Happy New Year

It has been a good year in Trojan land. Not too many wins, but lots of fun. Go Trojans!

Courtney: his own worst enemy

Courtney Jackson creates problems for himself by his atrocious FT shooting (41%). He is just asking to be continually mugged underneath, since he is more of a threat from the floor than he is from the line.

Nay sayers

There will be some who would downplay it even if we were to win the conference this year, saying it did not mean much because of the weakness of the conference. But they will glory in the years when we dominated the TAAC, which was much weaker than the SBC is most years .

8-6

I did not think we would be at 8-6 at this point in the season. Maybe a win or two worse than that. But we picked up a couple of wins where I thought we would lose. I am not completely sold on this team yet, but neither am I completely down on them. They still have a lot to prove, and we have some definite weaknesses. Our post offense is just about non-existent, and we have to get that fixed. It doesn't have to be great, just steady, and right now it is steadily bad. If we can fix that, we should be one of the better teams in the Belt in a weak season for the conference.

Got what they deserved

UCA is currently 340th out of 345 teams in the nation according to Sagarin. Couldn't happen to nicer folks (he said sarcastically).

Poor Centenary

Currently ranked 345th (last) by Sagarin among D1 teams. But next year they will not longer be D1, so they won't have to worry about it. Colgate is next to last.

Shields' job

Lots of howling going on for Shields' job. And he is not doing much right now to make anyone think otherwise. I'll reserve judgment until after the season. If we finish with hope for the future, then I think for the sake of the program you let him bring in this next recruiting class. Right now, however, it is hard to see a lot of short-term hope.

This staff seems utterly unable to get any sort of consistent post play from this team. We do not have a large roster, but we do have two 6-9 players. We certainly ought to be better than we are.

Name of the year?

Delaware State's Alibaba Odd

It has been a good year

Lots of fun being a Little Rock Trojans fan!!

I love being the underdog.

It is just so much more fun when you win.

We just have no inside game at all

None. Nada. Nyet.

frustrating team

This team will break your heart. Just when you think they may be starting to turn the corner, they run into the wall.

How sweet it is!

Tennessee (Larry Pearl) and Louisville (Rick Pitino) go down to defeat from non-Big Six schools in the same night. Fun, fun, fun!!!

Let's go!

Time to step it up a notch, Trojans. No more inconsistency. No more excuses. This can still be an outstanding season, but we have to go NOW.

No shine on this Pearl

Larry Pearl of Tennessee represents most everything that is wrong with college basketball.

I can't tell about this team yet

Every other game is a bad game. But every other game is a good game. Consistently inconsistent.

Northwestern's quest

Northwestern goes for 6-0 tonight. Quite a weak non-conference schedule, but that is largely irrelevant. They will make it or not make it based on how they do in the Big Ten.

need more old school

We have way too much high tech and not enough old school in our crowd motivation techniques at Little Rock games, in my opinion. What we need is some leather-lunged man with a bullhorn who can get the crowd into the game – similar to what they do at Texas A&M. We get too cutsie, and it ends up having very little affect on the crowd.

fun team

I have no idea how many games this team will win this year. I am sure they will lose some that we thought they might win, but also they will win some that we did not expect them win. They already have. It does appear, whatever their record, that this is an enjoyable team to root for because of their scrappy style of play.

Shields

I honestly think that we may turn the corner next season, but I don't know if Sheilds can survive this season if we can't play better than we did against St. Bonaventure and Missouri State. If that is our norm on the road, we are in for a losing season, probably, and that might be all it would take for Shields. I have no idea what his standing is with the powers that be who have the "hire or fire" authority. Some fans think he will be here forever. I don't. He has done a good job, but his teams normally have offensive deficiencies, and he does not seem to be able to recruit and develop big men that can compete in the SBC on a consistent basis. Stay tuned. We shall see.

better, not good enough

This team is doing a few things better than last year. Notably, perimeter defense appears to be back. We are basically even in rebounding, which we weren't last year. But we aren't doing enough things better to give much hope that we will have a good year.

bogus argument

A lot of people sneer that playing at a slower pace hurts recruiting. Maybe, for some players. But do you want those players.? If all a player wants to do is show off to the crowd, and isn't willing to play within a system for the team, do you want him?

El stinko

We just pretty well stunk up the place - again - against Missouri State. Take away our point guards, and we were pathetic. Our post players must have missed the bus and stayed in Little Rock. the result would not have been much different if they had.

seems like poor coaching

Some things I just don’t understand. But of course, that is why I make what I do and head coaches make what they do, I guess. As I have mentioned once before, Nicholls State has two players who between them have taken 56% of the team’s shot attempts. That compares to our two totals at 29% of the team’s attempts. It just looks like having two designated shooters would make it awfully easy to devise a defense. I know you want to let your best shooters shoot, but are they so hard up for shooters that the third-highest scorer averages less than 6 points per game?

Up tempo

So many people seem just to assume that up tempo play will solve every ill that afflicts a program. Just run and press, and recruits will flock to your program and you will sweep away every opponent. But it ain't true. There are too many instances to the contrary. Well-played basketball, of whatever style, will win games.