Defense catalyst for UALR
Arkansas-Little Rock’s men’s basketball team is riding a five-game winning streak and has pulled within a single game of first-place Morehead State in the Ohio Valley Conference standings with a league record of 10-4.
While the Trojans average 76.6 points per game, UALR Coach Darrell Walker points to the team’s defensive improvement as the biggest reason for the recent success.
“You go back and look at the numbers, we’ve been really guarding the last eight or nine games,” he said. “It has been one of my better defensive teams so far in the last eight games. Just working on the defensive principles everyday in practice. Over and over and over. The same thing my Hall of Fame Coach Eddie Sutton taught us [at the University of Arkansas]. I got sick of it, but it helped us win basketball games and I’m doing the same thing.”
Over the course of their first six conference games, the Trojans gave up an average of 80.3 points per game and had a record of 3-3. In the past eight conference games, UALR has held its opponents to 61.1 points per game and has a record of 7-1 in that span.
The emergence of center Makhel Mitchell has made a major difference on how the team is able to defend. His presence in the middle makes it difficult for opponents to score inside and he is able to cover for teammates when they get beat off the dribble. The Trojans have also cleaned up the foul issues that plagued them early in the season.
“We are doing a better job of guarding without fouling,” Walker said. “The Makhel Mitchell factor is factoring in. He takes between six and 10 points off [the scoreboard] every game. We’re just trying to keep the ball in front of us and contest shots. Hopefully people don’t get by us too much. Makhel can clean some things up, but you don’t want to get in foul trouble so you have to keep your guy in front of you.”