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Mike Davis has been in Russ Pennell's shoes.

He took over for Indiana coach Bob Knight about a month before the 2000-01 season, an assistant replacing the fired legend.

Davis' advice for the UA's interim head coach?

"Pray every night," he said.

Davis left Indiana after the 2006 season, landing at UAB.

"It's tough because you can't replace a legend," he said. "I just think the Arizona fans need to understand that there's nothing he can do. Even if they go all the way to the championship game, you're never going to forget what Coach Olson did.

"It's like, just coach the team. Stay focused on the basketball team and just enjoy — because it don't last long."

When did Davis first understand that?

"The minute I got the job at UAB," he said with a wry smile.

Audio upgrade at McKale

What do McKale Center and your parents' house have in common?

Stereo speakers from 1972.

Until this year, at least. The Wildcats debuted their new sound system Monday night. Stacks of speakers hung from the ceiling over the floor.

The upgrade cost about $250,000, said assistant athletic director Suzy Mason. The result: You can actually hear the public address announcer annunciate, and the music isn't as harsh.

More new stuff

Last year, McKale Center was fitted with a midcourt video scoreboard that essentially ran from one cactus floor logo to the other. This year, the Wildcats added a cool little touch.

A skinny, red scoreboard runs underneath the video screen now, detailing the time, score, team fouls and timeouts left for each team. It's a nice feature if you have great seats — and don't want to crane your neck to see the score.

The Wildcats' backboards and basket supports are new, too. When the clock strikes zero, the outline of the glass board flashes red, a mandatory feature in the NBA.

Quotable

"That's a biiiiiig dude."

UAB guard Paul Delaney, on 6-foot-11-inch, 275-pound Santa Clara center John Bryant

Weird intro

The Wildcats aired a highlight reel on the video screen. But when it was time for players to be introduced, the lights stayed on. Not even the band played.

Don't fret, fans. The intro was withheld because the UA was hosting an NIT Tip-Off game, and had to withhold some sense of home-team bias. It will be back.

Shhhh!

The first half of the first game was as quiet as a library.

About 150 people occupied the stands during the national anthem. Meanwhile, there were about 30 coaches, players and officials on the bench and floor.

With 22.4 seconds left in the first half, Santa Clara's Perry Petty launched a shot after hearing about 20 UAB fans counting down the shot clock to zero — even though there were really about six seconds left.

By the numbers

9

States represented by UAB players — Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Louisiana, New York, Tennessee, Texas and Alabama