JONESBORO -- Brian Boyer will make an addition to the decor inside the Arkansas State women's basketball team's locker room soon, which he hopes will serve as a reminder of how close his team was to a program first last March.
ASU just missed out on earning an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament after coming one victory short of tying a program record last season. The Red Wolves, who instead went 1-1 in the WNIT, were so close to an NCAA Tournament berth that an ESPN broadcast of the unveiling of the tournament field labeled ASU as one of the "first four out."
Boyer said he's going to blow up a screen shot of that image and hang it on the wall inside the locker room.
"I think it's something that this team needs to continue to remember, how close you were and how badly it hurt to not be one of those teams," said Boyer, who is beginning his 17th season at ASU and put the Red Wolves through their first official practice of the season Wednesday.
Actually, Boyer and his players can draw motivation from two near-misses.
ASU won the Sun Belt Conference regular-season title in 2014 but lost to Western Kentucky in the tournament final after losing a 13-point lead in the final 7 minutes, which cost the Red Wolves an automatic bid. Last year's loss in the final to UALR wasn't as close -- UALR won 78-72 -- but ASU's nonconference schedule almost put it in position to earn an at-large berth, which would have been its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
"I think that just puts a fire under our butts a little bit," said senior guard Aundrea Gamble, the Sun Belt's Player of the Year the past two seasons. "I think that this year we've just got to keep going at it. Cant' go back, just move forward."
Gamble is the biggest reason for continued optimism at ASU, but she isn't the only one.
Gamble is one of seven returning players who have helped ASU to 46 victories over the past two seasons, the most in a two-year period for ASU in more than 20 years. Boyer doesn't sense a need for large-scale changes in an effort to make the final jump toward an NCAA Tournament berth. He still has Gamble and is one of the league's best offensive teams that returns almost 70 percent of its scoring.
While acknowledging that the way the past two seasons ended hurt, he said it's also an indication things are going in the right direction.
"I'm proud of our program," he said. "I'm proud of this team. The fact that you're there, you're giving yourself a chance, as long as we keep doing that, we'll get there."
ASU returns Gamble, who needs 688 points to become its second 2,000-point career scorer; Khadija Brown-Haywood, who averaged 11.5 points and 5.9 rebounds last year; and Jamie Ruffins, who has started 40 games the past two years.
The Red Wolves have one hole at forward and one at guard, following the departures of Jasmine Hunt and Hanna Qedan, but Boyer thinks its biggest need is on defense. The Red Wolves allowed teams to shoot 41.4 percent from the floor last year, ninth in the 10-team Sun Belt and 265th nationally.
"We know that offensively we're really good in transition, so we can get out and run on everybody," Brown-Haywood said. "It's defense, in the half-court, really putting pressure on someone and not letting them get comfortable."
If ASU can do that, Boyer likes his team's offense well enough to think it will have a chance in March similar to the past two seasons.
"Maybe I'll be mistaken, but I think offensively we're fine. I don't see any reason we'll take a step back," Boyer said. "We've got to stop people."
.
Sports on 10/09/2015