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| Ted Crass (right) at the opening tip. |
Crass was honored as part of a pregame ceremony on Saturday. Then henot only got the start against rival Arkansas State, he played more than threeminutes. And he held his own.
That included diving on the floor to record a steal in the officialgame statistics.
I’ve seen coaches start seniors in situations like this and pull themout at the first dead ball. But Shields didn’t go that route. He stuck with himfor a couple of minutes.
BURNING SENSATION
UALR freshman guard John Gillon established a pretty solid career high in his Trojan debut way back in November when he scored 22 points against Tennessee-Martin. It took 30 games for him to break that mark. Gillon had 24 points in Saturday’s victory over Arkansas State. By the way, Gillon was a +21 when on the court last night.
BURN BABY BURN
Little Rock’s Trey Finn, a UALR defector playing for ASU, dropped to1-3 in games played in Little Rock during his career.
VOCABULARY
Props to the ASU fans sitting in my section for teaching my daughters some colorful words tonight. It's among the reasons we no longer go to Jonesboro. Hopefully they payed full price for those tickets and $10 to park.
STAT OF THE GAME
Believe it or not, Saturday’s 59 combined fouls wasn’t even close to the most between these two teams in recent years. The 2010 Sun Belt Tournament game between ASU and UALR produced a combined 64 fouls and 94 free throws. The teams shot only 66 free throws on Saturday.
BTH KEYS
Javes your way: UALR sophomore Michael Javes finished with 9 points.But he got UALR off to a nice start, scoring the Trojans’ first five points at a time when they were struggling. Fouls limited him to just 20 minutes. Grade:C.
Sporty forty: We said whichever team could shoot 40 percent would win. Both ended up doing it. Arkansas State shot 42.9 percent while UALR shot 44.9.Grade: A.
Will to win: Looking at the stats, Will Neighbour finished with just 6 points and 4 rebounds. But Neighbour didn’t force much and drew a lot of defensive attention from ASU. He also ranked second on the team with a +14 rating in the plus/minus. Grade: B.
THE GOOD
UALR made 29 of 35 free throws for 82.9 percent. That included 15 of 18 from freshman John Gillon.
THE BAD
UALR didn’t record a rebound through the game’s first two media timeouts.
THE UGLY
It might be easier to tell you who didn’t get a technical foul on Saturday. ASU’s Kendrick Washington and UALR’s Michael Javes got double technicals with13:18 left in the first half. Then UALR’s James White got one with 10:17 left in the first. That was followed by ASU’s Ed Townsell getting a tech with 15 seconds left in the half. It continued in the second half. UALR’s Kemy Osse and ASU’s Cameron Golden were T-ed up with 14:25. And it wouldn’t be a UALR-ASU game without a John Brady tech. He got his with 8:58 remaining. Yep. That’s seven technical fouls.
VEGAS, BABY
ASU was a pregame favorite and did not cover. That makes those betting on ASU, including the guys sitting behind us at the JSC, losers.
PREDICTIONS
Only RealTime RPI and The Sports Network went with UALR.
UP NEXT
Sun Belt Tournament next Saturday at 6 p.m. against Florida International.
