BURN THE HORSE
Last weekend, UALR had to play at Arkansas State less than 48 hours after playing a game at Monroe, La. While UALR was playing at Monroe, Arkansas State was resting at home. UALR was able to hold on down the stretch to win that one.
The same thing happened this week. While UALR played Louisiana-Lafayette on Thursday night, Western Kentucky sat at home. When they played on Saturday, UALR seemed to run out of gas late in a loss to the Hilltoppers. This game tipped off less than 40 hours after UALR left the court.
No clue why the Sun Belt Conference chooses to do this? There are an even number of conference teams and its unnecessary for them to have a conference gamedate off.
It was scheduled 18 times this year by the Sun Belt. On only one of those 18 did both teams have the previous Thursday off.
UALR will finally enjoy the advantage when it hosts Louisiana-Monroe on Feb. 4.
Of those 18 games, the resting team only has to travel one time. That already occurred as South Alabama had Dec. 29 off before playing at Middle Tennessee on Dec. 31.
The most victimized team is Western Kentucky, which will have to play a rested team four times this season. Arkansas State, Troy and Florida International don’t have to play with that disadvantage at all.
