CORAL GABLES, Fla. (November 12, 2026) – University of North Alabama men's basketball head coach Tony Pujol is taking the Lions to his hometown this weekend, as UNA will challenge the nationally-ranked Miami Hurricanes on Friday at 4 p.m. CT in Coral Gables, Fla.
Pujol, who grew up in Little Havana, returns to South Florida for UNA's first all-time meeting against the Hurricanes. Prior to his collegiate coaching career, Pujol spent over a decade coaching at the high school ranks in Miami and won three state championships at Northwest Christian Academy.
The Lions will battle a ranked opponent for the first time since playing No. 4 Auburn in 2024 and will hunt their first power conference win since defeating Ole Miss in 2022.
The game will be nationally televised on ACC Network with Mike Corey on play-by-play and former long-time basketball coach Tom Crean as the color analyst. Fans can also keep up on live stats and on the UNA men's basketball social media channels.
For those staying in the Shoals, fans are encouraged to head to Mugshot's Grill and Bar in downtown Florence — the official watch party location of UNA Athletics for road games. After the game, fans are then encouraged to head to CB&S Bank Arena as the UNA women's team takes on Fisk in the 2026 home opener at 6 p.m.
GAME INFORMATION
Game: North Alabama vs. No. 17 Miami (FL)
Date: Friday, November 13
Time: 4:00 p.m. CT
Location: Coral Gables, Fla.
Venue: Watsco Center
Capacity: 8,000
Watch: ACC Network (Mike Corey, Tom Crean)
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
Tickets: Click Here
Game Notes: Click Here
Social Media: @UNA_Basketball
NOTES
LAST TIME OUT: UNA had a second half lead at Oklahoma on Monday before ultimately falling to the Sooners by an 81-72 final in Norman, Okla. Senior Mike Evbagharu led the way with a career-high 27 points on 10-11 shooting to go with eight rebounds — the eighth being the 500th of his career. Sophomore Jacobe Whitted was also a major factor off the bench with a career-high 11 points and five rebounds, going 4-8 from the floor with two first-half triples to aid UNA in taking an early lead.
SCOUTING THE LIONS: UNA returns just three players from last year's team while bringing in 12 newcomers, including 10 transfers and two freshmen. The Lions are led by Evbagharu with 19.0 points per game to lead the United Athletic Conference, while averaging 7.0 rebounds per game to rank among the top 10 in the UAC. Graduate guard Quan Lax is averaging 11.0 PPG, while senior Caden Harris, graduate Drey Carter and junior Ansar Osman are all above 7.0 PPG.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENT: Miami is one of the top teams in the nation with a No. 17 ranking, entering with a 2-1 record. The only loss for the Hurricanes is to the top-ranked Florida Gators (77-67) while the wins are against Wagner (83-57) and North Florida (89-51). The Canes are led by sophomore Shelton Henderson with 13.3 PPG, junior All-ACC selection Malik Reneau with 11.0 PPG and 6-11 junior center Somto Cyril with 10.7 PPG. Miami has seven players averaging at least three rebounds a game and four more with at least two per game, ranking 27th in the NCAA with 45.7 RPG.
COACHING CONNECTIONS: UNA head coach Tony Pujol comes from the same South Florida coaching circle as two of the coaches on Miami's staff under Jai Lucas, including associate head coaches Erik Pastrana and Charlton Young. Pujol, Pastrana and Young are all from Miami and have went on to successful Division I coaching career with combined stops at schools such as Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Missouri and Oklahoma State and VCU, among others. Young also had some crossover with current UNA assistant Perin Foote, who was at Florida State and Missouri.
SERIES HISTORY: UNA and Miami will play for the first time in program history on Friday. UNA is currently 0-4 against ACC teams with losses to Pitt in 2018, Florida State in 2019, Georgia Tech in 2023 and Clemson in 2025.
ALL ABOUT THE U…AC: Against current members of the newly-formed United Athletic Conference, Miami has a 3-2 record. This includes a standalone win over UT Arlington in 2005 and a 2-2 record against Eastern Kentucky. The last time a current UAC member visited Coral Gables was in 2014, where EKU went and upset No. 18 Miami by a stunning 72-44 final. EKU went on to win the OVC that season, while Miami bounced back for a 25-win season and made a run to the 2015 NIT Championship Final where it fell 66-64 in overtime to Stanford.
EPITOME OF BRUTALITY: UNA has been known to upset some teams in "buy games" the last few seasons under Pujol, including wins over Ole Miss in 2022, Air Force and East Carolina in 2024, San Francisco in 2025 and most recently UC Davis in 2026. Three buy games remain on the schedule this year, including Miami, DePaul and Charlotte.
NEW ERA: UNA began its ninth season of Division I basketball this month and its first as a member of the United Athletic Conference. The Lions spent eight seasons as a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference, then the league announced a partnership with the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) to create a consortium called "Unisun Sports." The WAC rebranded as the UAC and includes North Alabama, Austin Peay, Eastern Kentucky, West Georgia and Central Arkansas as former members of the ASUN, Abilene Christian, Tarleton State and UT Arlington as former members of the WAC and Little Rock as a former member of the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC).
RE-LAX: This offseason, Pujol hired national championship-winning coach Drew Stutts from Freed-Hardeman to be an assistant coach at UNA. One of his first calls during the transfer portal window was to his former All-American guard at FHU, Quan Lax, who was then at Austin Peay. Lax originally made the jump from NAIA to Division I in 2024 after helping Stutts and company win the NAIA National Championship and earning First Team NAIA All-American honors. Lax scored 19 points in his debut with UNA last Monday, which is his NCAA career-high. He had 14 against Oklahoma this past Monday.
DIVISION I EXPERIENCE: A six-pack of UNA's newcomers come from Division I schools, including Lax from Austin Peay, Evbagharu (Canisius, Central Arkansas, Siena), senior forward Damarien Yates (Alabama State, Memphis), graduate forward Drey Carter (Wright State), sophomore forward Jacobe Whitted (Tennessee Tech) and redshirt junior wing Julius Clark (Gardner-Webb).
BACK IN THE LEAGUE: Evbagharu, who is originally from Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, is one of two players on the roster to play against UNA during its 2024-25 ASUN Regular Season Championship run. Evbagharu was at Central Arkansas, scoring five points and three rebounds in a 94-65 win for UNA. He led UCA in rebounding nine times that season. The other current Lion to play against UNA that season was Lax at Austin Peay. Evbagharu averaged 9.2 PPG and 7.0 RPG last season at Canisius. Evbagharu has been the best scorer in the UAC so far with 12 points in his debut, 18 in the home opener and 27 at Oklahoma earlier this week. He is shooting 18-25 over three games for 72 percent.
CHOOSING D2 STARS: A couple of new Lions were lauded at the Division II level last season and are proven winners — senior wing Caden Harris and graduate forward Drey Carter (aforementioned from Wright State). Both were instrumental in UNA's first win with double figure scoring games. Harris was at Point Loma last season, where he won a PacWest Conference Championship and was tabbed the Most Outstanding Player in the tournament. Meanwhile, Carter left Wright State in 2025 and spent a season at Fairmont State where he became a bona fide star and averaged 16.8 PPG and 7.6 RPG. He was first team all-conference and second team all-region, leading Fairmont State to a regional appearance.
JUCO BALLERS: A handful of new Lions were all-conference selections at the junior college level last season, including Alabama Community College Conference (ACCC) Player of the Year and NJCAA All-American Ansar Osman, a junior wing from Snead State. Joining him on that all-conference list was new sophomore guard EJ King, who prepped at nearby Russellville High School and averaged 23.8 PPG at Bevill State. Redshirt junior Julius Clark (aforementioned from Gardner-Webb) was an all-conference player at Tallahassee State College in 2024-25, while junior wing Maf Ndiaye comes over from Ranger Community College in Texas where he was all-conference.
BACK TOGETHER: Before Osman became a standout at Snead State last season, he spent the 2024-25 season at Tallahassee State College along with Clark, who was there for two seasons. Osman and Clark are now teammates again at UNA.
RUNNING IT BACK: UNA returns three players from last season, including rising sophomores Cortez Graham-Howard and Braylon Patton. The guards are rejoined by redshirt senior center Mitchell Chaffee, a local product from Muscle Shoals who enters his third season with the team.
ROOKIES: Just like last season, UNA brings in two freshmen with one from Alabama and one from Tennessee. Guard Jarron Talley comes over from Pope John Paul II High School in Nashville, while forward Jackson Gulley is a rookie from Fairhope High School in Alabama. Both were all-region selections, while Gulley was also voted AHSAA All-State Second Team. Talley has started all three games so far, averaging 20.0 minutes per game.
PRESEASON FUEL: The United Athletic Conference revealed its preseason information last month, as North Alabama was picked in a tie for eighth out of nine teams along with West Georgia. No players from UNA were voted to the preseason team. Despite the lack of preseason recognition, the Lions were the only UAC team last Monday to win on the road, as all the others either won at home or lost on the road.
NEW STAFF WITH SOME ANCHORS: Tony Pujol enters his ninth season at the helm of North Alabama's men's basketball program and has been with UNA since the beginning of the Division I era in 2018. When he accepted the job, one of his first hires was Ahmad Smith, one of his former players from his assistant coaching stop at Appalachian State. Smith has been with the program for all nine seasons since then and was elevated to Associate Head Coach in 2023.
CHAMPIONSHIP ADDITION: Coach Pujol made a splash in the basketball world this offseason with the hiring of Drew Stutts as an assistant. Stutts is a 2011 graduate of UNA and was recently the head coach at Freed-Hardeman. He led Freed to a record of 174-52 over eight seasons and won the NAIA National Championship in both 2023-24 and 2025-26.
IRON LION BACK ON CAMPUS: Another addition to UNA's staff this offseason was Lion Legend Will Soucie. Known as the "Iron Lion," Soucie played at UNA from 2020-25 and played in more Division I games than any other player in program history with 151 appearances over five seasons. He was the ultimate glue guy for the 2024-25 squad that went 24-11, won the ASUN Regular Season Championship and went on to play in the school's first NIT appearance. He scored 1,124 career points and ranks 21st on the all-time scoring list.
ON DECK: The Lions will return home Monday to play Fisk in UNA's annual Elementary Day game set for 11 a.m. inside CB&S Bank Arena.
For more information on North Alabama Athletics, visit www.roarlions.com and follow UNA Athletics on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
