The UALR women's basketball team is 13-1 in the Sun Belt Conference and two victories away from clinching at least a share of a regular-season title.
Coach Joe Foley said he entered the season with modest expectations, but he told the Downtown Tip-Off Club Tuesday at the Wyndham Riverfront Hotel that this team has turned out to be one of his hardest-working groups.
"I really didn't know what we would be able to accomplish," he said to a room of about 150 attendees. "It's not the most athletic team by far that I've ever coached. They're a good bunch of young ladies, and they've worked very hard and that's what's got them where they're at."
That's not to say this team has overachieved, though. Foley said he might have been a little too hard when critiquing them back in October.
"Maybe I underestimated how hard they were going to work," he said. "Maybe I didn't see that."
Foley is plenty pleased now, especially with the way his team bounced back last Friday with a 60-35 victory against Arkansas State in Jonesboro after the Trojans' winning streak ended one week earlier.
The Trojans (19-7, 13-1) host Georgia Southern on Thursday at the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock and Georgia State on Saturday, their final two home games, as they try to win 20 games for the 10th time in the past 11 seasons and wrap up the top seed in the Sun Belt tournament.
UALR's success this season shouldn't come as a complete surprise. The Trojans were picked second behind Troy in a preseason poll of league coaches, but Foley, in his 14th season at UALR, said success has required a bit more tinkering to get to the top of the standings.
UALR has won in the Sun Belt with offense -- eight consecutive games with more than 70 points -- and with defense, like in a 58-49 victory at Texas-Arlington on Feb. 9.
The Trojans won 12 consecutive Sun Belt games with the same starting lineup, but when the winning streak ended with a 64-47 loss at Texas State on Feb. 11, Foley said it was time for a change.
Film sessions between the loss at Texas State is what Foley credits for last Friday's victory at ASU.
"After about four or five days of that, they kind of changed a little bit and we went up to Arkansas State and we played pretty well," he said. "I hope that's enough of a lesson to get us through the year. Sometimes you don't ever know."
Foley is 739-237 in 30 seasons as a college head coach, including283-153 with the Trojans, but he told a Tipoff Club crowd that included Tori Lasker, a Mayflower guard who signed with the Trojans in November, that he's not sure how much longer he'll go.
Afterward, he said that he doesn't have a timeline in the back of his mind. Foley signed a contract extension in April 2015, not long after the Trojans reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament, that this year pays him $240,000 and increases incrementally through 2024. That contract was announced not long after he interviewed for the vacant coaching position at Kansas. Foley joked Tuesday that it was the first time he's ever asked for a raise.
"It's when I get tired of all the bus trips, and when it becomes more than just working with the kids," he said. 'When I get tired of going to practice, that's when I'll quit."
Sports on 02/22/2017