N/A
Stephen F. Austin, and the F is for 14.
The No. 14 Lumberjacks trumped the No. 3 West Virginia Mountaineers in the round of 64 on Friday, icing the 70-56 win with this Thomas Walkup dagger from downtown.
Check out those handles, though.
The smaller programs in Division I deal with all sorts of difficulties. Limited funding, small home crowds, inferior facilities and lack of access to quality recruits are all issues facing teams in the lower-tier conferences.
Southland Conference team Central Arkansas added a new obstacle to the list of difficulties this weekend: having your head coach jump ship for an assistant coach position in the NBA less than a month before the start of the semester.
Coach Corliss Williamson was hired as an assistant by his old team, the Sacramento Kings, as UCA announced on its website (h/t College Basketball Talk).
Williamson had been the Bears' head coach for the last three seasons. Although his overall record at UCA was 26-62, his teams had been showing steady improvement, which is a big deal for what had been one of the worst teams in all of Division I basketball.
Last year, Williamson guided the Bears to their first-ever appearance in the Southland Conference tournament.
While the school already has a strong football team at the FCS level, for the first time there was finally reason for optimism surrounding the basketball team.
Unfortunately for Central Arkansas, uncertainty once again envelopes the program after losing its head coach shortly before the beginning of fall semester.
Williamson can hardly be blamed for jumping at the chance to join the staff of his former NBA team. However, it is unfortunate for UCA that it occurred so close to the start of the school year.
Associate head coach Clarence Finley has been promoted to interim head coach for the season, so hopefully having someone already with the program step in and take the reigns will help prevent a drop-off.
The UCA Bears are now left fighting against yet another obstacle on their path to success, but such is the life of teams at the bottom of Division I.
For the third game in a row, the Bearkats will be taking on a solid non-conference opponent at home at Johnson Coliseum.
This third game is likely the toughest of the bunch. Cleveland State will come in with a 10-0 record, ranked No. 1 in the collegeinsider.com mid-major poll.
On top of all that, the Vikings beat the Bearkats 80-65 last season.
Coach Gary Waters has a young team with only two seniors on the roster, but it hasn't seemed to matter to this point.
It's no surprise that CSU's veterans lead the team on the court. Senior guard Norris Cole paces the Vikings with 21.5 points per game. He is also the team's leading distributor with 48 assists on the season.
Junior guards Trevon Harmon and Jeremy Montgomery help out with 13.6 and 12.2 points per game, respectively.
Junior forward Aaron Pogue provides much of the muscle on the interior, averaging 7.5 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.
For the Vikings, rebounding is more of a team effort rather than an individual effort. Pogue leads the way, but CSU has five players averaging 3.5 rebounds per game or more.
The Cleveland State offense goes as their guard play goes, and their shooting as a team shows it. Nearly a third of their field goal attempts are from behind the arc. They shoot 36.5 percent from long range. They also shoot a solid 72.1 percent from the free throw line.
Pogue with his 7.5 points per game is the only forward averaging more than 4.9 points per game.
Like the Bearkats, the Vikings like to have their defense set the tone. They average holding their opponents to 58.7 points per game.
Defensively, they're led by point guard Norris Cole. He has 28 steals so far this season. Harmon and Montgomery both average more than one steal per contest.
In the post, forward Charlie Woods has 11 blocks and Pogue has seven.
In terms of pace, CSU will give the Bearkats an opponent that will allow them to get up and down the court. The Vikings put the game in the hands of the guards and there isn't a big-scoring post player that you have to worry about. Of course, I said that before the Houston game and Kendrick Washington went for 20.
I'd look for the Bearkats to feed Gilberto Clavell early and often. CSU doesn't have much depth in the frontcourt. Clavell can handle their post players one on one. The hope is that CSU's ball-hawking guards collapse into the post, and that will leave the Bearkat guards with open threes. With the way the Vikings' guards defend the ball, you don't want your guards to be trying to shake them one on one.
Cleveland State averages defeating its opponents by 15 points. That won't happen Saturday afternoon.
For the Bearkats, this game gives them a chance to finish 2-1 in this series of three good non-conference games. These games give you a good barometer of how conference play might go. If the Bearkats duplicate the performance they gave Wednesday night against North Texas, they might be trying to tell us that conference play will go well.
Remember the night of Nov. 16th, when I said that the Bearkats had just given their most complete performance in defeating Colorado State, 92-81?
They played a more complete game on Wednesday night against North Texas, as the Bearkats rolled to a 92-74 victory.
You really don't have to even look beyond the box score to see how the Kats were so successful.
As a team, they shot 53.1 percent from the field, including 61.3 percent in the second half and 40 percent from beyond the three-point line.
On the defensive side, they held North Texas to 47.1 percent shooting from the field and 20 percent shooting from behind the arc.
Most importantly, the Bearkats held the Mean Green's leading scorer Tristan Thompson to seven points on 1-8 shooting. Guard Josh White managed 14 points, but it came on 5-13 shooting.
The Bearkats were lead on both ends by Josten Crow: He poured in an efficient 24 points, 10 assists and five rebounds; he was also the unfortunate Bearkat chosen to try and hold Tristan Thompson. Given Thompson's shooting woes, I'd say Crow succeeded.
Gilberto Clavell played the rare role of second fiddle in putting up 17 points on 7-11 shooting, giving him one of his more efficient performances.
Going into the game, you knew that the Bearkats would need a couple of players to step their games up and Marcus Williams and Nafis Richardson did just that.
Williams had 15 points and eight assists and went three for four on his three-point attempts. He did a great job of hitting the open jumper when the Mean Green collapsed into the post to double Clavell.
Richardson had his best game of the season with 14 points. No points were bigger than the two he got on a rim-rattling dunk late in the game that served as the nail in the coffin.
The game ended up looking like a blowout, but it was anything but for much of the game. The Mean Green weathered the Bearkats hot shooting by pounding the ball inside and forcing the action.
Forward Kedrick Hogans led the Mean Green with 19 points. Life was easy for him as he made eight of his nine shots on the night.
The Mean Green also managed to shoot 32 free throws thanks to their persistence in the post. When the got free throws, they made them count by sinking 75 percent of them.
This game, coupled with the Colorado State game from November, answer questions about just how good the Bearkats can be. If they play like they did on these two nights, they can beat any team on their schedule.
For now, though, the Bearkats will just be looking to beat the next team on their schedule.
In this case, that team is the Cleveland State Vikings, who won't make things any easier.
Last season, they wiped the floor with the Bearkats. The Bearkats will hope that revenge will taste sweet come Saturday afternoon.
The Bearkats will look to add a solid non-conference victory to their resume in their game against North Texas Wednesday night.
Last time out, the Bearkats gave a good effort, but ultimately fell at home against the Houston Cougars.
A similar effort will be needed against the Mean Green. In fact, it may require an even greater effort. UNT is a program on the rise under coach Johnny Jones. They are currently ranked tenth in collegeinsider.com's Mid-Major Rankings.
North Texas will roll into Johnson Coliseum with a 7-1 record that includes solid wins over Texas Tech, Rice, Texas State, UT-Arlington, Grambling State, and Texas Southern.
The Mean Green are led by the 22.3 points per game scored by senior guard Tristan Thompson. That's not to be confused with the super-frosh Tristan Thompson that the Bearkats faced when playing the Texas Longhorns.
In addition to his volume scoring, Thompson shoots 43.5 percent from behind the three point arc. Defensively, you have to know where he is on the court at all times. If he finds any openings, he will make you pay.
Senior guard Dominique Johnson runs the point for the Mean Green. The Kansas City native averages 10.9 points per game, but it's his work as a distributor that makes him special. He leads the team with 35 assists and has an assists to turnover ration just over two to one.
The post is patroled by senior forward George Odufuwa and redshirt junior Kedrick Hogans. The two average 10.7 and 9.6 points per game. Odufuwa, an Arizona State transfer, pulls down 11.3 rebounds per game, giving him a double-double average.
Senior guard Josh White also has the potential to be an explosive scorer for UNT. He chips in with 15.3 points per game. He scored 32 on November 16th when North Texas defeated Texas Tech 92-83.
For the Bearkats, the key will be guard play. Gilberto Clavell is doing all he can to lead the team offensively by averaging right at 20 points per game, he won't be able to do it alone. Other than Josten Crow, who is adding 13 points per game, no other player is even averaging eight points per contest.
As a team, the Bearkats are shooting 28.5 percent from the three point line. In an offense that relies a lot on making three point shots when the defense collapses to the post, that percentage isn't going to cut it.
So far this season, team defense has been a strong point for the Bearkats. That will have to continue on Wednesday night. The Mean Green put up 81.3 points per game while the Bearkats only allow 66.8. Something will have to give.
Tip-off is set for 7 PM at Johnson Coliseum.
Any lingering fears that the Bearkats would come out flat coming off an ugly win against St. Thomas were eased very early on.
The Bearkats matched both the tempo and intensity of the Cougars from the start. It didn't take long before you got the feel that the game was going to be hotly contested.
As had been expected, the Kats looked to push the tempo right off the bat. Even with the Houston post players imposing their will inside, the Bearkats running offense always kept the Cougars at arms length.
Drae Murray hit a three to end the first half, leaving the Bearkats feeling good heading into the break trailing by just three.
Just as soon as the second half got underway, Murray launched another three to tie the game. Just like that, the tempo was off to the races again. The Bearkats rode this momentum to a seven-point lead, their largest, with 12 minutes remaining in the game.
From that point, the Cougars slowed their offense down and forced the Bearkats to defend them for all 35 seconds of the shot clock. On the UH possessions, the ball was fed early and often to Kendrick Washington.
With the tempo grinding, the Bearkats began to live and die with their three-point shot. Unfortunately, the season-long struggles with the long-range shot continued. As a team, the Bearkats made just eight of their 25 three-point shots. Lance Pevehouse had the most trouble, going two for 10.
In the last 10 minutes of the second half, there were five lead changes and four ties, all leading up to the final two possessions of the half. The Cougars controlled the ball with an opportunity to get a shot off and leave only seven seconds on the clock.
The Bearkats played tenacious defense for the entire shot clock and forced Kendrick Washington to take a fall away jump shot over Antuan Bootle. The ball caught the iron into the hands of Lance Pevehouse.
As Pevehouse began to make his way up the court, it appeared that Coach Jason Hooten was trying to get a timeout. The crowd was just too loud though. It nearly worked out for the better as Pevehouse found Bootle running down the court free. Bootle caught the pass but couldn't get his layup off in enough time. We were headed to overtime.
The Cougars controlled the overtime, thanks to solid rebounding and their free-throw shooting and were able to salt away the clock.
Washington led the Cougars with 20 points and 11 rebounds. He added three steals. Zamal Nixon kept the Bearkats defense honest by chipping in with 14 points on 50 percent shooting.
The one Cougar who largely went missing for this game was their leading scorer Adam Brown. Physical defense on the part of Josten Crow kept him largely in check. Brown was able to finish with seven points, but he was stuck on three until late in the second half. Proving that you can have a great game as a start and now score, Brown had eight rebounds and 10 assists.
Gilberto Clavell again led the Bearkats in scoring with 25 points. He was inefficient on his field goals, only making six of his 15 attempts, but he did make 13 of his 15 free throws.
Drae Murray might have played his best game of the young season as he added 13 points and eight assists.
The Bearkats need to quickly pick themselves up off the mat and get back into gear. Yes, they lost the game, but there were a lot of good things happening. They would be doing themselves a disservice to view this game in a negative light.
This tough stretch of non-conference games at home continues Wednesday night as the Bearkats take on North Texas at Johnson Coliseum.
A tough weeks worth of non-conference games begins Saturday afternoon when the Sam Houston State Bearkats take on the Houston Cougars.
The Bearkats are coming off a less than inspiring home victory over St. Thomas. Their performance will have to be much-improved to come out with a win on Saturday.
The Cougars are trying to build off last season's NCAA Tournament appearance, but so far it has been an up and down season under first-year head coach James Dickey.
UH boasts blowout wins against Alcorn State and Northwestern Oklahoma State, which is a common opponent for these teams. They also have solid wins over Nicholls State and the Bob Marlin-coached Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns.
Mixed in with those wins are losses against TCU, LSU and Louisiana Tech.
Statistically, the Cougars are led by senior guard Adam Brown, who is averaging 15.4 points per game on 53.4 percent shooting. He has also connected on 17 of his 31 three-point attempts for 54.8 percent. Brown has led the Cougars in scoring in five of their seven games.
Brown controls the perimeter while senior forward Maurice McNeil is the muscle in the paint. In addition to his 11.3 points per game, McNeil leads the team with 9.1 rebounds per game, almost half of which are on the offensive end.
These Cougars don't score quite like those Cougars teams under former head coach Tom Penders, but they have plenty of guys that can fill it up. Seven players are averaging at least six points per contest.
They don't take as many threes as they did under Penders, but they still shoot a lot of them. So far this season, they have shot 122 of them. Their percentages are up, though. As a team, they are shooting 39.3 percent from behind the arc. Compare that to last season when they shot 35.6 percent as a team and to two seasons ago when they shot 32.3 percent.
What this UH team will bring that no UH team ever brought under Penders is a defensive edge. As a team, they come into this game with 32 total blocked shots and 39 steals. They are holding opponents to 66.4 points per game.
The Cougars are led on the defensive end by lightning quick point guard Zamal Nixon. The senior out of Brooklyn leads the team with 15 steals, more than two per game. Alandise Harris, Maurice McNeil and Kirk Van Slyke each average right around one blocked shot per game.
I would like this matchup for the Bearkats a lot more of they were still coached by Penders. One of the struggles thus far for the Bearkats has been getting into any sort of rhythm on the offensive end. The Penders run and gun offense would have give the Kats a good chance to push the pace and run a little bit. They have wanted to push the pace all season, but the grind it out pace of other teams has kept that from happening very often.
As it is now, the Bearkats may have to try to dictate tempo and get some of the Cougars who played under Penders to fall back into old habits and start launching shots early in the shot clock.
For me, rebounding is a huge part of this game. If you're going to try to start fast breaks and get points in transition, you have to rebound the basketball and keep the Cougars from getting multiple shots on each possession. This is easier said than done thanks to the Cougars veteran frontcourt led by McNeil, who we discussed is an elite offensive rebounder.
Judging by the way teams have defended the Bearkats recently, the secret is out that they are going to try to post up either Clavell or Bootle almost every time down in the half court offense. The inconsistent shooting of the Bearkat guards thus far has kept them from being able to keep defenses honest. Teams are collapsing into the post and daring the guards to drain threes when the big men kick it back out. This would certainly be a fine time for the outside shooting to come alive.
This game on Saturday will give the Bearkats a little peek into what conference play might be like. The Cougars will push the Bearkats as much as any team in the Southland. I'm guessing the Bearkats will come out ready to play coming off the ugly game against St. Thomas. If this game turns into a relative track meet, the Bearkats have a good shot to come out with a win. If they are forced into playing the tempo UH wants to play, we may have another ugly, foul-ridden game on our hands.
Before I go, I'd like to thank the Alvin Brooks family for likely making this game happen. This non-conference game makes way too much sense to not happen from time to time. I look forward to it and I hope to see many of you at Johnson Coliseum Saturday afternoon.
Coming off their best all-around performance in a win Saturday night against Colorado State, the Bearkats headed home to try to build on that game and pick up a win heading into three big non-conference home games over the next two weeks.
The win they picked up, but St. Thomas had a little something to say about the Bearkats keeping momentum heading into the weekend.
The 'Kats were forced to scratch and claw their way to a 54-46 victory over the Celts.
The Celts came out early and set the tone with slow, patient offensive sets. They were intent on moving the ball until they found the one shot they couldn't pass up. Not only did it lead to made baskets, but it kept the Bearkats from being able to get out in transition and run.
The Bearkats in turn moved the ball well, but couldn't get their shots to fall. Several Bearkats never got it going. Aaron Thompson, Nafis Richardson, Drae Murray and Antuan Bootle combined to miss all 16 shots they took.
As a team, Sam Houston shot 30.8 percent from the field.
The Celts made it their mission to force the Bearkats post players to work extra hard for their looks inside. That mission was certainly accomplished as Gilberto Clavell went 5-for-14 in addition to Bootle's rough night.
The saving grace of the night might have been the 14 points the Bearkats scored off of the 25 turnovers for St. Thomas.
Clavell's 16 points led the way for the 'Kats, but it was Josten Crow who led the offense. He poured in 14, but it was on much more efficient 5-for-8 shooting. Crow added four assists and six steals to complete a very well-rounded stat line.
The Celts scrappy, half-court offense kept them in the game, but overall the 'Kats did a good job keeping them from having a field day. As a team, the Celts shot 38.1 percent from the floor and 29.4 percent from behind the arc.
Jeremy Lewis led the way for St. Thomas with 14. Andrew Medina added 11 off the bench.
From here, the Bearkats will stay at home for a tough stretch of games. They host the University of Houston on Saturday, North Texas on the 8th and Cleveland State on the 11th.
Tip-off for Saturday's game against the Cougars is set for 2 PM at Johnson Coliseum.
Coming off their most complete performance of the season, the Bearkats will come back home Wednesday night to take on the St. Thomas Celts.
The Bearkats won't need quite the offensive effort to pick up a win on Wednesday night.
The Celts are only in their second year of existence competing in NAIA as an independent under head coach Todd Smith.
Smith is best known for his work as the top assistant coach at Rice University under the highly successful Willis Wilson. His best work is considered recruiting NBA players Mike Wilks, Morris Almond, and Mike Harris to campus at Rice.
The Celts are 3-5 on the season, including a loss against the Rice Owls in their only other game against a Division I opponent to this point.
They kept the Rice game relatively close and only lost by 12, which I'm sure is proof enough to Coach Hooten and the Bearkats that they still must play their game.
It's easy to look past games like these, but the Bearkats have to find a way to stay focused and continue to improve. Even if (or when) the game gets out of hand, the Bearkats need to look at it as an opportunity to clean up some things and use the game time as a full practice.
I wouldn't expect anything to change for the Bearkats in their game plan. They have tried to get the ball to Gilberto Clavell early and often and this game shouldn't be any exception. The Celts won't have the size, strength, or skill to stop him if he plays like he did in Fort Collins on Saturday night.
St. Thomas will at the very least provide reasonably challenging matchups for the Bearkats defensively. In terms of size, their roster is very similar to that of the Bearkats. They have one player, center Ivan Earls, who stands 6'8". Another, forward Henoc Jean, stands 6'7". Outside of those two, no player stands taller than 6'5". They do, however, have nine players on their roster who stand between 6'3" and 6'5".
The uniformity of their roster leads me to believe that Coach Smith likes to use his players interchangeably rather than tying them down to one position or another. This will serve them well when they may need to move a fresher body over to cover a hot Bearkat shooter.
If, say, Lance Pevehouse were to get hot from the perimeter, it would be a luxury for Coach Smith to be able to move one guy off of him and be able to put a similar player in his place.
I expect to see a very workmanlike performance out of the Bearkats on Wednesday night. Coach Hooten won't allow his guy to get complacent or look past the Celts. It won't take a perfect game to beat them, but any team can be competitive with them if they come out flat or sloppy.
Home games against the University of Houston and the University of North Texas are looming on the schedule. This game against St. Thomas needs to be used as a springboard into those games and not as a step back prior to them.
Sam Houston State put together their best performance Saturday night in Fort Collins, Colorado on the way to defeating the Colorado State Rams 92-81.
The first half was marred with many of the same struggles that the Bearkats have had for much of the early season. They turned the ball over 15 times and were shooting 25 percent from the three point line.
The second half was a much different story. The Bearkats outscored the Rams 60-43 in that second half, largely thanks to shooting 70.8 percent from the field and making five out of their eight three point attempts.
Maybe the biggest change at the half was that the Bearkats only turned the ball over five times in the second half. Good things tend to happen when your possessions end with a shot and not with a turnover.
The Bearkats shot 73.2 percent from the free throw line as a team, making the Rams pay for their foul trouble. If the Bearkats had shot free throws as poorly as they had for much of the early season, this is a much different result.
Prior to the game, Colorado State head coach Tim Miles mentioned that their biggest goal was to turn Gilberto Clavell into a passer rather than a scorer so that he couldn't get comfortable. Whether it was poor game planning or poor execution I'm not sure, but it didn't work. Clavell led all scorers with 29 points. He made ten of his 14 field goal attempts and was nine for 11 at the free throw line. He added nine rebounds, four of which were on the offensive end.
Clavell wasn't the only standout, however. Antuan Bootle added nine rebounds, with five of his being offensive boards. Josten Crow added 20 points including going three for three from beyond the arc.
Marcus Williams had his best game statistically as he had 17 points. He leaves something to be desired in his shooting percentage as he went three for seven, but he did get to the free throw line 14 times, making ten of them.
Lance Pevehouse rounded out a good night for the starting lineup by pouring in 14 points of his own. He only made three of his nine three point shots on the night, but he went three for six in the second half on his long range shots.
The Bearkat defense made life difficult for the Rams, particularly on the perimeter. Colorado State shot 23.1 percent from the three point line. The worst night went to Rams gunner Adam Nigon. He missed all six of his three point shots.
Not surprisingly, star forwards Travis Franklin and Andy Ogide led the way for the Rams. Franklin had 22 and Ogide scored 20, both on nine of 12 shooting.
Guard Jesse Carr added 18 for the Rams.
In his pregame interview, CSU head coach Tim Miles made a point to mention that he knew that the Bearkats would be a tough test. He got all he had imagined and even more as I'm not even sure Jason Hooten would have thought that the Bearkats could play as well as they did in the second half Saturday night.
After playing the last two on the road, the Bearkats will return home Wednesday, December 1st to play St. Thomas. Tip-off is set for 7 PM.
