The University of Arkansas at Little Rock's women's basketball team will carry the burden of being the hunted.
The Trojans were selected as the Sun Belt Conference preseason favorite by the league's 12 coaches earlier this week. A year removed from winning the Sun Belt's regular season and tournament championships, UALR is two weeks away from its Nov. 9 season opener against Louisiana Tech.
"To me, that's a prediction. Nobody can predict what's going to happen," said UALR Coach Joe Foley, who's entering his 16th season at the school. "I don't get too caught up in that. That's because of what we've done in the past. That's traditions and all that. Everybody knows we've got some good players and a lot of experience to be picked No. 1."
Senior forward Ronjanae DeGray, who was selected the 2018-19 Sun Belt Preseason Player of the Year, averaged 13.8 points and 5.6 rebounds per game to lead the Trojans last season. Her sister, Raeyana, also a senior, and sophomore guard Tori Lasker, who was named to the SBC's Preseason All-Sun Belt Third Team, produced 47 percent of UALR's offense last season.
"It helps a lot to be able to get the offense going a lot quicker and focus on defense more, than having to teach our offense for such a long period of time," Ronjanae DeGray said.
The Trojans have four freshmen on their roster. The team is loaded with upperclassmen without many on-court minutes under their belts and now needing to produce with more playing time headed their way, Foley said Thursday at UALR's preseason media day.
"Some of them have played a lot. Some of them haven't played a lot," Foley said. "I think that's going to be key to this year's future: if those kids that are juniors that haven't played a lot, if they come on and do what they're supposed to be doing as juniors and seniors, then we have a chance to be a really good ball club."
UALR does not have much time to find the new contributors.
After opening at Louisiana Tech, three consecutive home games await the Trojans. Florida Atlantic, Rice and Texas A&M will visit the Jack Stephens Center on Nov. 14, 17 and 20, respectively. The home matchup with the Aggies begins what Foley described as a "murderers row" of nonconference games.
A trip to LSU is sandwiched between the Nov. 14-20 homestand and three more in Little Rock against Mississippi State, Western Kentucky and Kansas State.
UALR's first eight games could be a large enough evaluation for the Sun Belt's preseason favorite.
"We're trying to be the preseason No. 1 pick in two or three conferences this year," Foley joked. "We enjoy playing that type of schedule ... It'll tell us a lot about this ball club, what we need to work on and how far we've got to go to be a good basketball team."
Ronjanae DeGray, a first-team All-Sun Belt member last season, joins Arkansas State's Akasha Westbrook, South Alabama's Savannah Jones, Texas State's Toshua Leavitt and Troy's Kayla Robinson on this year's conference preseason first-team.
Sports on 10/26/2018