State college report

UALR, Troy get offensive

UALR women’s Coach Joe Foley insists that he didn’t change his team’s offensive approach earlier this season to compete with Troy.
UALR women’s Coach Joe Foley insists that he didn’t change his team’s offensive approach earlier this season to compete with Troy.

Joe Foley insists that he didn’t change his UALR women’s basketball team’s offensive approach earlier this season to compete with Troy.

“This was to make us better,” Foley said. “We had to create some easy baskets.”

But the improvement certainly helps with the highscoring defending Sun Belt Conference Tournament champions visiting the Jack Stephens Center tonight.

UALR (11-6, 5-0) and Troy (12-4, 5-0) will meet for sole possession of first place in the Sun Belt at 6:30 p.m. It also will be the first time the two have played since last year’s Sun Belt Tournament final, won 61-60 by Troy in New Orleans.

Troy has become UALR’s biggest thorn since Coach Chanda Rigby took over in 2012 and installed an uptempo offensive system, winning four of the last seven matchups between the two teams, including two of three meetings last season.

Troy’s done it with an offensive style that promotes quick shots (the Trojans are averaging 86.2 points and 76.4 shots per game) and a deep rotation (11 players average 10 minutes or more per game).

Foley pointed out this week that UALR held Troy to 19 points below its season average in last year’s meeting in New Orleans. But he feels better about his team’s capability in a highscoring game now than he would have a month ago. UALR is averaging 73.2 points in Sun Belt games, second only to Troy, and shooting a league-best 47.4 percent.

“I think our kids are falling into good roles. I think they understand how to play on this team, who has to do what,” he said.

Senior guard Sharde Collins’ acceptance of her role might be the biggest key. Collins is averaging a league-best 19.4 points in conference games. She had a career-high 24 points in Saturday’s victory over Arkansas State and 21 in a victory over Appalachian State the week before.

“She’s understanding now how important it is to shoot,” Foley said. “She’s even forced a shot or two. Before, I never thought she’d force a shot.”

ASU MEN

New challenges

Coastal Carolina shot 48.3 percent in beating Arkansas State last week. Appalachian State shot 51.9 in the second half of a victory over the Red Wolves two nights later. UALR shot 63.0 percent while building a 12-point halftime lead Saturday night.

The Red Wolves managed to rally to win at UALR, but not until it found some consistency on defense. Coach Grant McCasland said he’s not concerned about defensive effort or execution despite the recent lapses. The Red Wolves (12-6, 3-2), he said, are just being forced to defend a different way since the start of Sun Belt Conference play.

To explain, McCasland cited two numbers: 15 and 19.2 The first was the average length of possessions in seconds his team defended in the nonconference season, and the second was the average in five Sun Belt games. Meaning, McCasland doesn’t need his team to defend differently or better, just longer. Nonconference teams easily scored inside. Sun Belt teams have found baskets, but it’s taken them longer to do so.

“We just need to maintain some defensive endurance in the way we play,” McCasland said.

The next challenge comes Saturday when Troy visits Jonesboro. The Trojans are averaging 80.2 points, shooting 50.0 percent and have made 51 three-pointers in five Sun Belts games and last week upset leaguefavorite Texas-Arlington.

“I think it’s a journey as a team that you take,” McCasland said. “Trying to kind of marry the two and becoming a complete defensive team and not just a defensive team that’s good at one part.”

UALR MEN

Shoshi’s return expected

Lis Shoshi is still on the mend for UALR, but Wes Flanigan expects him to be on the court Saturday against South Alabama.

Shoshi missed the final 4 minutes, 40 seconds of last week’s loss at Coastal Carolina and all of Saturday’s home loss to Arkansas State after injuring a toe on his left foot. He was in a protective boot while on the bench of UALR’s 77-72 loss to ASU, the first game he’s missed in two seasons.

Flanigan said Shoshi, a 6-11 senior forward, will be evaluated again today and is “pretty confident” that he’ll play against South Alabama. Shoshi started every game this season before Saturday, and is averaging 10.3 points and a team-best 7.8 rebounds per game.

“With Lis, maybe there’s a different outcome in the Coastal game, maybe there’s a different outcome if he plays in the Arkansas State game. Who knows?” Flanigan said. “But we’ve got to play with the guys that are available. I think it’s going to make us better in the end.”

UAM MEN

Early motivation

Kyle Tolin walked into his office at Steelman Field House one day in November and told his dad, who also is one of his assistant coaches, what the rest of the Great American Conference thought of their Arkansas-Monticello team. The Boll Weevils, after going 8-20 last year, had been picked last in a GAC preseason poll.

“My dad said, ‘One year I picked a team last and they ran the table in the league and maybe that will be us,’” said Kyle Tolin, whose father, Doug, won 402 games and an NAIA national title in 15 seasons as head coach at Oklahoma Baptist. “We were kind of laughing about it. But here we are.”

The Boll Weevils (13-0, 9-0 GAC) have spent the season proving everybody in the GAC wrong. Following a 96-87 victory Monday night at Southern Arkansas, they’re off to their best start ever and are ranked No. 16 in this week’s NABC Division II coaches poll. Their only losses came against Division I teams — Missouri-Kansas City, UALR and Arkansas State — and those count as exhibitions.

Tolin, who was 15-38 in his first two seasons in Monticello, is the first to admit surprise.

“I thought we could get it going when I got the job,” he said. “But, yeah, you’re a little bit surprised by how we’ve gotten off to such a good start.”

They’ve done it with newcomers. Four of their top five scorers are first-year players, including Derylton Hill, whose 19.8 points per game lead the team.

Tolin understood the last-place prediction based on the new players and last year’s finish, but he also had confidence in a roster put together by him, his father and assistant coach Justin Newton.

“The expectations have changed,” he said. “It’s gone from saying ‘that’s a good conference win,’ to ‘OK, lets go try to win this league. Lets try and have as good of a year as we can.’”

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