We're officially less than a week away from the start of the college basketball season and start of the 2021-22 Salukis regular season.
The Little Rock Trojans are coached by 4th year head coach Darrell Walker. Walker has been all over the map in his coaching career. After his playing career, he started his coaching career as an assistant for the Toronto Raptors before becoming head coach for 1.5 seasons and was head coach of the Washington Wizards for a half a season. He even spent half a season with the WNBA Washington Mystics as head coach. After more NBA assistant head coaching stops in New Orleans, Detroit and New York; Walker was named head coach at Clark Atlanta in Division 2. After two seasons of making the Division 2 NCAA Tournament, he was hired at Little Rock. The Trojans struggled in Walker's first season but went 21-10 (15-5) in his second season before taking a step back last season.
Last season's Trojans team started 10-7 and 6-4 in the Sun Belt before losing 8 of its last 9 games. The season fell apart when star Guard Markquis Nowell was ejected from a game in January and suspended by the coach which led to him opting out for the season. Nowell has since transferred to Kansas State. The Trojans finished last season #239 on KenPom.
Meet the Trojans:
The 2021-22 Trojans have a lot of new faces this season which led to them being picked 8th of 12 in the Sun Belt by the media. Over on the Three Man Weave blog, they picked Little Rock to finish 11th of 12 in the 4th of 4 tiers of teams. KenPom is not a fan of the Trojans as they have Little Rock at #298 in their preseason rankings.
Little Rock is led by 6'10 Senior Nikola Maric from Bosnia-Herzegovina. Last season, Maric averaged 14 points per game and 5.6 rebounds per game on 53% shooting. Maric was 2nd on the Trojans last year in possessions and shots and without Nowell, he'll likely be the focal point of the offense for Little Rock. Maric is your prototypical low-post scorer that gets a lot of his points close to the basket, the Three Man Weave preview mentioned that the Trojans were 14th in the country last year post up passes and near the bottom in the country in pick-and-roll passes. The Trojans really struggled with outside shooting last season which limited Maric's game. Maric was named to the Preseason All-Sun Belt Third Team this season.
The Trojans also have 6'7 Junior Marko Lukic from Serbia. Lukic averaged 9.7 points per game last season on 42.5% shooting, one of the few reliable shooters on last year's team.
In terms of newcomers, the Trojans bring in 2 JUCO products including 6'6 Junior Myron Gardner, who transferred from South Plains College where he averaged 13.8 points per game and 7.1 rebounds per game. Gardner started his college career at Georgetown. Unfortunately for Little Rock, it appears Gardner might miss the season with a stress fracture. They also added 6'7 Junior DeAntoni Gordon, who transferred from Northwest Mississippi where he averaged 15.2 points per game and 4.8 rebounds per game. Gordon started his college career at Wichita State.
Overall, not too sure to expect from this team. They're a team that struggled to shoot from outside last season and lost a lot of pieces including Ben Coupet who gets to debut for SIU at his old arena. KenPom predicts a 74-66 SIU road victory.
Links:
Three Man Weave Sun Belt Preview
Marcus Domask Interview with Mike Reis
Ben Coupet Interview with Rodney Watson
Bryan Mullins with Mike Reis pregame
Bryan Mullins Press Conference 11/8
Saluki Radio Flashback: Saluki Season Openers
Season is early, but if this isn’t a must win, it’s awfully close to one.
The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.
James Madison
- Your next game is always a must win there is always something to play for
- Your next game is always a must win there is always something to play for
Great point!
The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.
James Madison
I posted in the links but Little Rock's head coach was interviewed a few days ago and it's an interesting listen to give more insight on their team. Apparently they're dealing with a bunch of injuries and doesn't sound like they'll be healthy on Tuesday. They faced Oral Roberts and Mississippi State in secret scrimmages these past few weeks which means they went against Max Abmas.
https://lrtrojans.com/podcasts/ep-30-darrell-walker-mens-basketball/42
If Little Rock is without multiple key players, I'd like to see us win by 20+ on this one. It would be nice to do that on the road. Make a statement early.
More content from the Little Rock coach:
Marcus Domask radio interview with Mike Reis:
Their coach is a class act and he will get a lot out of his team this year, once healthy. He focuses on defense and discipline, but seems also to be a player's coach, which isn't easy to do. I wish him, and his team, the best of luck this season AFTER the 1st game of course.
Marcus Domask radio interview with Mike Reis:
We are blessed, as fans, to have Marcus as one of the faces of this program. Mullins wasn't kidding when he said that a player's character is as, or more, important than their skill. You see that in Marcus, Lance, Brown, etc. On a side note, I'm old fashioned so I love to hear him call Reis "sir", I feel like you don't find those kind of manners as much anymore.
Marcus Domask radio interview with Mike Reis:
We are blessed, as fans, to have Marcus as one of the faces of this program. Mullins wasn't kidding when he said that a player's character is as, or more, important than their skill. You see that in Marcus, Lance, Brown, etc. On a side note, I'm old fashioned so I love to hear him call Reis "sir", I feel like you don't find those kind of manners as much anymore.
Yup. First you build the culture.
The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.
James Madison
Marcus Domask radio interview with Mike Reis:
We are blessed, as fans, to have Marcus as one of the faces of this program. Mullins wasn't kidding when he said that a player's character is as, or more, important than their skill. You see that in Marcus, Lance, Brown, etc. On a side note, I'm old fashioned so I love to hear him call Reis "sir", I feel like you don't find those kind of manners as much anymore.
Domask is great with Reis. Best interview with Mike last year was Dalton Banks. Great speaker and very knowledgable about the game of basketball and just a Freshman last year. I could see him doing Saluki Radio in a few decades if he wanted to.
Marcus Domask radio interview with Mike Reis:
We are blessed, as fans, to have Marcus as one of the faces of this program. Mullins wasn't kidding when he said that a player's character is as, or more, important than their skill. You see that in Marcus, Lance, Brown, etc. On a side note, I'm old fashioned so I love to hear him call Reis "sir", I feel like you don't find those kind of manners as much anymore.
Yup. First you build the culture.
this is the most overused cliche used in sports and it's largely crap.
here is a fine example. petrino hasnt build any culture in Springfield, yet he has destroyed us twice in about 8 months. that guy dwells in the sewer and wears an MVFC championship ring after about five minutes on the job at a doormat. meanwhile some of our guys just left saluki stadium after the game.
i would take hill and mullins 1,000 times out of 999 opportunities over someone like petrino. our previous two basketball coaches built "culture". it didn't amount to a thing and it landed both of them jobs in the big 12. the culture at kansas is to cheat so much that fbi gets involved, but it works for them.
ill get off my soap box but I just hate that term. it's just marketing crap. when porter flops at oklahoma will it be because he forgot to bring his patented culture with him? no. it will be because he is the same lousy coach his was at isu and at loyola until he hired mullins.
Craving a McBride Special!
