Posted on: Thursday, November 21, 2002

Little Rock poses big challenge for UH basketball team

By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer

If Arkansas-Little Rock is to make a run at big-time basketball this season, its journey will begin on a little rock island.

The Trojans will open their season — and the University of Hawai'i's — in the Hawaiian Airlines Tip-Off Tournament tomorrow at the Stan Sheriff Center.

"It would mean everything to us to have a breakthrough year," UALR head coach Porter Moser said. "Playing a team of Hawai'i's caliber to start the season certainly gives us the opportunity for a big game early."

With 11 returnees — including seven of the top eight players — from last season's 18-11 team, the Trojans are on the verge.

"We have everybody back, so the chemistry is there," senior guard Jibrahn Ike said. "This year, we just have to put it all together."

Perhaps fittingly, their season will start in Honolulu.

Although this will be the first meeting between UALR and UH, the Trojans have used Hawai'i trips as a lead-in to success in the past.

They played in tournaments hosted by Hawai'i Pacific in 1985 and 1986. The '85 season ended with a trip to the NCAA Championship Tournament; the '86 season ended with a school-record 26 wins.

Of course, none of the current players or coaches for UALR was a part of the program then. Still, the base for a winning season appears solid.

Among the returnees from last season are the three leading scorers: Nick Zachery (16.1 points per game), Mark Green (10.9) and Ike (10.1).

Zachery, a 6-foot-3 junior guard, was a first-team All-Sun Belt selection last year after making 93 3-pointers (for comparative purposes, departed senior Predrag Savovic led UH with 75 3-pointers last season).

But in Moser's system of frequent substitution, Zachery may not even start against the 'Bows.

"He hasn't started in our two exhibition games," Moser said. "But on our team, it really doesn't matter who starts and who doesn't. We're fortunate to have a bunch of guys we can play equally."

As proof, 11 players got at least 11 minutes in a 96-55 exhibition victory over the Spirit Express last week. Each of those 11 players made at least one basket.

"Because they play a lot of players, they mix up their defenses a lot," UH head coach Riley Wallace said. "They do some full-court, some zone, and some man. We just have to make sure we recognize it."

Based on last season's records and preseason predictions, tomorrow's feature game between Hawai'i and UALR could be considered the toughest match-up of the tournament.

The Trojans are predicted to place second in the East Division of the Sun Belt Conference, behind only nationally-ranked Western Kentucky (No. 19 in the Associated Press Top 25).

The 'Bows return four starters from their record-setting 27-6 team that won the Western Athletic Conference, and are predicted to place second this season, behind only nationally-ranked Tulsa (No. 25 in AP).

"It should be a good game," Wallace said. "They'll be a little quicker than us, but we'll be a little bigger."

Wallace said he purposely picked UALR for his team's opener because "we need to play the best teams we can to get our RPI (power rating) up and this is the best team."

Cal State Fullerton and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi will play in tomorrow's first game at 5 p.m. Fullerton went 5-22 last season; Corpus Christi went 12-15 in only its fourth season as a NCAA Division I team.

In any case, the Trojans arrived in Honolulu Tuesday night in order to adjust to the four-hour time difference from Little Rock.

"There's no way to tell somebody how to travel the right way," Wallace said. "We've done everything going (to the Mainland) and there really is no right or wrong. But the thing with teams coming here is that they really should see what Hawai'i is all about, especially if they don't come here every year."

The Trojans are doing just that. They had breakfast at a restaurant overlooking Waikiki Beach yesterday, and plan to visit Pearl Harbor and eat a luau dinner before the week is over.

"This is just a beautiful, beautiful place and we have to make sure we see some of it," said Moser, who played against Hawai'i when he was a guard for Creighton in 1987. "But we've worked too hard to get here to not understand the focus of this trip."

NOTES: The first 1,000 fans through the gates tomorrow will receive a free bottle opener courtesy of Hawaiian Airlines. The first 1,000 fans on Sunday will receive a free keychain from Hawaiian Airlines.