NATURALLY STATED: Howard slowed in Summer League

Jordan Howard hopes his first game will be enough.

Just beyond halftime in his first NBA Summer League game with the Golden State Warriors, the former University of Central Arkansas guard had 10 points, 6 rebounds and 1 assist.

The NCAA's third-leading scorer last season was 2 of 6 from three-point distance, and he decided to drive to the rim.

Howard was fouled and landed on his left knee.

By the time he made both free throws, he knew something was wrong.

He subbed out of that game on July 2 -- when the Warriors beat the Miami Heat 79-68 -- with what he later called "just a slight strain" in his knee.

Howard has missed four of the Warriors' last seven games, including the Summer League finale Friday night, and he played hurt in the other three, when he went a combined 2 of 14 shooting (14.3 percent).

The former Southland Conference Player of the Year is uncertain what his professional future will be, and the Warriors will soon decide if Howard did enough to remain a part of the organization.

"I know it's not the most ideal situation," said Howard, the Southland's all-time leader in three-pointers (386). "I wish I could have been here for all the games, show what I could really do. But it's not up to me. I can just control what I can control. I've got a good feeling about this organization, and I'm hoping that they feel the same way."

All Summer League players are competing to be invited to the Warriors' training camp, where they'd jostle for one of the 15 spots on the NBA roster. That, or at least be signed to a two-way contract and split time with the Warriors' developmental team, the Santa Cruz Warriors, in the NBA G League.

That competition is why Howard decided to play through pain in the July 5 game against the Los Angeles Lakers, when he went 0 for 6 from the field, including 0 for 5 on three-pointers.

"That was a tough decision to make," Howard said. "I mean, it was really one of the hardest situations I could be in. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, just coming out of college. I knew I wanted to do the best I could to show I belong in the NBA. To have this happen, it's like, 'Dang, I know I'm hurt, but I need to see if I can push though it.' I tried to do it the best I could."

Sometime in the near future, Howard said, he will return to Dallas and discuss his options with his agents, Mike Silverman and Brandon Grier.

Howard said the Warriors understand that he hasn't been himself since the injury and that "they have me here for a reason."

"I think it was a sample size of what could have been for the rest of the Summer League," Howard said. "I felt comfortable. I can continue to do that."

Football or not

We are expected to know whether or not Little Rock will have another college football team by the end of the week.

Nearly a year ago, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock announced that it would study the cost of playing football for the first time since 1955 and whether or not the community would support it.

On Jan. 20, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette accumulated the price tags of previous startups: Texas-San Antonio moved forward in 2008 with a cost of $15 million, Alabama-Birmingham rebooted its program in 2017 at $39.7 million, and Wichita State decided to nix the idea of football in 2016 when they found out it would cost $40 million.

It's a wide price range; but ultimately, you can start out slow like UTSA, which still rents out the Alamodome, or you can build new facilities like UAB.

After that, according to athletic budgets from Fiscal Year 2016, a Sun Belt Conference football program had an average annual expense of $7,092,545.

UALR said it sent out a 34-question survey via email to almost 90,000 people in February -- a group that included corporate sponsors, donors, alumni, and UALR staff and students.

The breadth of that survey is part of the reason the result of the study has been so long delayed.

Soon, we'll have an answer.

Old wounds

Let's just call it The Pepper Spray Game.

On Oct. 15, 2011, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff beat Southern 22-21, but if you were down on the field after the game, you probably wouldn't have been able to see the scoreboard.

As both teams exchanged postgame handshakes across midfield, a brawl broke out.

By the end of the following week, the Southwestern Athletic Conference suspended a total of 41 players for one to two games. Six players were starters for UAPB, and the Golden Lions lost their next two games 27-20 and 28-12.

UAPB finished the season with a 5-4 conference record, and the suspensions most likely prevented the Golden Lions from appearing in their second SWAC Championship Game.

The final tensions began when Southern trailed UAPB 22-15 with two seconds remaining in the game.

A facemask penalty on a sack set Southern at the UAPB 11, and two seconds mistakenly ran off the clock. That provoked the P.A. announcer to say "that's the ballgame" and UAPB rushed the field.

After the Golden Lions bench returned to the sideline, Southern scored a touchdown on an 11-yard screen play.

UAPB's Jarvis Webb won the game by blocking Southern's extra point attempt with no time left.

Then, according to Democrat-Gazette archives, players from both teams "began shoving one another during post-game handshakes."

"At least one player swung a helmet," according to the article. "Both teams threw punches, fans threw debris from the stands while coaches and law enforcement tried to calm the tension."

Former UAPB head Coach Monte Coleman was interviewed afterward, but he couldn't provide any detail because he missed most of the melee while trying to get pepper spray out of his eyes.

It took nearly 10 minutes to clear the field.

UAPB sent video footage to SWAC officials and were handed their punishments following Friday.

The SWAC suspended 25 UAPB players and 16 from Southern.

Eyes on Hansen

Senior quarterback Justice Hansen and safety Justin Clifton will be the spokespeople for Arkansas State University at the Sun Belt Conference Media Day on July 23.

It's Hansen's second consecutive trip to New Orleans, and this time, he'll get plenty of publicity as the reigning Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Year.

Hansen can become the most decorated ASU quarterback since Ryan Aplin, who won his second Sun Belt Player of the Year award in 2012 after throwing 24 touchdowns and 4 interceptions.

For those of you dreaming big, the highest a Group of 5 player has made it in the Heisman voting in the last 20 seasons is third: Northern Illinois quarterback Jordan Lynch in 2013, and Hawaii's Colt Brennan in 2007.

Both quarterbacks destroyed NCAA records.

Hansen broke Sun Belt single-season records in total offense (4,389 yards), passing touchdowns (37) and total touchdowns (44) in 2017.

Sports on 07/15/2018

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