There's been plenty of turbulence for both the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and Arkansas State University men's basketball teams since their first meeting of the season two weeks ago.
The Trojans (18-9, 12-4 Sun Belt Conference) saw their seven-game winning streak come to an end, dropping back-to-back games on their Texas road swing last week to Texas State and Texas-Arlington.
Today’s game
UALR men at Arkansas State
WHEN 4 p.m.
WHERE First National Bank Arena, Jonesboro
RECORDS UALR 18-9, 12-4 Sun Belt Conference; Arkansas State 15-13, 7-10
RADIO KKPT-FM, 94.1, in Little Rock; KFIN-FM, 107.9, in Jonesboro
INTERNET ESPN-Plus
"I knew we had to go through adversity, and I knew that it was coming soon," UALR sophomore point guard Markquis Nowell said. "We see that everybody's coming for us. Each game is going to be a hard-fought game because we're No. 1 [in the league standings]."
The Red Wolves (15-13, 7-10) have been unable to shake what's turned into a long and frustrating late-season funk, dropping three more games since the loss to UALR to extend what is right now a six-game losing skid, the longest of Coach Mike Balado's three-year tenure.
The lowest point may have come Wednesday night, when ASU was beaten by 14 points on its home floor by the worst team in the Sun Belt, Louisiana-Monroe. After the game, Balado went as far as to call the loss "probably the most disappointing of my career, including as an assistant."
All of this has followed UALR's 90-87 victory over ASU on Feb. 8 in Little Rock, a game that came down to the final possession before Red Wolves junior guard Marquis Eaton's game-tying three-point attempt at the buzzer fell short.
Today's 4 p.m. rematch at First National Bank Arena in Jonesboro is another installment in what's been a highly competitive in-state rivalry in recent memory. The past nine meetings have been decided by single digits.
Rivalry aside, both teams are simply desperate for a victory right now.
"We're looking for ourselves to get back on track," Balado said, "and what better way to do it [than] against the No. 1 team in the league and your rival coming in your building."
Even despite back-to-back losses last week, the Trojans -- who unlike ASU have been off the past six days -- still sit firmly in the driver's seat of the Sun Belt standings. That was aided Thursday night with Georgia State's loss to Texas-Arlington.
UALR holds a 1 1/2-game lead over Georgia State (18-10, 11-6) and Texas State (18-10, 11-6) heading into today. ASU, meanwhile, is tied for eighth and is two games back of sixth. The Nos. 5 and 6 seeds clinch a first-round bye in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament, and the Nos. 7 and 8 seeds get homecourt advantage in the first round.
The Trojans still have to play Georgia State in the regular-season finale March 3 in Atlanta, but they'd like for that game to not mean anything by that point.
If it can hang on to first place over the final four games, UALR can claim its first Sun Belt regular season championship since former coach Chris Beard's 2015-16 run, while cementing its spot at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans in a few weeks. The top two seeds in the Sun Belt standings are automatically into the conference tournament semifinals March 14.
Having nearly a full week off this past week probably couldn't have a come at a better time for the Trojans coming off two consecutive losses.
UALR Coach Darrell Walker expressed frustration this week over the Trojans' high turnover rate and uncharacteristic lack of rebounding in their past two outings, as UALR turned the ball over a combined 34 times and was bested on the glass a combined 80-62. Prior to those two games, the Trojans had been out-rebounded only three times in conference play this season.
"I just don't know what the deal was on the road," Walker said. "We just didn't have the same spark or the focus that we usually have on the road.
"We kind of got what we deserved, and I don't mean that in a bad way. We [had] a week to practice and really work on some things, so I think we'll be ready to play Saturday."
Balado desperately hopes his squad is also ready to play today, and that isn't just some empty cliche. The Red Wolves have trailed by double digits at halftime in each of their past four games.
ASU made plenty of noise earlier this season as a team that could seemingly pull itself together on a whim and come back in the second half to win.
But that hasn't been the case at all as of late, as the Red Wolves remain in search of their first victory since Jan. 25.
"At the end of the day, we all know that the season starts over again after the conference season is done. Everybody's 0-0 at that point," Balado said. "There's still a lot to play for, and that's the message that we're sending and that's the vibe that's in the locker room ... they're not just ready to tank it.
"I don't recruit kids that are quitters, so we're very much in the right state of mind as far as excited to play the next game."
Sports on 02/22/2020