduction to these new Blazers, with today featuring Pearson. With over 25 years plus of coaching experience, Pearson comes to UAB after serving last season at Clemson.
How happy are you to be back in the state of Alabama and working at UAB?
As a native Alabaman, I am very excited to be returning to my home state. My wife is from Alabama and all of our kids were born in Alabama. I am really looking forward to working at UAB. I’ve always had a lot of respect for the UAB basketball program and its success.
How did you first meet Coach Kennedy?
We’ve known each other for 30 years. We both played in the Birmingham Summer League back in the late 80s/early 90s. We coached against each other for quite some time in the SEC when he was at Ole Miss and I was at both Alabama and Georgia. We’ve had a great relationship for a long period of time.
You’ve been involved in coaching since you graduated. Take us down your career path.
My first job was at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock with Wimp Sanderson, who was my coach when I played at Alabama. I had the pleasure of checking Derek Fisher’s curfew every night for a year.
From there, I moved to Murray State in the Ohio Valley Conference. After three seasons at Murray, I went back to Tuscaloosa for 11 years before moving over to Georgia for nine years. I spent one year at Mercer and this past season at Clemson. That’s 26 total years.
What is your coaching philosophy?
When you talk about coaching, you have to begin with recruiting. Regardless of how good of coaches we think we are, the best coaches are the ones with the best players. You want a team that will play hard and play with intelligence. You want a team that will play together and is unselfish. All of those things are important to having a good program.
What is special about UAB and Birmingham?
Birmingham is a great city. I’ve been in-and-out of Birmingham all my life. UAB has a great name within the state for a lot of different reasons. Bartow Arena is a great facility. The revitalization of the city of Birmingham in the last decade has really taken off. That puts UAB in a different light and that is something that I am really looking forward to being a part of.
2020-21 UAB men’s basketball season tickets are on sale now. Current basketball season ticket holders can click here to renew their seats for the upcoming season. Fans interested in purchasing new season tickets can do so starting as low as $100 with the Blaze’s Corner season ticket.
For questions regarding your 2020-21 UAB Basketball season ticket order, email the UAB Athletics Ticket Sales and Service team at tickets@uab.edu or call (205) 975-UAB1. Ticket representatives are working remotely at this time but can be contacted during normal business hours of 9:00 AM through 5:00 PM. Fans can also request more information on ticket options for the upcoming season here.
For more information on the UAB men’s basketball program, follow @UAB_MBB on Twitter and Instagram. Also be sure to follow @CoachAK13 on Twitter.
