The Arkansas State men's and women's basketball teams will return Thursday to the Convocation Center in Jonesboro to start a four-game homestand against Georgia State, but Red Wolves fans won't have to be in attendance to watch.
ASU fans can view Thursday games, as well as all home games for the remainder of the season, using their phones, tablets or laptops.
The games will be broadcast on ESPN3.com, ESPN's online arm for all of its programming, in a partnership with ASU-TV, a TV station run by students and faculty out of the school's communications department,.
ASU joins Appalachian State, Georgia State and Georgia Southern as Sun Belt schools that independently broadcast its home games through ESPN3.com, made possible by the Sun Belt's contract that covers all football games and select basketball and baseball games.
The on-air talent will include Matt Stolz, the Red Wolves' radio voice, and Brad Bobo, who hosts a local sports talk show on KNEA-AM for the women's games. Former ASU Coach Nelson Catalina is the analyst for men's games.
ASU-TV students and faculty are doing the production work. A production truck has been purchased and the total cost of production has been $280,000, $75,000 of which came from the Sun Belt, a school spokesman said. Mohajir said the athletic department approached ASU-TV about the partnership, but that the benefits are mutual.
"No. 1, I think it's fantastic from a standpoint that people who aren't in Jonesboro can watch Arkansas State basketball," he said. "No. 2, it's a partnership with our school of communications, and it's a really, really great opportunity for students to come to Arkansas State and be able to broadcast on ESPN."
Mohajir said the plan is to broadcast baseball games this spring, too, but he's not yet sure which games or how many. Until then, he said they'll concentrate on improving what they're doing already.
UCA WOMEN
Quick turnaround
Central Arkansas Coach Sandra Rushing took one look at her team's schedule months ago and identified late January as an important stretch.
UCA (16-2, 6-1) has a chance tonight complete this important stretch in successful fashion.
The Sugar Bears beat Nicholls State 71-65 on Saturday and left Thibodaux, La. by bus at about 8:30 p.m. They rolled into Conway at about 4:30 a.m. Sunday, completing a 500-mile trip.
UCA took Sunday off, practiced Monday and were back on the road Tuesday toward Natchitoches, La., about 300 miles south, to play Northwestern State.
A victory tonight would be UCA seventh consecutive victory.
"You don't want to drop any, you want to steal some on the road," Rushing said. "But, also, it will help us tournament time. We're going to have to prepare so quick. It helps me to see where our players are and how quickly we can grasp things. It's going to be a tough challenge, just because of the quick turnaround."
ASU MEN
Another loss?
Arkansas State, already down to nine scholarship players because of departures and defections, might be without starting guard Donte Thomas and reserve guard Frederic Dure for Thursday night's games against Georgia State, Coach John Brady said.
Thomas, who has started every game for ASU (9-10, 5-3) and is averaging 12.8 points, pulled a hamstring; Dure, who is averaging 19.9 minutes per game, suffered a rib injury in Saturday's loss at Texas State. Brady said both were treated by team doctors and trainers Monday, with Thomas getting a shot in his hamstring.
Brady said Tuesday it looked as if Dure might be able to play.
"Donte, I'm not sure," Brady said.
Brady said it was feared Saturday that Dure had suffered broken ribs.
But any injury is a setback for ASU, which is the only Sun Belt team with four players averaging 31.9 minutes or more in conference games.
"We've got to make sure that the guys who are going to play the 34-35 minutes are healthy and ready to go," Brady said.
"Sometimes you can lose the game in the practice. You can't win it in the practice, but you can certainly lose it."
UALR WOMEN
No need to wait
In what Coach Joe Foley described as an effort to lengthen his bench, three freshmen -- guards Kira Shepard and Deja McKinney, and forward Ronjanae DeGray -- started in last Thursday's's loss at Texas State. Then, in Saturday's victory at Texas-Arlington, freshman forward Amber Landing earned her first start.
"Let them get a little nervous about playing in games because we need to get more people involved," Foley said. "We've been having to put a lot of freshmen out there, and sometimes they're ready and sometimes they're not. So, we just thought we'd change it up a little bit, let them start and see what it's like."
McKinney scored 7 points in 22 minutes against Texas State and DeGray had 4 points in 10 minutes. Landing played four minutes and didn't score on Saturday at Texas-Arlington while grabbing one rebound.
Foley, whose Trojans are 6-11 overall and 4-4 in the Sun Belt, said he hopes it pays off down the line.
"We're just trying to teach them how to prepare themselves and be ready to play when they're called upon," he said.
Sports on 01/27/2016