PINE BLUFF -- It hasn't been hard for George Ivory to find sources of motivation for his Arkansas-Pine Bluff men's basketball team.
Ivory has waited four years to be able to sell the prospect of his team going to the Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament. He can do that this year as the Golden Lions prepare for their season opener tonight at Seattle.
"It's a big relief," said Ivory, who is in his eighth years as the Golden Lions' head coach. "It's been tough for us trying to keep the kids to stay focused, because once you lose two or three games you're out of the regular-season race. It's just been a tough battle."
Ivory's team missed the SWAC Tournament -- whose winner earns a spot in the NCAA Tournament -- two of the past three seasons. In 2013, UAPB missed the tournament because of low Academic Progress Rate scores. In 2014, UAPB played most of the regular season thinking it wouldn't be eligible for the same reason, but the SWAC lifted the restriction a week before the tournament, which ended in a first-round loss for the Golden Lions.
UAPB was banned from the postseason in every sport last year because of NCAA sanctions stemming from how it certified athletes.
Now the NCAA sanctions have run their course, APR scores are up, and Ivory can preach to his team the importance of getting ready for March.
"They could have quit, but they didn't," Ivory said. "Now there's nothing having over their heads."
Ivory is also using another piece piece of motivation -- how his team is viewed by league peers. UAPB returns three starters from last year and five players who averaged at least 14 minutes per game, but none were selected to any of the three preseason All-SWAC teams. UAPB was picked to finish seventh.
"We take it as motivation," Ivory said. "We do have some All-SWAC caliber basketball players on our team, and we just think that it's a big challenge for us to improve ourselves."
UAPB lost leading scorer Marcel Mosley, who averaged 17.5 points per game last year and finished with 1,019 career points, but returns starters JoVaughn Love, Ghiavonni Robinson and Thaddeus Handley.
Love averaged 10.9 points and 5 rebounds, Robinson averaged 8.3 points and 2.4 rebounds, and Handley averaged 5.6 points and 3.0 rebounds. Ivory said he believes Mosley's scoring can be made up by a group of players rather than just one. He said Love could be "a double-double guy" and Robinson could be a team leader.
He hopes it's enough to make an impact in the SWAC Tournament in March.
"Working with different things to helps these kids go through that process, I think I've become a better teacher and a better coach," Ivory said. "I think they're so excited knowing that they can go to the tournament."
Sports on 11/13/2015