LITTLE ROCK — A team without a tourney
When discussing his 25th season as Arkansas-Fort Smith women’s basketball Coach, Louis Whorton doesn’t sound like a man whose season was derailed before it began and will end long before it should.
“We decided long ago we’re not going to cry over spilt milk,” Whorton said.
Arkansas-Fort Smith’s figurative milk spilled when it failed to gain permanent NCAA Division II status last summer.
The NCAA membership committee first denied its request to join Division II in July, and denied an appeal a month later, citing the athletic department didn’t meet the minimum number of sports to be admitted to Division II.
That meant all of the Lions’ teams would have to spend one more season as a provisional Division II member and play through a Heartland Conference schedule without the ability to win any championships.
But when asked, Whorton steers conversations toward next season - when he has six seniors, including three he redshirted this season after learning of the denied Division II status - and the good things he expects to be coming for his Lady Lions.
“We’re looking forward to the future,” he said.
His team’s performance in the present, though, would normally have it eyeing postseason success.
The Lady Lions would be leading the Heartland standings if they were eligible, and head into tonight’s season finale against Ecclessia College with a 20-5 overall record and an 11-1 conference mark.
The Lady Lions are seeking their 12th victory in 13 games, a run sparked by Whorton’s shift to a zone defense. Of those victories, 10 have come by 13 or more points.
Whorton said he is very impressed in the season, considering his players found out in August their season would end in February no matter how many games they won.
“I thought it’d be impossible,” he said of finding sources of motivation, “especially with the talent we redshirted, to compete at the level we’ve competed at the entire year.
It was the biggest challenge.”
But Whorton never did find problems with inspiration.
Not when a player quit around Christmas, dropping his number of available players to eight, and not during a three-week stretch in December and January when the Lady Lions lost three of four games.
Instead, Whorton shifted to a zone defense and his team’s only loss since was a 101-97 setback Feb. 7 to Newman (Kan.) University, which currently leads the conference.
UA-Fort Smith’s Coby Hill is fifth in the conference in scoring at 14.2 points per game, and Whitney Lee is ninth at 12.8 points.
Today, Ashley Arnold will be honored during the Lady Lions’ first senior night celebration - the school competed as a junior college until 2009 - as the program’s first four-year player.
That serves as a consolation for Whorton and his hope for a better 2011-2012 season.
Arkansas-Fort Smith will be reconsidered by the NCAA membership committee this summer.
“This is a team that’s tournament ready and doesn’t have a tournament to go to,” Whorton said. “But that’s life. ... When it comes down to it, there’s going to be one national champion at the end.
That doesn’t mean everyone else has had a bad year.” HARDING MEN
Another shot at Tech
Heading into the final weekend of the Gulf South Conference season, only three of the 14 teams have been eliminated from consideration for next month’s conference tournament.
Only three teams, too,have clinched berths in the tournament, which means eight teams will spend tonight and Saturday fighting for five spots.
Harding Coach Jeff Morgan said that makes for an exciting finish to a long conference season, but he’s glad his Bisons (21-3, 11-1) aren’t in any way involved.
No matter what happens tonight against Arkansas Tech (21-3 12-0 Gulf South) or Saturday against Henderson State (7-17, 2-10), Harding will be included in the conference tournament in Southaven, Miss.
The Bisons, No. 14 in NCAA Division II, will be either the No. 1 or No. 2 seed from the West division, but Morgan said neither seed has a sizable advantage over the other. That makes for a relaxing final weekend for Morgan.
“That is a big relief,” he said. “We’ve known for the last two weeks that we would be in it.”
But he and his players certainly would rather head into next weekend as the No. 1 seed, considering that would have meant Harding won a rematch with Arkansas Tech, which is No.
9 in Division II.
Playing their third game during a stretch of four games in eight days, the Bisons lost 85-55 to the Wonder Boys on Jan. 27 in Russellville.
Today, at Rhodes Field House in Searcy, Morgan said limiting turnovers will be the key to snapping the Wonder Boys’ streak of 15 consecutive victories.
“[Arkansas Tech] is playing with so much confidence and they have some guys who can really shoot it,” Morgan said.
“They just have great confidence and a great belief in each other.” ARKANSAS TECH MEN Dunbar’s return
Part of why Arkansas Tech has won 15 consecutive games and is just two victories away from a perfect Gulf South Conference season is a lanky guard who was able to battle through a pair of injuries.
Senior guard Jeremy Dunbar wasn’t able to shoot much over the summer because of thumb surgery he suffered last May. He then missed some preseason practices because of a toe injury, which kept him out of the starting lineup early in the season.
But Dunbar is healthy now, and the Wonder Boys’ offense is about as versatile and effective as it was a year ago, when they spent much of the season ranked No. 1 in NCAA Division II.
In last Saturday’s victory over Delta State he scored 19 points and made 5 of 11 three-pointers. Over his past four games, he is averaging 17.5 points per game, and he’s the Wonder Boys’ second-leading scorer this season at 14.0 points per game.
“Now you can see that look in his eye,” Arkansas Tech Coach Doug Karleskint said.
“He’s playing with a lot of confidence and when he’s shooting like that, it helps our team tremendously.”
Sports, Pages 23 on 02/24/2011