Winning infectious for UAPB
Martaveous McKnight watched his team’s drawnup shot fail in the waning seconds of a tied overtime game. A teammate recovered the rebound and flipped the pass to McKnight.
The junior transfer from Itawamba Community College (Miss.) rose with the ball in hand as the crowd of 2,600 at H.O. Clemmons Arena in Pine Bluff looked on.
Saturday was the first home game of the season for the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, and the Golden Lions had began the season with
14 consecutive losses before winning three consecutive Southwestern Athletic Conference road games.
McKnight delivered UAPB its fourth victory, knocking down the game-winning shot in a 7876 victory over Southern. The Golden Lions leading scorer (18.7 points per game), who called the shot a “statement to the rest of the conference,” scored 25 more points in the Golden Lions’ 71-59 home victory over Alcorn State on Monday.
UAPB never has started SWAC play 5-0 under 10year Coach George Ivory, and a campus that started with an 0-14 team now has a winner.
“There’s people talking to us who didn’t say a word to us [before],” said McKnight, who was named SWAC Player of the Week last week after scoring a combined 53 points in victories over Alabama A&M and Alabama State. “It’s crazy here. A lot of people didn’t think we were going to be good.”
Not much good occurred during UAPB’s 14-game losing streak during the nonconference portion of the season.
Ivory’s team has rigorous nonconference road trips every season to help raise money for the athletic department by signing game contracts with much larger programs, such as Hawaii and Oregon State. From 2008-2013, the Golden Lions received a total of $3,695,577 in total revenue from game contracts alone.
This season, UAPB (5-13, 5-0 SWAC) was within 10 points of only three of its nonconference opponents.
“It’s tough,” McKnight said. “As a competitor, you gotta have a short-term memory. Prepare for the next game. We figure out what we did wrong, and that makes it a lot easier than sitting around thinking about it.”
Ivory said the tough nonconference schedule magnified the team’s flaws on defense and with offensive ball movement.
Now, UAPB is second in the SWAC in field goal percentage (42.1) and third in field goal percentage defense (44.4).
The Golden Lions won the SWAC championship in 2010, which propelled the program to its first NCAA Tournament victory over Winthrop in a play-in game and a loss to No. 1 seed Duke in the first round. After an 0-14 start, they are in a position to do so again.
“They never quite gave up,” Ivory said. “That was the thing I liked about them. Now, we’re the ones being chased, and we’ve got to play extra hard.”
The UAPB program is not used to being chased, and neither is McKnight, who said “it’s a blessing” to even be on the Golden Lions roster.
With no major offers after graduating from Lake Cormorant High (Miss.), McKnight enrolled at Itawamba Community, where he averaged 12.5 points and 4.6 rebounds during his sophomore season.
That season, which he said “wasn’t as good as it
should’ve been,” produced few Division I offers. McKnight said UAPB “took a chance” on him, and he “loved what they were talking about.”
“When I got around the guys, I saw a lot of ability,” McKnight said. “I knew we could do some winning. Guys wanted to go in the right direction. I wanted to get on board. I saw the potential.”
He didn’t mind the extended road trip at the start of the season.
He had never been on a plane, much less traveled to Hawaii. And when conference play began, he was proud the team was not discouraged.
“We stay locked in, stay focused, every practice, before every game, like we’re 0-0,” he said. “We just want to win.”
UAPB will return to the road this weekend, with games against Prairie View A&M on Saturday and Texas Southern on Monday.
Texas Southern (3-15, 3-2) is undefeated in its three home games and has the conference’s leading scorer in Demontrae Jefferson (23.2 points per game). Prairie View A&M (5-14, 2-3) has the conference’s third leading scorer in Gary Blackston (17.5 ppg).
A brutal nonconference is in the past, and all UAPB needs is a SWAC Tournament championship to automatically qualify for its second NCAA Tournament.
“We’re on a mission,” Ivory said.