CONWAY, Ark. _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears will open their exhibition season Saturday with a new look under second-year head coach Russ Pennell.
The UCA team that will host the Lyon Scots at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Farris Center will have some new faces in senior forward Justin Foreman, senior guard Derreck Brooks, junior guard Jeff Lowery and freshman forward Tanner Schmit. Foreman, Brooks and Lowery practiced with the team while redshirting at UCA last season.
"I think in Year 2, adding the pieces we have added, I think we will be a better team,' said Pennell, a former UCA point guard. "I think we'll be much more competitive. I'm very optimistic and very happy on the direction the program is heading.'
UCA is coming off a 2-27 campaign after the hiring of Pennell, but feature a much more experienced squad for the 2015-16 season.
"Last year, I didn't feel like we had a bad basketball team,' said Pennell. "I just thought we had a immature basketball team. Physically, we just weren't ready for the rigors of Division I basketball. And that's what happens when you take that calculated risk we did of playing all the freshmen. I knew if would be hard year, I really did. I didn't really have a set number of wins in mind. I thought we would take some beatings and we did.
"However, the positive of that is our kids never got down, they never quit. And we did get better as the year went on. And now every kid had gained between 8 and 12 pounds of muscle over the summer. Then with the three guys we've added, along with one freshman, we're just a different basketball team. The proof will be in the pudding, we have to do it on the court. But we are a lot more mature than we were last year. And that's what the experience of playing those young guys last year should give us.
"And I see a hunger in these guys. They were disappointed they didn't win more. They understood kind of the reasons why, but I think it's fueled them. We had a fantastic spring once the season ended, then the trip to Europe really helped us.
"We're still in the infant stage of this thing. But let's be frank about it, UCA has not been any good since we've been Division I. So we're going against a trend and we're trying to turn that thing around. It's not going to happen in two years, it may not happen in three. But I know we're progressing the right way. I've done this long enough to see the results of what it's going to take, and I'm seeing that in my team right now.'
UCA returns the reigning Southland Conference Freshman of the Year in guard Jordan Howard, who averaged a team-high 15.7 points last season, good for fifth in the league. Howard also made 77 three-pointers, second in the SLC and the third-best total in UCA history. He shot 39 percent from three-point range and 78.4 percent from the free-throw line.
"Jordan is a great player,' said Pennell. "He had a fantastic trip to Europe. He shot the ball extremely well. And the thing that Jordan has going for him this year, he has some people around him who are every bit as good as he is. Especially one of our guys who sat out last year, Jeff Lowery, a true point guard who knows how to get Jordan the ball at the right time when he's open.
"I think Jordan will have even a better sophomore year. I don't know if his numbers will be there because we'll have more scoring this year, but right now in practice, if he's open, the ball goes in the goal. And the other thing a lot of people don't know is he played the last 19 games of last season with a torn meniscus. Two days after our last game he was having surgery.
"So he has his speed and quickness back. Last year he didn't attack the goal much, but this year he's attacking more and scoring in different ways. I think he's primed to have a very good sophomore year.'
All five starters from last season return, including senior center Jake Zuilhof, senior guard Mike Martin, sophomore forward Boo Milligan and sophomore guard Mathieu Kamba. Also returning are sophomore forward Albert Christensson and sophomore guard Tyler Simmons, with freshman Tanner Schmit from Buffalo, N.Y, joining the mix. The plans are to redshirt junior Ethan Lee and sophomores Thatch Unruh and Otas Iyekekpolor, who combined to play 78 games last season.
The Bears had the benefit of a 10-day trip to France in August where they played four games against semi-professional teams. UCA went 3-1, avenging the one loss the next night.
"It has helped immensely,' said Pennell. "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.'
UCA has another exhibition against Central Baptist College at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 7. The regular season begins on the road at Tulsa on Saturday, Nov. 14. The Bears have a tough schedule that includes road games at UMass, Rutgers, Oklahoma and Pittsburgh, as well as in-state matchups with Little Rock in Little Rock on Dec. 1 and in Conway on Dec. 16, and against Arkansas State in Jonesboro on Dec. 22.
