LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Last
night’s win was pretty impressive. When the schedules came out, this five-game
stretch really jumped out. Seeing Western Kentucky, South Alabama, at Troy,
Middle Tennessee and at Arkansas-Little Rock consecutively in a 15-day period
was daunting. Right now, those are the five best teams in the Sun Belt
Conference, all fighting for a first round bye in the SBC Tournament.
So, spirits were very high after beating Middle Tennessee
last night, which added to the victories over both NCAA Tournament teams from
last season. In fact, the Pioneers are within an overtime period of heading
into the game at UALR on a four-game winning streak over the top teams in the
SBC East Division.
With that, UALR is playing very well this season. In the
nonconference season, the Trojans beat Creighton at home, and took out
Pepperdine and Oral Roberts on the road. They narrowly dropped an eight-point
loss to Memphis, which came within 2:13 of a national championship last year
but lost to Kansas. UALR has won 16 games this season, and the team leads the
SBC West Division by a solid four games with seven left to play.
The good news is the Pioneers are one of the teams tied for
second place behind the Trojans. The less-than-good news is that DU is tied
with Arkansas State, North Texas and Louisiana-Lafayette, while New Orleans
sits just a half game behind those four teams. With that many teams bunched
together, the fight to host first round games in the Sun Belt Conference
Tournament is full swing.
The seeding for the tournament is somewhat confusing, but
here are the basics. The top team from each division (currently Western
Kentucky and UALR) and the team with the next best record will all receive
first round byes and automatically advance to the quarterfinals in Hot Springs,
Ark. The fourth through eighth seeds will host a first round game, in which No.
4 would play No. 13, No. 5 would play No. 12, and so on.
I know people might be growing tired of hearing how young
this team is, but it seems to be less of an excuse or apology than it is a
sense of amazement at this point. This team has played really well since Dec.
9, going 9-6 in those 15 games. DU has put up double-digit leads in four road
games, even if the team did eventually lose. And those six losses? They were by
a total of 18 points. That’s three points per game – or an average of a single
possession. That sounds more like a veteran team than the youngest team in the
nation.
Elevation: The
elevator in the Jack Stephens Center has no numbers associated to each floor.
Instead, from top to bottom, it spells “S-M-L-E.” I mentioned that it was nice
that the elevator buttons look like “smile.” Mitch Hyder, on the other hand,
thought it looked more like “smelly.” Of course, Hyder also pointed out the
tree enthusiasts could read it from the bottom up and get “elms.” Yes, these
are the things we notice.
League of Their Own:
Western Kentucky’s Courtney Lee has gotten a lot of publicity for going from
the Sun Belt to the NBA, and it’s certainly warranted. Lee is playing well for
the Orlando Magic, including a 21-point performance by going 9-for-10 on
Wednesday night.
However, another Sun Belt alum is considerably more
established in the NBA, and his number is hanging in the rafters of the Jack
Stephens Center here at UALR. Derek Fisher played for the Trojans from 1992-96,
culminating in a SBC championship his senior season. Since then, Fisher helped
the Los Angeles Lakers win three-consecutive NBA Championships from 1999-2002,
and played on two other Laker teams that lost in the Finals, including last
year. Fisher returned to L.A. after three years with Golden State and Utah, to
help the Lakers reach the Finals before falling to the Boston Celtics.
Yearly travel totals:
Total Flights – 17
Total Mileage Flown
– 15,584
Total Bus Miles –
1,506
Total Number of Hotels – 14
Total Number of
Different Airports – 11
Total Number of
Airline Delays – 1
Total Number of
Cancelled Flights – 1
Total Number of Bags
Lost – 3
Total Number of Games
as a Head Coach for Joe Scott after Tonight – 250
Total Number of Snuggies
Ads Passed by the Team Bus – 1 ($14.99 at Walgreens)
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