For years, Brian Boyer never minded being in the Sun Belt Conference along with heavyweights Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky.
It was difficult to build and sustain a women's basketball program in a league with such dominant programs, but it helped set a standard for Boyer's Arkansas State teams and, in some years, the depth of the league made it possible for more than one team to reach a postseason tournament.
UALR women vs. Arkansas State
WHEN 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Jack Stephens Center, Little Rock
RECORDS UALR 21-3, 14-1 Sun Belt; Arkansas State 17-7, 12-2
SERIES ASU leads 45-15
TICKETS $7 for end-of-court bleacher seating, $11 for children on 200 level, $13 for 200 level, $115 for coaches’ row seating.
RADIO KARN-AM, 920, in Little Rock
INTERNET ualrtrojans.com
"I always thought it was fun," Boyer said.
Now, by way of persistence and with the aid of conference realignment, the best Sun Belt women's basketball resides somewhere in the Natural State.
The regular-season Sun Belt champion has yet to be crowned, and it remains to be seen if the league will get more than one team into the NCAA Tournament for the first time in three seasons. But it's clear to Boyer, UALR Coach Joe Foley and the rest of the league that either ASU or UALR is in line for those superlatives.
Heading into a 5:30 p.m. rematch between the teams today at the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock, UALR (21-3, 14-1) and ASU (17-7, 12-2) sit first and second in the Sun Belt standings. The Trojans and the Red Wolves are the only two teams to clinch bids into next month's Sun Belt tournament, and 2 1/2 games separate the two teams from the rest of the standings.
In the first meeting of the season, ASU's Jasmine Hunt made two free throws with seven seconds left to win 70-69 in Jonesboro, snapping UALR's 10-game winning streak. Of the eight games the teams have played since, neither has lost and seven of the victories have come by 14 or more points.
"Both teams have proven we're the best teams in the conference," Foley said. "It's great for Arkansas."
It's been a long road for both teams to get to this point at the same time.
While Foley's teams have been included in this conversation before, this is the first time the Trojans are easily the most accomplished. UALR has reached three NCAA Tournaments since 2010, more than any other league team in that span, and won six consecutive division titles before the league dissolved divisions last year.
ASU won the regular-season title last season, then lost to Western Kentucky in the Sun Belt Tournament final and settled for a spot in the WNIT.
UALR's season also was ended by Western Kentucky last year, when it lost in the tournament semifinal, ending a string of five consecutive final appearances.
Neither team has to worry about the Hilltoppers anymore, though. Western Kentucky left the Sun Belt for Conference USA starting this year, joining Louisiana Tech, which left for the WAC in 2001 and Middle Tennessee, which jumped from the Sun Belt in 2013.
The exodus was brought on when Conference USA was raided by other leagues for football but stripped the Sun Belt of its most accomplished women's basketball programs.
"I think our sport was hurt the most with the changes," Boyer said. "But I do think it's going to make a comeback. The potential is as good as we've been in the past down the road. The teams we've had are in good recruiting areas, and there's opportunities to build."
As of Wednesday, ASU is No. 57 in the RPI according to the NCAA and UALR is No. 39. There's no magic number that guarantees a team an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament, but UALR was No. 56 when it received one in 2010.
Last year, ASU was 22-11 overall with a regular-season conference title and a one-point loss in the conference tournament final, but Boyer never considered an at-large a possibility because of conference strength.
"We never got in the top 100," said Boyer, because the Sun Belt was ranked 24th out of 32 by the NCAA's RPI rankings.
This year, the Sun Belt is ranked 17th according to realtimerpi.com, with much credit going to UALR and ASU, each of which have two top 100 victories.
If UALR wins tonight, it will have a third top 100 RPI victory, joining previous victories over LSU and Oklahoma. When it earned the at-large berth in 2010, it had only two. If ASU wins, it also will have three -- two over UALR and one over Tennessee-Chattanooga.
Foley hopes tonight's game won't be the last this season between the two teams, alluding to the Sun Belt Tournament final March 14 at Lakefront Arena in New Orleans.
"It's a fight every time we play," Foley said. "We know this one is going to happen, but it would make it more exciting, more special for a conference that is as spread out as we are, to come down to two Arkansas schools."
Sports on 02/19/2015