Steve Shields has been slightly above average

Steve Shields has been the head coach at Little Rock for ten years. In them he has one NCAA appearance and one tie for the regular season title (lost the tie-breaker for the NIT). During those years the conference has had eleven or twelve teams, so Shields has produced both benchmarks in just better than the average. "Barely better than average" usually does not do much to excite fans. Shields needs to step up the pace. He is doing some things right. He has one of the better groups of assistant coaches around. Recruiting seems to have improved over the past couple of years. So things are looking up from several standpoints. However, Shields needs to prove that he can be adaptable in his coaching style to get the best results from his talent, instead of trying to force his talent to fit his style. If Steve can learn as a coach, some very good things could happen this year.