Sun Belt Conference athletic directors elected last summer to implement a basketball schedule that had all 11 teams playing home-and-home series that began in the final week of December. That meant the league is trying to cram 20 conference games into a nine-week stretch.
Less than halfway into that schedule, some league coaches are already pleading for change.
Arkansas State men's Coach John Brady called it "wacky and unfair."
UALR women's Coach Joe Foley likened the schedule to being in the NBA, and said he coached his team through a Jan. 10 victory over Appalachian State without having practiced the day before the first time in his 28-year career. It was a needed break after UALR was playing its fifth game in 12 days.
"I think we watched a little bit of film and went home," Foley said. "That wore us out pretty good."
UALR's men's and women's teams had five days off last week, but with Saturday's game at Louisiana-Monroe, the Trojans started a string of four games in eight days and next month will twice play four games in 10 days.
ASU started its Sun Belt schedule with five games in 12 days, too, and when it plays at Louisiana-Lafayette tonight will play the third of five games in eight days.
Red Wolves women's Coach Brian Boyer said the schedule stunts development.
"For literally three weeks I have shown up and felt like I'm winging it every day," Boyer said. "I don't feel like teams are able to get better right now. They're not able to practice and get better and everybody is just trying to survive day-to-day."
Foley said coaches have asked athletic directors to make a change for next year and Boyer said he would "be shocked" if the schedule isn't changed. The most likely solutions would be to play Sun Belt games in mid-December, or shorten the league schedule.
"I think you'll see a change," Foley said. "Now, whether it's for the better or not, it's whether the ADs and the conference and the presidents and chancellors feel there's a need for it."
UAPB MEN
Expected return
Arkansas-Pine Bluff earned its first Southwestern Athletic Conference victory on Monday, and it is poised to get a major piece of its lineup back for Saturday's game against Texas Southern.
Forward JoVaughn Love has missed the last two games with what Coach George Ivory said is likely a broken nose. Love, a Pine Bluff native who transferred this season from Seminole (Okla.) State, took an elbow to the nose in a Jan. 12 loss to Alabama A&M and Ivory said he has been waiting to be fitted for a mask to return to the game.
"I didn't see it happen," Ivory said. "I just saw him on the bench and he had some cotton up in his nose."
It was serious enough to hold him out of two games, a big loss for the Golden Lions because of his production. In his first season at UAPB, Love is averaging 11.6 points and 5.5 rebounds while starting the first 17 games of the season. He was averaging 17.0 points and 6.3 rebounds in three SWAC games.
"He's gotten to a level where he's going to be reckoned with in this conference," Ivory said. "He's a very big part of what we do, he's a guy who can play all five positions. Only reason we don't start him at point guard is we have two."
UALR WOMEN
Productive boost
UALR's sprint to a 7-0 start in the Sun Belt Conference is due mostly to a defense that is holding teams to 50.4 points per game, third best in NCAA Division I.
But a boost too has come from senior guard Taylor Gault, who has upped her usual production since the start of her last run through the Sun Belt Conference slate.
Heading into tonight's game against Troy at the Jack Stephens Center, Gault is averaging 18.4 points against Sun Belt teams, tied for second most in the league. She's shooting 41.9 percent against Sun Belt teams and she has scored 20 or more points four times since conference play began.
Gault averaged 16.0 points as a freshman, 13.9 as a sophomore and 15.2 as a junior. UALR Coach Joe Foley said improved defense and better shot selection has led to the improvement.
"When she's not shooting the ball, she's still playing defense," Foley said. "For me, that's the change for our team. She's taking much better shots, she's playing much better defense and we're playing much better as a team."
Sports on 01/22/2015