WKU

Excitement is building toward the game Thursday at Western Kentucky. On paper, we are pretty well outclassed, but that is why they play the games. You never know. To win we will have to play our game right on, and they will need to have an off night, but our defense has given a lot of people off nights, so we shall see. If we could squeeze out a win, it would be huge for us, of course.

Leaders in the West!

We are in first place in the Western Division; and while I don't think we are in the class of WKU and USA, still, it feels good to be back in the hunt again. If you look at the numbers for this team, you say there is NO WAY they should be 14-6 and leading the division. Leading scorer 9.0 ppg. leading rebounder 5.4 rpg. Very poor shooting team. But this is a team, not a bunch of individual stars. The sum of the parts is greater than the whole. Who will step up on a given night is a question. but 14 times so far, someone has.

Nice road win at Troy

It took some last minute heroics from Steve Moore, but the Little Rock Trojans pulled out a close win over the Troy Trojans last night in Alabama. UALR seemed comfortably in control most of the game, but let Troy get back into it in the last two minutes. Moore took the in-bound pass, ran the length of the court in the final four seconds and make the game winning bucket. Very exciting. John Fowler had an outstanding game, probably his best of the year. We were not predicted to win this one, so it was a nice addition to the W column. That gives us 13 wins for the year, already matching last year's total, so I think we safely can say the program has taken a solid step forward this year. Now, if we can just find a consistent offensive threat or two . . . .

defense

I'm guess that we, along with Denver, win the Teams We Least Like To Play award. We do it because of defense. How good is our defense? Well, compared with the SBC, pretty good. We are second in scoring defense behind Denver, part of which is attributable to their offensive scheme. And we are 5.6 ppg ahead of 3rd place. In FG% defense, we are first, 2.4 % points ahead of 2nd place. in 3-point FG% defense, we are first, fully 6.3 % points ahead of 2nd place. We are also first in rebounding margin. I wish we had more offense, but if anyone in the league can afford to be without it, we are the one.

Needed: just a little offensive help

I like this team. We suffer severely from want of a take-charge scorer, but we do a lot of things right, also. That particularly hurts us in close games down the stretch. I think Stevie Moore can be that person, maybe soon. And, it needs to be soon. This season is by no means over, and I expect we will end up with 17-18 wins unless we collapse. But, if we somehow could take a step forward offensively, we might be in for some good things at the end of the year. The team is very solid defensively. It is just the offensive that needs a little tweaking for us to be pretty good. We don't need a huge offensive infusion in order to make a big difference, just someone to step up at critical times.

ULM game

We beat Monroe by 2 points. How, I don't know. This team wins UGLY. About the only constant is that we consistently hold teams to lower percentages from the 3-point line than their season average. We had better have good defense, because right now that is about the only part of our game clicking.

Progress report

I guess this team is about where we might have expected it to be at this point. It was one of the least experienced teams in the county going into the season, and so an easier schedule was called for. We lost to Arlington at home, but they have had a couple of impressive wins, so that was not a horrible loss, especially that early in the season with them having a veteran team. The loss to NIU was disappointing, but they are from a higher-ranked conference and it was on the road. The Tulsa win was a good one, because they have been pretty good this year. The win at UNO was big. Not too bad. Given that we are only two wins below the total for all last season, I'll take it.

Nice win over Louisiana-Lafayette

Big win at home last night. Patterson, the starting point guard, was out on a family matter, but Steve Moore filled in with a huge game in front of his hometown crowd. We are a half game out of first place in the West now.

jury still out

We started out 9-1, but since then have gone 1-3 on the road. So, we still do not know how good this team is. Tonight may tell us a lot, at home against Louisiana-Lafayette, one of the hottest teams in the league.

Career records in perspective

We have had 17 players who scored 1000 or more points at UALR, and they are given two full pages in the media guide, with photos of many of them. But, assuming 29 games per season, it would be possible to score 1000 points in a four-year career and average only 8.6 points per game.

More exclusive (and therefore more impressive) clubs that do not get nearly the press:
1000 career rebounds - 3 members
500 field goals - 6 members
200 3-pt baskets - 2 members
300 FT - 8 members
400 assists - 5 members
100 steals - 11 members
100 blocks - 4 members

Disaster at ASU

VERY disappointing loss at Arkansas State. We were playing well at about the 10 minute mark, focused and leading by double figures, and then the wheels completely fell off. From that point on we couldn’t do anything right. It was frustrating. Oh, well. We will get another shot at them at the Jack. Hats off to Key-Key Malone and Deandre Eggins, two veterans who played solid games. Terrance Akins, our shooting guard was 1 for 10, and we would have trouble winning with him shooting like that. He game off a great game at UNO and then came apart this week. Time to regroup.

MISTER Akins

Terrance Akins, the Trojans' senior shooting guard, game through big time last night at UNO, probably our biggest game of the year to date. He had 15 points, 3 assists, and NINE rebounds. Not bad for a guy who is 6-1, 180#. That's senior leadership!

Trojans turn it around against UNO

They came from way back to pull it out on the road. How many heroes of the game? First off, the coaching staff. They obviously had this team ready, and the team stuck with the plan and made it work. Only 12 turnovers. Outstanding shooting from the arc. Stevie starts and comes through. Patterson comes off the bench and has an outstanding game. Valuing the ball: more assists than turnovers. Back to outrebounding the opponents. Clutch free throw shooting. John Fowler 9 from 10 from the line. Shane Edward six offensive rebounds. And how about our senior leader, MISTER Akins, 15 points and NINE rebounds and three assists. Good basketball!