Out of the 349 teams across 49 states in NCAA Division I women’s basketball, two of the top five scoring defenses reside in Arkansas.
There’s the University of Central Arkansas and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, ranked second and fourth in between top-ranked Wisconsin-Green Bay (an NCAA Tournament team in each of the past three seasons) and No. 5 UConn (an NCAA champion in four of the past five seasons).
UALR (18-9, 15-1 Sun Belt Conference) clinched its ninth regular-season conference championship after holding Appalachian State to a season-low point total in a 61-35 victory Saturday.
UCA (19-8, 12-4 Southland Conference) clinched the No. 3 seed in its conference tournament with a 73-61 victory over Abilene Christian on Saturday, earning a first-round bye that could vault the Sugar Bears to their third consecutive NCAA Tournament berth.
UALR Coach Joe Foley and UCA Coach Sandra Rushing founded their sturdy programs on defense, with a philosophy they crafted as head coaches in NCAA Division II.
Foley’s Arkansas Tech University team played Rushing’s Delta State team twice during the 2002-2003 season. Arkansas Tech won both times: 62-44 and 62-51.
“We used to go to battles,” said Rushing, who was hired at UCA in 2012 after leading Delta State to two Division II national semifinals.
“Defense was a big part of the game at that time, and I think both of us based our programs off that,” said Foley, who was hired at UALR in 2003 after winning two NAIA national championships at Arkansas Tech. “It’s probably a coincidence that we both ended up here, that both of us are in this part of the state. But if either of us went anywhere else, the program would still have that kind of defense.”
And so, the defensive standard in women’s basketball spotlights Arkansas, which has been shining for the past seven seasons. Since 2010, only two other states have had programs finish seasons within the top 10 in scoring defense more often than Arkansas’ five times: Connecticut (9) and New York (7).
But unlike UConn, which has its pick of top talent and has an offense this season that ranks first in scoring (90.5 points per game), UALR and UCA rely on their defenses to win.
“That’s the reason you see the consistency in both of our programs,” said Foley, whose Trojans rank 289th nationally with 58.9 points per game. “We know we’re going to be able to hold the other team to maybe their season low, or at least low enough to give us a shot to win. If we’re not playing good offense, then we still got a shot to win.”
For UCA, the philosophy flourishes like it did Jan. 6, when it beat the Southland’s top scoring offense, Lamar (78.2), by holding the Cardinals to their season-low point total in a 57-35 victory.
“When you get a group of players that will commit to the defensive end, you’ve got something special,” Rushing said.
Both coaches recruit specific types of players who possess specific personalities.
“You have to be a lot tougher,” said UCA senior forward Taylor Baudoin, a preseason All-Southland Conference player who averages 15.5 points, 6.9 rebounds and 0.9 steals per game. “I wasn’t a defensive player coming in. I knew I could score. I knew what to do on offense. It was a struggle for me, and I decided I was going to buckle down, that I’m going to get it and do what she’s asking of me. It takes mental toughness.”
Assembling that group can be difficult in an era of basketball that, both coaches agree, has shifted away from defense.
An NCAA rule change on Nov. 5, 2013, asked that officials enforce fouls consistently when a defender “keeps a hand or forearm on an opponent,” “puts two hands on an opponent” or “continually jabs by extending his arms or placing a hand or forearm on the opponent.”
The NCAA release said “the changes are intended to reduce physicality and encourage a more open style of play.”
“The offense is more important to the rules-makers,” Foley said. “So, it’s taken some of the aggression away from the defensive part of the game.”
Both Foley and Rushing had to adapt their defenses.
Foley’s defense adapted so much, Troy Coach Chanda Rigby said, that it was completely different from its reputation when she coached against UALR for the first time.
“I thought of a smothering, pressuring defense,” said Rigby, whose first team lost 75-52 and 71-50 to UALR. “That’s not exactly what it was. It’s not that it’s a stifling defense, it’s just a defense that doesn’t make mistakes.
“No matter how fast you run up the court, he’s going to have people back in a stance, ready to defend you. So then, you’ve got to have a Plan B.”
Foley said the UALR defense leads into its offense: a steal turns into a fast-break layup, a defensive rebound into a transition three-pointer.
“It’s like cats running wild, dogs running wild,” said UALR senior forward Keanna Keys, who averages 8.8 points, 5.1 rebounds and 0.7 steals per game. “You just have to run the lanes, run the floor, get down and get an easy basket.”
“That’s when it turns into a nightmare,” said Rigby, whose team leads the Sun Belt with 82.3 points per game and beat UALR 76-70 in overtime on Feb. 10.
The UCA defense, Rushing said, is more separate from its offense: a steal can lead to a fast-break layup, but more often it leads to another offensive possession. A defensive rebound does the same.
“Would I love to convert it [to a UALR style]? Absolutely,” Rushing said. “But that’s just not something we can do on a consistent basis.”
The Sugar Bears’ offense relies more on its dynamic scorers, Baudoin and junior guard Kamry Orr (12.5 points per game).
Foley and Rushing’s current programs have yet to meet outside of their preseason scrimmages, although they both said a future game is in the process of being scheduled.
For now, the two Arkansas programs will use their defensive standards against the rest of the country.
“I think it’s brought a lot of awareness to women’s basketball here in the central part of the state,” Foley said. “I know that UCA gets good crowds. We’re getting good crowds. I think people appreciate kids playing hard and playing smart. And I think people like to watch that.”
