Sun Belt Conference Weekly News and Notes (Week 15)
2015-16 Sun Belt Conference Composite Schedule
2015-16 Sun Belt Conference Standings
2015-16 Sun Belt Conference Media Guide
Two Teams #NOLABound as Stretch Run Heats Up
NEW ORLEANS – The UL Monroe Warhawks joined the Little Rock Trojans by clinching their spot in the 2016 Sun Belt Conference Men’s Basketball Championship last week. The Trojans, who punched their ticket the previous week, eye a regular-season crown with the upcoming weekend slate with two home games.
Little Rock is tied with Villanova and Monmouth for the nation’s best record (24-3) and winning percentage (.889). The Trojans lead the country in true road wins with 12, a new school record, and are just two wins shy of their program record for victories in a season (26, 1986-87). The Warhawks, winners of five straight games and nine of their last 10 games, head to the conference tournament for a third consecutive season. UL Monroe is led by senior Majok Deng, who is second in the conference in scoring at 19.3 points per game and seventh in rebounding at 7.0 rebounds per game.
Little Rock enters this weekend eyeing an outright Sun Belt Conference regular-season title for the first time in school history. The Trojans host UT Arlington for a 7:15 p.m. C.T. game on Thursday night that will be televised on ESPN3. Little Rock follows that up with a 6 p.m. C.T. game on Saturday against Texas State. The Trojans would clinch a Sun Belt Conference regular-season title if they win both games.
The race for the eight spots in the conference tournament became more interesting last week with Texas State’s 61-57 upset of UL Lafayette on Saturday. The Bobcats are now 2 ½ games out of the eighth and final spot in the conference tournament with five games remaining on their schedule. Arkansas State, Georgia State and South Alabama are now tied for that final position and trail fourth place UT Arlington by just 2 ½ games.
Sophomore guard Wesley Person kept Troy’s tournament hopes alive by accounting for 43 percent of the team’s points during the week (58 of 135) to earn Men’s Basketball Student-Athlete of the Week honors. Person averaged 29.0 points and 4.5 rebounds as the Trojans split a pair of road games and did so while shooting at a high percentage. The sophomore hit on 55.3 percent from the floor and 40.9 percent from beyond the arc. His 28 points at South Alabama tied a season high, while his 30 points at App State set a new season high and he was just one shy of his career high. He ranks 15th nationally with 3.22 3-pointers per game and has the NCAA’s longest active streak with a 3-pointer in 56 straight games (every game of his career).
Other notable performances this week came from Little Rock’s Roger Woods and UL Monroe’s Nick Coppola. Woods averaged 10.5 points and 4.5 rebounds while shooting 58.3 percent from the floor in Little Rock’s wins at Georgia State and Georgia Southern last week. Coppola moved up to third all-time in ULM history in career assists over the weekend with 368. He dished out six in both games and totaled just four turnovers for a 3.0 assist-to-turnover ratio. Against UT Arlington, the Richmond, Va., native scored a game-high 19 points and went 4-7 from beyond-the-arc to lead the Warhawks to a 64-61 win on the road.
An ESPN2 rivalry showdown is set for Tuesday night at the Hanner Fieldhouse in Statesboro, Ga., between Georgia Southern and Georgia State. The Eagles are currently a game up on the Panthers in the standings. The two teams met on Jan. 19 in Atlanta where the Panthers escaped with a 69-66 win in overtime.
This weekend’s slate features four ESPN3 contests as Appalachian State and Georgia Southern tip off the action with Texas State at Arkansas State to follow later that night at 7:45 p.m. C.T. Appalachian State at Georgia State (1:30 p.m. C.T.) and UT Arlington at Arkansas State (7:05 p.m. C.T.) are both slated for ESPN3 on Saturday.
The 2016 Sun Belt Conference Men’s Basketball Championship will be held from Mar. 10-13, 2016, at the Lakefront Arena in New Orleans, La. The top eight teams in the regular season standings will compete for the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. All games of the tournament will be televised by ESPN3 with the championship game set for a Noon C.T. tip on Selection Sunday, Mar. 13, and an ESPN2 broadcast.
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WEEK 15 SUN BELT CONFERENCE STUDENT-ATHLETE OF THE WEEK
Wesley Person (Troy, Sophomore, Guard)
Wesley Person almost single handedly carried Troy last week as he accounted for 43 percent of Troy’s points on the week (58 of 135) … Person averaged 29.0 points and 4.5 rebounds as the Trojans split a pair of road games and did so while shooting at a high percentage. The Trojan sophomore hit on 55.3 percent from the floor and 40.9 percent from beyond the arc. His 28 points at South Alabama tied a season high, while his 30 points at App State set a new season high and he was just one shy of his career high. He ranks 15th nationally with 3.22 3-pointers per game and has the NCAA’s longest active streak with a 3-pointer in 56 straight games (every game of his career).
RECENT RESULTS
Tuesday, February 16
Troy 61, South Alabama 54
Thursday, February 18
South Alabama 75, Appalachian State 71
Little Rock 57, Georgia State 49
UT Arlington 84, UL Lafayette 83
Georgia Southern 90, Arkansas State 59
UL Monroe 76, Texas State 57
Saturday, February 20
Georgia State 69, Arkansas State 61
Appalachian State 78, Troy 74
Texas State 61, UL Lafayette 57
Little Rock 75, Georgia Southern 61
UL Monroe 64, UT Arlington 61
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Tuesday, February 23
Georgia State at Georgia Southern* 6:30 PM CT (ESPN2)
Thursday, February 25
Appalachian State at Georgia Southern* 6:30 PM CT (ESPN3)
UL Monroe at South Alabama* 7:05 PM CT
UT Arlington at Little Rock* 7:15 PM CT
UL Lafayette at Troy* 7:30 PM CT
Texas State at Arkansas State* 7:35 PM CT (ESPN3)
Saturday, February 27
Appalachian State at Georgia State* 1:30 PM CT (ESPN3)
UL Lafayette at South Alabama * 4:05 PM CT
UL Monroe at Troy* 4:15 PM CT
Texas State at Little Rock* 6:00 PM CT
UT Arlington at Arkansas State* 7:05 PM CT (ESPN3)
* - Indicates Sun Belt Conference game
(All Times CT)
NEWS AND NOTES
NCAA TOURNAMENT SUCCESS
The Sun Belt Conference begins the 2015-16 season following unprecedented postseason success to last year. Georgia State earned a No. 14 seed in the NCAA Tournament and upset No. 3 seed Baylor in the first round. Of the 32 conferences with automatic qualifiers into the tournament the Sun Belt Conference was one of 15 to win a game in the tournament.
POSTSEASON TOURNAMENT PROWESS
The Sun Belt Conference was one of the premier mid-major basketball conferences last season as demonstrated by its postseason success. The league was one of just three (Missouri Valley & Pac-12) where its members earned a win in the NCAA Tournament along with wins in at least two other postseason tournaments. UL Monroe advanced to the final of the College Basketball Invitatinoal (CBI) last year while UL Lafayette reached the semifinals of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT).
HISTORIC TV PACKAGE
The Sun Belt Conference has its largest television package ever for men’s and women’s basketball for the 2015-16 season. ESPN3 will carry 99 games during the 2015-16 season to go along with two nationally-televised rivalry games on ESPN2. The two ESPN2 rivalry clashes will be UT Arlington at Texas State on Feb. 9, 2016, and Georgia State at Georgia Southern on Feb. 23, 2016. On-campus productions delivered on ESPN3 offer unique opportunities for students and staff at each Sun Belt Conference member institution in live-game production. ESPN3 is streamed live on WatchESPN platforms across computers, smartphones, tablets and connected devices. It is accessible to more than 99 million households to fans with an affiliated internet or video provider.
LITTLE ROCK’S RECORD START
The Trojans nearly finished non-conference play with a perfect record, starting 10-0 before its first loss of the season at Texas Tech on Dec. 22. The 10-game win streak to start the year was the best in program and Sun Belt history. The streak matched a program record, and was the first 10-game winning streak for Little Rock since the 1987-88 season. Little Rock is tied with Villanova and Xavier for the best record in the nation at 24-3 (.888) and joined the 1992-93 New Orleans squad as the only other Sun Belt Conference team to win 21 of 23 games to start a season.
TRIPLE-DOUBLE RARITies
Junior Donte Thomas led Arkansas State to an 89-67 win at South Alabama on Saturday (Jan. 2) with a triple-double of 14 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds. It marked the third triple-double in Arkansas State program history. UT Arlington’s Erick Neal recorded 27 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists to earn the program’s first triple-double. Those triple-doubles are just the fifth and sixth by a Sun Belt Conference student-athlete in a conference game since the 1998-99 season.
LITTLE ROCK IN THE RANKINGS
Little Rock has appeared in the USA Today Coaches Poll in six separate weeks this season, including three straight from Jan. 11 to Jan. 25. Little Rock received as many as five points in the AP Top 25 and USA Today Coaches polls during its record 10-game winning streak. It marked the first time a Little Rock team had received votes in the AP Poll since Feb. 1988.
LITTLE ROCK’S WINNING WAYS
Little Rock is off to its best start in program history and its first 20-win season since 2008-09. The Trojans are now 11-0 at home on the season, and have won 13 straight games at the JSC dating back to last season.
TROJANS RANK NATIONALLY
Little Rock continues to lead the nation in scoring defense (57.2 ppg) and ranks fifth in defensive field goal percentage (37.0). The Trojans are 10th in country in turnover margin (3.9) and 23rd in turnovers per game (10.8).
LONG SETS ALL-TIME REBOUNDING MARKS
Shawn Long has been a rebounding machine during his three-plus seasons, averaging 10.5 rebounds per game for his career. Against Alabama on Nov. 20, Long became the school’s all-time leading rebounder, passing Roy Ebron (1,064) before passing former South Alabama standout Augustine Rubit as the Sun Belt Conference’s all-time leading rebounder. Long has pulled down 1,218 rebounds in his career.
HISTORIC FOUR-DAY STRETCH
UT Arlington stunned Memphis 68-64 on Nov. 23 at FedEx Forum to put the wraps on an impressive two-game sweep over perennial basketball powers. The Mavs were three nights removed from beating Ohio State on the road. UTA improved to 3-1 with the win after withstanding a second-half charge that saw the Tigers rally from 10 points down with a 15-0 run. The Mavericks regrouped down the stretch and claimed their first victory over Memphis in three tries.
LITTLE ROCK DEFATS MW FAVORITES
Saturday (Nov. 21), the Trojans became just the 12th team and sixth non-Mountain West member to beat the San Diego State in Viejas Arena since 2005. The win was Little Rock’s third-ever over a Mountain West opponent, and first since Colorado State on Nov. 30, 2002.
LONG’S POTENTIAL CAREER MILESTONE
UL Lafayette senior Shawn Long is looking to join elite company as the only student-athletes to boast career totals of 2,250 points and 1,400 rebounds. If Long maintains his averages of 19.3 points per game and 12.9 rebounds per game he will join this exclusive list (alphabetical):
Elgin Baylor, College of Idaho/Seattle (1954-58)
Games: 80 Rebounds: 2,500 Points: 1,559
Tom Gola, La Salle (1951-55)
Games: 118 Rebounds: 2,462 Points: 2,201
Elvin Hayes, Houston (1965-68)
Games: 93 Rebounds: 2,884 Points: 1,602
Dickie Hemric, Wake Forest (1951-55)
Games: 104 Rebounds: 2,587 Points: 1,802
Lionel Simmons, La Salle (1986-90)
Games: 131 Rebounds: 3,217 Points: 1,429
TWO ON LOU HENSON WATCH LIST
UL Lafayette senior Shawn Long & UT Arlington junior Kevin Hervey were named to the Lou Henson Mid-Season Watch List. Long was named the Preseason Student-Athlete of the Year.
DOUBLE-DOUBLE MACHINE
Shawn Long has been a double-double machine in his career for the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns, totaling 71 double-doubles in 125 games. With 19 double-doubles in the 2015-16 season, Long has extended his NCAA active lead. Here is a list of the top 10 active leaders in double-doubles in the nation through (Feb. 11):
NAME G D-D
1. Shawn Long, UL Lafayette 125 71
2. Chris Horton, Austin Peay 119 56
Jameel Warney, Stony Brook 128 56
4. Egidijus Mockevicius, Evansville 129 52
5. Joel Bolomboy, Weber State 122 50
6. Josh Hawkinson, Washington State 82 37
7. Venky Jois, Eastern Washington 114 35
8. Josh Scott, Colorado 116 34
9. Devin Thomas, Wake Forest 122 33
10. Kyle Collinsworth, BYU 130 31
Rico Gathers, Baylor 133 31
Stacy Davis, Pepperdine 119 31
MR. DOUBLE-DOUBLE
Anthony Livingston posted his 27th career double-double Feb. 13 with 11 points and 12 rebounds against Georgia Southern. The double-double was his 20th against Sun Belt foes and he has at least one against all SBC foes. With 27 career double-doubles, Livingston ranks 17th among active NCAA Division I players. Livingston is second among second-year student-athletes behind Pascal Siakam (New Mexico State) for most double-doubles (29).
ELITE COMPANY
Georgia State won 25 games in each of the last two seasons, the second-best totals in school history. Only 20 programs in the country have won at least 25 games in each of the last two years. The elite group includes: Kentucky, Duke, Michigan State, Arizona, Gonzaga, Louisville, Wichita State, Kansas, Wisconsin, Iowa State, Virginia, Villanova, VCU, Stephen F. Austin, San Diego State, N.C. Central, Louisiana Tech, SMU and Dayton.
WILLIAMS LEADS JAGS
Ken Williams tied his season high at App State with 27 points, also a team high for the year, after shooting 8-of-12 from the floor for 16 points in the second half alone. It was his sixth 20-point performance of the season, giving him as many as the rest of the team combined. The Jags are 5-1 (4-1 SBC) when he scores 20 or more.
EAVES SCORES MILESTONE
Appalachian State senior Frank Eaves eclipsed 1,000 career points and was just the 31st student-athlete in program history to accomplish that feat (83 career games). App State boasted two 20-point scorers for the first time this season (Eaves - 25pts, Shabazz - 20pts) last week.
APP’S NARROW MARGIN
Appalachian State defeated Troy 78-74 last week to snap a six-game losing streak. The Mountaineers moved to 6-0 all-time against Troy. The outcome marked the ninth game decided by six points or less this season for App State, which is 2-7 in such games. Last year, the Mountaineers were 7-2.
GANT’S REBOUNDING MILESTONE
With his 11-rebound performance at Georgia Southern (Feb. 6), Texas State’s Emani Gant moved into a tie for 19th on the schools career rebounding list. The senior forward now has 498 in his Bobcat career. He is tied with Matt Staff (2010-13) and David Skyes (1999-03).
JAGS SCORING RARITY
After going five years in between having two student-athletes score 20 points or more in a game, USA has done it twice in the last month. Shaq Calhoun and Georgi Boyanov shared team-high honors with 20 points Saturday against Georgia Southern. Calhoun tied his career high with 20 points — setting a new personal best with four 3-pointers in six attempts — after combining for 22 points in the previous four games combined.
Boyanov also scored 20 points Saturday, making all six of his field-goal attempts, the best single-game performance by a Jaguar this season. He just missed a double-double with nine rebounds. He is third in the conference in field-goal percentage (.545) and fourth in rebounding (7.8 rpg).
YOUTH IN STATESBORO
Georgia Southern returns just four scholarship letterwinners from last season’s 22-9 team that advanced to the Sun Belt Conference Championship game. With 11-of-12 scholarship student-athletes who are freshmen, redshirt freshmen or sophomores (92 percent), Georgia Southern has the highest percentage of underclassmen on its current roster of the 345 NCAA Division I squads. Liberty (91 percent), Ohio State (85 percent), Fairleigh Dickinson (85 percent) and Wyoming (80 percent) round out the top-5. Georgia Southern lost 76 percent of its scoring and 72 percent of its rebounding from last season. Georgia Southern opens a four-game homestand by playing host to South Alabama Thursday. The Eagles also play host to Troy, ULM and UL Lafayette during the stretch.
#FUNBELT TO THE NBA
The Sun Belt Conference became one of seven conferences nationwide to have back-to-back first round selections in the NBA Draft last year. Former UL Lafayette guard Elfrid Payton went No. 10 overall to the Orlando Magic in the 2014 draft while former Georgia State guard R.J. Hunter went No. 28 overall to the Boston Celtics last year. The Sun Belt joined the American Athletic Conference, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC.