According to Joe Foley, there is parity in Sun Belt Conference women's basketball unlike he has seen before.
After the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's 62-58 loss Saturday at Arkansas State University, UALR's coach made note of the league being more "open" this season. He said so again Monday.
"I think 4-5 teams can win," Foley said Monday at the Downtown Tip-Off Club luncheon in North Little Rock, where he was a guest speaker. "It's never been in that situation."
The loss at ASU and a 50-48 loss at Texas State on Feb. 16 have put the Trojans (15-10, 11-3 Sun Belt) in second place behind Texas-Arlington (20-6, 12-3). Troy (19-6, 10-4) is in third.
The top three schools have controlled the top three slots of the Sun Belt standings all season. Troy -- which defeated UALR 71-66 on Jan. 10 in Troy, Ala. -- held the No. 1 seed after opening the season with five consecutive victories and a 7-1 record through the first eight games.
After its loss at Troy, UALR rattled off nine consecutive victories, including two against Texas-Arlington and a 76-72 victory against Troy in Little Rock on Feb. 7.
UALR held the No. 1 seed for several consecutive weeks. After a victory against Troy elevated UALR to the Sun Belt's clear front-runner, the Trojans took a step back.
Foley -- who said UALR's recent issues sprung after the Troy victory because his team became complacent -- cited immaturity as part of the reason for the two-game losing streak.
"Everybody is expecting me to go into practice and kill them," he said Monday, two days after the second consecutive loss. "I killed them last week. I knew what was coming."
In his 16th season, Foley was very blunt about what happened at Arkansas State and why it needed to happen.
The coach did not start four of his usual starters and most trusted veterans. He benched his leading scorer, junior guard Kyra Collier; his two sophomore starting guards, Tori Lasker and Terrion Moore; and senior forward Raeyana DeGray to begin Saturday's game.
The lineup shuffle was unusual, especially on the heels of a loss. It seemed as if Foley was OK with fielding a lesser version of the Trojans to send a message.
As he revealed Monday, he was.
"You've got to be willing to lose to win," Foley said. "It doesn't kill me to lose a game. If we have to take a hit every now and then, it's not going to kill me."
It will be unknown how Foley's message was received by the Trojans until they meet last-place Georgia Southern (7-19, 2-13) at 11:30 a.m. Thursday at the Jack Stephens Center.
The Trojans have four games remaining. They will host Georgia Southern and current No. 4 seed Georgia State (15-11, 9-6) at 3 p.m. Saturday as their final two home games of the season.
UALR will travel to Louisiana-Lafayette (7-18, 5-9) and Louisiana-Monroe (8-17, 2-12) on March 7 and 9, respectively, to complete the regular season.
Georgia Southern, Louisiana-Lafayette and Louisiana-Monroe sit as three of the Sun Belt's four worst teams. UALR swept Louisiana-Monroe and Louisiana-Lafayette on Jan. 3 and 5, respectively, by double digits.
Troy and Texas-Arlington -- UALR's competition for a top two seed in the conference tournament, which guarantees a bye to the semifinal round -- will play each other Saturday.
"Hopefully, we'll be No. 1 or 2," Foley said. "If not, we'll have to win three [games in the Sun Belt Tournament] to get to the NCAA [Tournament]. The key right now is to have your team get hot."
Sports on 02/27/2019