LITTLE ROCK — Steve Shields sat his UALR men’s basketball team down earlier this week to tell players the timing of their recent slide, while unfortunate, doesn’t mean they are finished.
The Trojans’ coach reminded them that two years ago UALR entered the Sun Belt Conference Tournament having lost five of its last seven regular-season games, then rattled off four consecutive victories to advance to its first NCAA Tournament in two decades.
The reminder was a contingency plan, of sorts, just in case UALR’s downward arc doesn’t turn upward before the end of the weekend.
“We’ve shown stretches where we’re capable,” Shieldssaid, “but we haven’t done it as consistently as we want to.”
The Trojans (15-14, 9-9) open their final weekend of the regular season on a fourgame losing streak when they host Louisiana-Lafayette (11-18, 7-11) at 7:30 p.m. tonight at the Jack Stephens Centerand then host Arkansas State on Saturday.
ASU clinched the Sun Belt West Division last week, but a UALR victory tonight, coupled with a Western Kentucky loss, would ensure the Trojans of a first-round bye in next week’s Sun Belt Tournament. Victories in both games, no matter what Western Kentucky does against Middle Tennessee and South Alabama, would ensure at least the No. 5 seed and a bye.
To do that, Shields will have to find a way to recharge a few motors that have begun to sputter the past couple of weeks.
“It’s the grind of the season, really,” forward Will Neighbour said. “I think every team has the same stuff.”
Two weeks ago, UALR had won four out of its previous five games and seven of its previous 10, but an 86-62 loss at Arkansas State on Feb. 14 was followed by a home loss to Middle Tennessee and then road losses at Florida International and Florida Atlantic.
It’s the Trojans’ longest losing streak of the season, and a loss tonight would be their first five-game losing streak in three seasons.
Shields didn’t discount the possibility of fatigue for a team that features six players in its 11-man rotation who are in their first seasons with the Trojans. Also in that rotationis Neighbour, who has missed parts of the past two seasons with injuries, and sophomore Gus Leeper, who didn’t play all of last season because of a knee injury.
“When you’re in high school, you watch college ball on TV, you see them going hard, but you don’t feel any of that physicality,” freshman guard Josh Hagins said. “It’s tough, but we’re going to keep fighting through it.”
It’s hit the Trojans hardest offensively during their skid.
In their past four losses, they are averaging 58.5 points per game, almost eight points less than their season average, and are shooting 34 percent from the floor. They also have been outscored from the freethrow line in each game and averaged 16.5 turnovers.
Shields said he wasn’t too disappointed with their offensive performance in Saturday’s loss at Florida Atlantic. UALR shot 33 percent, but Shields said the shots were fine and they only had five turnovers, a season low.
“Every team goes through stretches where they don’t shoot it well at times,” Shields said. “You can’t let it becometoo mental when you struggle to make shots.”
The formula for points remains the same: Pass the ball around the perimeter and pick the right spots to send passes or drive into the lane rather than launching threepointers.
That would allow easy baskets for Neighbour, who said Wednesday he’s dealing with a “mild hernia” and has been held to nine points or less in each of the past four games. It also could mean a few more shots for forward Michael Javes, who has scored 12 points in each of the past two games, and a few more trips to the free-throw line.
Neighbour, the Trojans’ leading scorer at 10.8 points per game, won’t say he needs to score more for UALR to win, but he knows more points will have to come from somewhere.
“These last two weeks have been horrendous for me, [but] I can’t go into a game thinking I’ve got to score,” Neighbour said. “That’s the way I’m thinking of it. I just got to play, and play what I see.”
Sports, Pages 17 on 02/28/2013