After a long offseason of recruiting and individual workouts, I’m as excited about the start of practice as I’ve ever been. Our guys put in a lot of effort this summer in conditioning and weight workouts with our strength coach John Barron. I feel like we’ve got eight guys who are in as good of shape as anyone we’ve had in my seven years here.

I’m not saying our conditioning equates to 25 wins or a conference title, but I’m as excited as I’ve ever been to get started. We’re getting a lot of things in from an offensive standpoint, much earlier than we have in the past, and that’s important with so many new guys.

Everything that we have done, starting last spring, has been done in an attempt to try and change our mentality. It’s been an on-going process, but I think we’re continuing to make strides from a mental toughness standpoint. We struggled last year and a big part of that was a lack of consistency. We had some really good wins versus Akron, Minnesota and Western Kentucky, and some really bad losses. If we can develop some consistency, I think that will only help build our mental toughness and togetherness.

We’re going to be a much different team this year. The last two years we were strong and physical up front, but our guys weren’t real comfortable putting the ball on the floor from the perimeter. Our athleticism and skill level is going to be greatly improved this year. Lekheythan Malone, Shane Edwards and Rashad Moss are all guys who are comfortable 19-20 feet from the basketball, putting it on the floor or shooting from the perimeter. I think we’ll find in time, that we’ll be able to score the ball better because we’ll be able to do some things differently offensively.

Last year, we were pretty much a three-out, two-in team that had to pound the ball inside. We didn’t have great spacing because both of our post players were down low going after offensive rebounds. This year we should be able to spread the floor a bit more and create more drive opportunities for our guys.

From what I’ve seen so far, I can tell that Brandon Patterson, John Fowler and Edwards are going to be impact newcomers for us this year. Derrick Bails is another guy who, once he gets used to Division-I basketball, will really be able to make a difference for us. He’s a sponge in practice and is very receptive to coaching. He and Kelson Stewart are extremely coachable freshman. Brian Smith is another freshman who could make a difference for us this year. He’s missed a few days of practice due to a minor injury, but I’m looking forward to getting him back at 100 percent.

People are going to look at our team this year and consider us undersized, but that doesn’t really concern me. Everybody wants a big man, but I think it’s probably a thing we coaches get too caught up in. The important thing is to have guys on the floor that can play. College basketball tends to go in cycles. When I first got here eight years ago, everyone in our league had a true big man. Now, our league is comprised of more athletic forwards and post players.

We’ve got a lot of flexibility this year, in regards to guys being able to play multiple positions. It’s exciting from my standpoint, because we can show different lineups and fit guys in where needed.

On top of everything that’s going on in practice, we announced a well-deserved promotion this week, as Assistant Coach Wes Flanigan was elevated to Associate Head Coach/Recruiting Coordinator.

Wes is an extremely loyal, hardworking person, who has a passion to recruit and help young people succeed both on the floor and off. He is an excellent coach and an outstanding recruiter. He has really developed a good feel for the recruiting process, and a lot of that is a credit to the great rapport he has with young players.

That’s all for now. Check back for more updates as we draw closer to our first exhibition game against Cameron on Nov. 4.

May 14, 2007

Summer time is upon us, but we’re not shutting things down at UALR. We’ve got a lot of exciting things going on right now and plenty to keep us busy with school letting out. We added two new coaches to our staff since our season ended in March, bringing aboard NBA veteran Joe Kleine and former Trojan Daniyal Robinson.

I’ve known Joe for about seven years new. We both moved to Little Rock around the same time and I’ve seen him work over the years with guys over at Catholic High School. He has great patience in developing young men on the basketball floor, and will bring a wealth of knowledge to our program and our post players in particular. He’s a guy who has15 years of NBA experience and has played for some of the greatest coaches in the business, including Eddie Sutton and Phil Jackson. The wealth of knowledge that he brings to our basketball program will greatly benefit our players.

Daniyal is a guy I’ve also known for seven years, having worked together on the same coaching staff when I first got to UALR. Daniyal has a great rapport with players. He’s very easy to talk to, meets people extremely well and has done a phenomenal job recruiting over the last four years. While at Illinois State, he was able to recruit the Missouri Valley Freshman of the Year and the MVC Newcomer of the Year. He has outstanding ties in the Chicago and St. Louis areas, and has gained a tremendous amount of coaching experience in a short time. He’s a young guy who already has seven years of Division-I coaching experience under his belt, not to mention the added experience of being a former student-athlete at UALR.

In addition to our new coaches, I’m also really excited about the class we are bringing in this fall. I think we have really helped ourselves from a skill standpoint, as well as a toughness standpoint. We challenged our returning guys during the spring in many different areas. We put them in a lot of adverse situations and they respond extremely well. We had a lot of young guards this past season but their experiences will really enhance our team’s chances for success next year.

Terrance Akins shot over 45 percent from three-point range in conference games and De’Andre Eggins averaged 16 points per game in his last nine games. Those are big momentum builders heading into the offseason and prepping for next year. In addition to our new recruits, we’ll also have the services of Brandon Patterson next year. Brandon has been a huge asset to our program, despite not playing a single game last year. He’s a leader, who is in the gym all the time working on his game. I really like Brandon’s versatility. He’s someone who we can play at three different spots on the floor. I’m really encouraged about our team’s prospects over the next two years with him on our team.

Rashad Jones-Jennings is continuing to work his way towards a professional basketball career. He was able to validate what he did here for two years first at the NABC All-Star Game, where he was the leading rebounder, and then at the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, where he led all players at 13.7 rebounds per game. Then he comes out of Portsmouth and gets an invitation to the NBA’s predraft camp in Orlando, Fla., which was his goal all along. I have always felt like Rashad can rebound with the best players out there. He proved that over his two-year career at UALR, and continues to prove it every chance he gets.

I’ve had a number of phone calls from NBA scouts about Rashad, most recently from the Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers and San Antonio Spurs. The thing that is most impressive about Rashad is his work ethic. Every time he goes to the gym he has the intensity that you are looking for in a player. He’s brings it to the weight room, the practice courts and the game floor. I think that’s the thing that is most impressive to NBA scouts as well. When you have a guy like that, you feel like his best basketball is still in front of him.

This weekend is UALR’s spring graduation ceremony. Our program will have five players receiving their degrees on Saturday, bringing our graduation rate to a perfect 100 percent during my tenure. In my four years as head coach, we have graduated all 14 players who have played under me as a senior. Rashad Jones-Jennings, Byron Ray, Lorenzo Razz, Zack Graber and Elijah Muldrow will all be taking part in Saturday’s ceremony. Congratulations to each of them for their accomplishments.

Right now we are in the process of trying to secure our non-conference games for the 2007-08 season. The exciting thing from my standpoint is that we have returning home games from Tulsa and Centenary at the Jack Stephens Center this season. We have also contracted a home-and-home series with Louisiana Tech. Those are all really good regional games for us against quality opponents which our fans should be really excited about.

Summer camp is right around the corner for us. We are coming off a record-high attendance figure last season, which was our first camp in the Jack Stephens Center. We had 680 kids attend camp last year, even though we shortened camp from four sessions to three. It’s a great experience for us to see these kids and their excitement and passion for basketball. We try to teach the skills of the game, but more importantly, we try to teach them about sportsmanship and teamwork. I think one of the main reasons for our increased numbers at camp, is the passion our staff has to work with these kids. Having our basketball players interact with the kids is the most fun aspect of the experience.

That’s all for now. Get out and enjoy the summer.