Something odd seems to happen to the UALR
basketball team between Thursday night and Saturday. Champs on Thursday, chumps
on Saturday.
UALR will put that to the test again
today when the Trojans (10-9, 6-3) travel to Mobile, Ala., to take on South
Alabama at 4:05 p.m. at the Mitchell Center.
UALR is 4-0 this season when playing
on Thursday night. The Trojans are just 1-5 this season on Saturday, winning
only at Texas-Arlington on a last-second buzzer beater.
The past three Saturdays have been
disasters for the Trojans.
“Facing quick turnarounds, we didn’t
play as well as we’d like in our last three Saturday games,” UALR Coach Steve
Shields said. “We have to improve on that, knowing that everyone in our league
is in the same situation. We all play Thursday-Saturday games. We played well
at UTA in our first Saturday game of conference play but we haven’t played well
on a Saturday since. That has to
improve.”
UALR beat South Alabama 65-60 on
Thursday, Jan. 9. Then the Trojans lost at home to Troy 75-62 on Saturday, Jan.
11.
UALR turned it around the next week,
beating Western Kentucky 87-83 on Thursday, Jan. 16. Then the Trojans got
destroyed by Georgia State 99-73 on Saturday, Jan. 18.
UALR got back on track again with a
69-64 victory over Texas State on Thursday, Jan. 23. Then UALR got blown up
77-49 at Arkansas State on Saturday, Jan. 25.
And that brings us to tonight’s game
at South Alabama. UALR is coming off Thursday’s 80-69 victory over
Louisiana-Lafayette. Can the Trojans flip the script tonight against South
Alabama?
BURN UNIT
South Alabama is the most puzzling
team in the Sun Belt Conference. The highly-touted Jaguars have fallen to 1-6
in Sun Belt play. They have a talented roster that includes likely All-Sun Belt
first teamer Augustine Rubit. Their losses haven’t, for the most part, been
blowouts. The lost by 2 to Western Kentucky 10 to Georgia State, 5 to UALR, 12
to Arkansas State, 6 to Louisiana-Monroe and 8 to Texas-Arlington. With their
backs against the wall, expect them to put together their best effort of the
season tonight.
HALFWAY POINT
UALR reached the halfway point of the
Sun Belt Conference season at 6-3 while playing five of the nine games on the
road. UALR’s four road games in the second half of the season are South
Alabama, Troy, Louisiana-Lafayette and Louisiana-Monroe. We love Omni Rankings
(www.omnirankings.com) but it doesn’t
paint a pretty picture. It has UALR losing all nine games.
INJURY REPORT
James White tells us he’ll be back
next week. Therefore we don’t expect him to play tonight.
KING PRIAM’S KEYS
JAGS SUB 50: Shooting 50 percent from
the field is a pretty high mark to set. But when South Alabama shoots below 50
percent from the field they are 4-12 on the season. That includes 0-5 in Sun
Belt play.
THREES BELOW 35: UALR has now held an
opponent below 35 percent from the three-point line in three consecutive games.
The Trojans can’t afford a slip up tonight.
15 TIMES AT THE LINE: South Alabama is
2-8 this season when its opponent makes 15 free throws.
FREE JOSH: The breakout game for Josh
Hagins is coming.
WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS?
Still waiting on a credible line.
Expect South Alabama to be favored by 5-6 points.
