Central Arkansas Bears Basketball SID Contact: Steve East • Phone: (501) 450-5743 • Cell: (501) 339-8215 [email protected] •
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CENTRAL ARKANSAS BEARS BASKETBALL SID Contact: Steve East • Phone: (501) 450-5743 • Cell: (501) 339-8215 [email protected] • www.ucasports.com UCA BEARS (1-6, 0-0 SLC) UCA BEARS 2015-16 SCHEDULE GAME Oct. 31. Lyon College (exh) W, 77-69 @ Pittsburgh Panthers (5-1) Nov. 7 Central Baptist (exh) W, 83-80 Nov. 14 @ Tulsa L, 81-98 Sunday, Dec. 6 • 11:00 a.m. MGM Grand Main Event 7 Petersen Events Center • Pittsburgh, Pa. Nov. 19 @ UMass L, 62-89 Nov. 21 @ Rutgers L, 84-87 Nov. 23 vs. UTSA W, 98-84 • ProJECTED STarTErS • Nov. 25 vs. Howard L, 54-73 Dec. 1 @ Little Rock L, 73-79 #1 JORDAN HOWARD Dec. 3 @ Oklahoma L, 68-111 FR • G • 5-11, 180 • Chandler, Ariz. • Perry HS Dec. 6 @ Pittsburgh 11:00 am Dec. 16 vs. Little Rock 7:00 GP/GS 7/7 • PPG 16.7 • RPG 3.0 • APG 2.3 • SPG 0.5 Dec. 22 @ Arkansas State 7:05 Jan. 2 vs. Abilene Christian* 4:00 Jan. 5 @ TX A&M-Corpus Christi* 7:30 #5 JUSTIN FOREMAN Jan. 9 vs. Lamar* 4:00 SR • F • 6-5, 225 • Bellaire, Texas • Grand Canyon University Jan. 12 @ Stephen F. Austin* 7:00 GP/GS 7/7 • PPG 10.7 • RPG 4.0 • APG 1.1 • SPG 0.5 Jan. 19 vs. Houston Baptist* 7:00 Jan. 23 @ Nicholls* 3:00 Jan. 25 @ New Orleans* 7:00 #11 JEFF LOWERY Feb. 2 @ Northwestern State* 6:30 JR • G • 6-2, 195 • Phoenix, Ariz. • Grand Canyon University Feb. 6 vs. New Orleans* 4:00 Feb. 9 vs. Southeastern Louisiana* 7:00 GP/GS 7/7 • PPG 7.4 • RPG 2.1 • APG 2.5 • SPG 1.0 Feb. 12 @ Incarnate Word* 7:00 Feb. 15 vs. Northwestern State* 7:00 Feb. 20 @ Sam Houston State* 4:30 #32 DERRECK BROOKS Feb. 22 @ McNeese State* 7:00 JR • G • 6-6, 185 • Portland, Ore. • Phoenix College Feb. 27 @ Southeastern Louisiana* 4:00 GP/GS 7/7 • PPG 13.0 • RPG 5.1 • APG 2.3 • SPG 1.5 Feb. 29 vs. Sam Houston State* 7:00 March 3 vs. Nicholls* 7:00 March 5 vs. McNeese State* 4:00 #52 JAKE ZUILHOF denotes SLC games All times CT JR • C • 6-9, 230 • Azle, Texas • Grand Canyon University GP/GS 7/7 • PPG 6.7 • RPG 4.3 • BPG 0.7 GAME INFORMATION TIME: ................ Tipoff 11:00 a.m. (CT) RADIO: ............. KUCA 91.3 FM with Justin Acri INTERNET: ....... ucasports.com/KUCA BEAR TRACKS... TELEVISION: .... ESPN3 √ LAST SEASON: The Bears, with a completely new team and coaching staff, SOCIAL MEDIA: Twitter: @ucasports / @UCAscoreboard finished 2-27 on the season. UCA was 2-16 in the Southland Conference, beating Facebook: University of Central Arkansas Athletics New Orleans and Southeastern Louisiana, both at home at the Farris Center. SERIES: ............. First meeting between the teams On his arrival, head coach Russ Pennell completely revamped the roster from COACHES: the previous season, retaining only sophomore forward Ethan Lee and bringing in UCA - Russ Pennell is 3-34 in his second season at 10 new players. UCA. His overall record is 115-103 (7 years) Highlights from the season include the two victories and a near-miss against SLC PITT - Jamie Dixon is 312-112 in his 13th season runnerup Northwestern State, where the Bears lost 110-108 in the highest scoring at Pittsburgh. game in the country last season. UCA played games at Creighton, Nebraska, New Mexico, Charleston Southern, Arkansas State, Troy and Little Rock during the non-conference schedule. They • The 98 points were the most scored by the Bears since last played in front of crowds of 18,610 at Creighton in the season opener and 15,389 year’s 110-108 loss to Northwestern State. at Nebraska on the same three-game road trip (Omaha was the middle game). • UCA’s last game vs. a ranked team prior to Oklahoma was The Bears were ineligible for postgame play because of APR penalties, which Oklahoma State on Dec. 16, 2012. precipitated the roster overhaul. Three transfers (Derreck Brooks, Jeff Lowery, Justin • Sophomore guard Jordan Howard has scored in double Foreman) sat out last season and are eligible for the 2015-16 season and could figures in 35 of his 36 games at UCA, and has had at least all be in the starting lineup. As many as three of last year’s players could redshirt one three-pointer in 34 of 36 games. He has had one three this season. in 21 straight games dating to Jan. 13 vs. SFA (0 for 2). √ THE SERIES: First meeting for the Bears and Panthers. √ FIRST WIN: The Bears had six players in double figures and shot a blistering 63.6 percent from the field in the second half √ LAST OUTING: The sixth-ranked Sooners overpowered the Bears in a 111-68 to Beat UT-San Antonio going away, taking a 98-84 victory victory on Thursday night in Norman, Okla. The Sooners had seven players in on Nov. 23 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. double figures, led by Jordan Woodard with 24 points (6 of 7 from three-point UCA wasa 5 of 7 from three-point range in the second range). UCA got 16 points from sophomore guard Jordan Howard, including four half and 7 of 13 (53.8 percent) for the game. Justin Foreman three-pointers. OU shot 52.2 percent overall compared to 37.7 percent for UCA. was 4 of 6 and Jordan Howard went 3 for 4. Foreman had The Sooners made 13 three-pointers. a game-high 21 points, followed by Howard with 17, Mathieu Kamba (15), Jeff Lowery (14) and Mike Martin and Jake Zuilhof √ BY THE NUMBERS: UCA’s first win of last season did not come until Feb. 7 12 each. UCA’s shooting percentages were 57.1/53.8/86.4. against New Orleans. • UCA had six players in double figures vs. UTSA for the first time since Dec. 13, √ TOUGH ROAD TRIP: The Bears are finishing off a tough 2004 against Harris-Stowe at the Farris Center. road trip of three games in six days. UCA was at Little Rock 2015-16 UCA BEARS BASKETBALL • PAGE 2 on Tuesday, bussed to No. 6 Oklahoma and played on Thursday, bussed home and then flew to Pittsburg on Friday for Sunday’s matchup. Those three teams have a combined 17-1 record. √ SLC FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR: UCA guard Jordan Howard (Chandler, Ariz.) was named the SLC Freshman of the Year after his stellar campaign a year ago. He finished fifth in the SLC in scoring (15.7), second in three-pointers made (77) and 12th in three-point percentage (38.9%). He broke the UCA single-season record for threes by a freshman (Marcus Pillo, 68, 2006-07). His total of 77 was fourth-best in school history behind Rodney Dean (94, 1998-99), Robert Crawford (85, 2012-13) and Dean again with 79 (1997-98). Howard had highs of 27 points (vs. Northwestern State), 6 rebounds (vs. Coastal Carolina), 7 assists (vs. Omaha) and 6 three-pointers made (vs. NWST). Howard played a team-high 33.7 minutes per game, all with a knee injury that required surgery after the season. √ REDSHIRTING: With the addition of three transfers who sat out last season, the Bears’ coaching staff is redshirting four players who saw considerable action a year ago. Those include sophomore guard Thatch Unruh, sophomore forward Otas Iyekekpolor, sophomore guard Tyler Simmons and junior forward Ethan Lee. Unruh averaged 6.3 points and made 42 three-pointers (second on the team) as a true freshman, starting 19 of 25 games. Lee averaged 2.4 points and 1.5 rebounds in 26 games, while Iyekekpolor averaged 0.8 points and 0.7 rebounds in 23 games. Simmons, a walk-on, played in 10 games last season. √ PARLEZ-VOUS FRANÇAIS: The Bears took a 10-day trip to France in August, playing four games against semi-professional teams. They beat the only team that beat them the very next night to finish with a 3-1 record for the trip. COACH RUSS PENNELL: “It has helped immensely. This is my third experience taking a team overseas, the first two times as an assistant coach. We got to practice 10 extra days prior to going and then we had four games over there. We played very well. A much different looking team than we had last year. “And I think the biggest benefits we are seeing now is that, when we started practice on Oct. 5th, we already had our system put in from the summer. So our 30 days of practice before the first game will be spent on primarily just getting better at what we’re doing. There have not been a lot of new things added. You can do that once every four years, and you need to springboard off that. And I think we’ve taken advantage of that so far.’ √ CLASSROOM SUCCESS: The Bears had a 3.1 cumulative grade-point average for the 2014-15 school year, the highest in some time for the men’s program. Ten of the 11 Bears were enrolled at UCA for the first time in the fall semester, and seven were taking college courses for the first time. Ten players had at least a 3.0 GPA. The Bears, however, still face APR (Academic Progress Rate) penalties from the previous regime and are ineligible for postsesason play again this season.