Trojans starting all over

Players adapting to coach, system

Chris Beard, UALR’s first-year men’s basketball coach, directs the Trojans during practice Tuesday.
Chris Beard, UALR’s first-year men’s basketball coach, directs the Trojans during practice Tuesday.

Chris Beard has seen a handful of encouraging plays from his UALR men's basketball team through three practices.

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UALR Coach Chris Beard isn’t the only one new to the Trojans. The coaching staff is almost entirely new and half of the 14 eligible players joined the team since Beard was hired in April.

"Unfortunately, we see a couple of things every day we don't like, too," the Trojans' first-year coach said.

That's to be expected when dealing with as many challenges as Beard faces as he prepares the Trojans for their Nov. 14 season opener against Central Baptist.

Beard's task seems tall. As a first-time Division I head coach, he's meshing a mostly new coaching staff with a roster of 14 eligible players -- half of whom have joined the team since Beard was hired in April -- and is installing a motion offense that none of them know much about.

So anything in the way of goals for where they will finish in the Sun Belt Conference -- or even clarity regarding potential starters or a set rotation -- haven't been mentioned much at the Jack Stephens Center. Instead, Beard's concerns are smaller as he begins to rebuild a program that had three losing seasons in the past four years under former coach Steve Shields.

"Our focus is on the day-to-day process and getting better," Beard said Tuesday during the team's third practice. "We feel like if we approach every day with the idea of getting better, then a good day will turn into a good week, then a good week will turn into a good month, and hopefully some months will turn into a good season."

They started with a good weekend, according to a handful of players.

Senior guard Josh Hagins, one of seven holdovers, said he's been struck mostly by the team's depth. Seven players are new to UALR, but five of them have Division I experience and three have immediate eligibility.

Hagins will be joined in the backcourt by Jalen Jackson, a West Memphis native who spent one season at the University of Central Arkansas and last year at Northwest Florida State College; Jermaine Ruttley, who played last year at Florida A&M; and senior forward Daniel Green, who started his career at Wake Forest.

"We're one of the older teams in the country," Hagins said. "We're more experienced, we're more mature, and we're all about winning here."

But before that can happen the Trojans must grasp Beards' motion offense. It's an offense that isn't used much in men's college basketball, but UALR Coach Joe Foley has used it as bedrock for his women's teams that have reached four NCAA Tournaments.

Hagins said it's unlike anything the Trojans ran under Shields. Ruttley said he ran it at times in high school, but Jackson has never experienced the system.

That means slow going at first. Jackson estimated that he and his teammates have a "35 percent" grasp of the system that doesn't involve set plays but rather reading a defense to play off screens and cuts to the basket.

"I wouldn't say we fully understand what's going on yet," Jackson said. "I like it, though. I feel like it's going to be a very exciting offense."

Beard understands it's a process but said the free-flowing nature of the system could lead to a quick grasp of the concepts.

"The great thing about motion offense is it's basketball, and players like to play the game," Beard said. "Guys can shoot it, drive it, pass, post. We take a lot of pride in the fact that our guys can do different things on the floor."

Also on Beard's to-do list over the next month is figuring out exactly what he has on his rebuilt roster. Of the 14 players with eligibility, five are listed as forwards, six as guards and Jackson is listed as both. Beard said he isn't anywhere close to deciding on a potential starting five or a rotation.

"It's wide-open competition," Beard said. "The players understands that, too. We're going to play the guys who help us win, period. That's the only thing we think about is winning."

Sports on 10/07/2015

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