Like It Is

WALLY HALL: Trojans returning to spotlight with Walker

It was quiet in the Jack Stephens Center on Wednesday morning.

In his office, Darrell Walker was quietly watching film and preparing for tonight's game with Louisiana-Monroe.

He knows his University of Arkansas at Little Rock Trojans are in first place but didn't know that a win tonight secures the Trojans a double bye into the semifinals of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.

"I don't have time to worry about that," he said. "Ask Bake [top assistant Charles Baker]. He's a numbers genius. He'll know. I'm just worrying about winning a game.'

"Bake" said a win tonight would give the Trojans a double bye but quickly added with a laugh: "Darrell really doesn't worry about that. He wants to win every game."

A win tonight would give the Trojans a 20-9 overall record, and that would only be the fourth 20-win season in the past 20 years. It would be the 11th in the past 40 years.

A win would make them 14-4 in Sun Belt play, Texas State is 12-6 and Georgia State, South Alabama and Georgia Southern are tied for third at 11-7.

UALR has two games remaining after tonight -- home Saturday against Louisiana-Lafayette and a road game to Georgia State.

Texas State has two games left, both on the road with Texas-Arlington and South Alabama.

So there's a lot on the line tonight, but this has already been a remarkable season for the Trojans.

In preseason, they were picked 11th -- next-to-last -- and now they are playing to get to New Orleans and the semifinals.

In January, the Trojans went on a two-game road trip to Coastal Carolina on a Thursday night and to Appalachian State on Saturday.

For the first time in school history, they won both those games.

Walker, who was an All-American at the University of Arkansas and a first-round NBA Draft pick by the New York Knicks, played for some of the greatest coaches ever.

He and Eric Musselman should be strong candidates to be named their conference's coach of the year, but Musselman probably needs to win out.

Oh, and they are friends who text each other frequently.

Walker still attends a lot of football games, or he does until basketball season begins, and then it's all basketball with an occasional game of golf to decompress.

In his first season, the Trojans went 10-21 overall, but the nucleus of the team returned, and Walker, Baker and the rest of the staff added more players.

Walker uses a 10-man rotation, and there's not a senior among them.

There are three freshmen, three sophomores and four juniors in the rotation, so this is probably just the beginning for the Trojans.

UALR has the best facility in the Sun Belt and is near the bottom in attendance, but historically the Trojans have not been consistently good.

Mike Newell made the Trojans a nationally known program in his six seasons, taking them to the NCAA Tournament three times and the NIT twice.

Ten years later, Porter Moser, who led Loyola-Chicago to the Final Four in 2018, won 18 games three consecutive seasons before leaving.

Steve Shields won a lot of games for UALR but made the NCAA Tournament just once.

Chris Beard found lightning in a bottle for the 2015-16 season, winning 30 games and a first-round game in the NCAA Tournament.

Local favorite Wes Flanigan took over for two years, and then Walker was hired.

Walker had a plan. That started with the hiring of Baker, who has a national and international reputation for recruiting.

They are preparing for the future.

It is a fun team to watch. Everyone in the rotation is a threat to score and of course they play defense.

Tonight at 6:30, Darrell Walker can start making his own history.

Sports on 02/27/2020

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