Gus Leeper would rather come off the bench for UALR's men's basketball team, he's told his coaches several times throughout his five-year career.
Leeper can't hide near his coaches anymore, because the Trojans have to find a way to replace the points, rebounds, blocked shots and minutes they were getting from forward James White.
Today’s game
UALR MEN VS. TROY
WHEN 7:30 p.m.
WHERE Jack Stephens Center, Little Rock
RECORDS UALR 6-11, 1-6 Sun Belt Conference; Troy 7-9, 2-5
RADIO KHLR-FM, 106.7, in Little Rock
TICKETS $7 for end-of-court bleacher seating, $115 for coaches’ row seating, $13 for 200 level seating, $11 for children on 200 level
INTERNET ualrtrojans.com
"Coach told me, 'I know you don't like to start, but you've got to,' " Leeper said.
Leeper, a senior forward, had been coming off the bench until last week when White, a junior forward, was diagnosed with a stress fracture in his left tibia.
UALR Coach Steve Shields said White went to a doctor Jan. 13 to be examined, and they found out before last week's games at Louisiana-Monroe and South Alabama that his injury would require surgery and three months of recovery. That means White will miss the remainder of the season.
It's a sizable blow for the Trojans (6-11, 1-6 Sun Belt) considering White was UALR's leader in minutes (27.1), rebounds (6.6) and blocked shots (25), and was its second-leading scorer at 11.9 points per game.
Shields said White had experienced discomfort in his shin but didn't say anything to Shields or UALR's medical staff until he was kicked in the shin in a Jan. 8 loss at Texas State.
UALR, which hosts Troy (7-9, 2-5) at 7:30 tonight, lost both games last weekend against Louisiana-Monroe and South Alabama and is in last place in the conference.
"We miss him," Shields said. "But I think guys showed us on Monday, as well as on Saturday, we can still be a good rebounding team with the right mind-set and we can still be a good defensive team."
Maintaining its improved defensive efforts in conference play will likely be contingent on how much the Trojans get out of Leeper, who was averaging 12.0 minutes a game before White's injury.
The 6-10 Leeper has struggled throughout his career to stay out of foul trouble. He had 8 points and 4 rebounds in a career-high 38 minutes against Louisiana-Monroe, but two days later Leeper picked up two fouls in the first four minutes and sat the rest of the first half in the loss at South Alabama.
"I'm trying to do everything I can to stay out of foul trouble," Leeper said. "Coach just tells me to contest but stay on the ground. Don't do anything stupid. Then I get two dumb fouls early on Monday."
UALR has plenty of post players even without White, but none of them have the size or experience of White and Leeper.
Junior Roger Woods leads the team in scoring at 12.2 points per game and 6.3 rebounds per game, but at 6-5 he gives up size in the post in most games. Mareik Isom, 6-7, is averaging 5.5 points, and Maurius Hill, 6-5, recently returned from a nagging knee injury.
Shields said he hopes the sum of those pieces can equal the production lost when White went down with injury.
"I will never give them an excuse. I'll never give myself an excuse," Shields said. "That's not the way we play, and I think that's evident with how we played in these two road games. I think our effort was outstanding."
Sports on 01/22/2015