From the Hardwood
The wheels appear to have fallen off for Keith
Richard and the ULM basketball team.
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After
losses at home to both Arkansas State (Feb. 10)
and UALR (Feb. 12)-the Warhawks hit a
season-worst eight-game losing skid.
Adding insult to injury during the ASU game was
the fact that the Warhawks had their best home
crowd of the season to witness a 19-point loss.
"I was really embarrassed about our defense
in the first 25 minutes of that game-really
embarrassed," ULM head coach Keith Richard said.
"For the first time in a long time, I thought
those guys that have been playing all those
minutes surrendered a little bit."
After a dreadful first-half showing against
ASU, Richard benched starters Fred Brown, Hugh
Mingo and Tommie Sykes to begin the second half.
"It was ugly," Richard said. "I didn't want
to watch it anymore. They were scoring so
easily. That was butter defense."
NOTES, QUOTES
•Despite the loss to Arkansas State
on Feb. 10, some good came of the situation for
the ULM program as coach Keith Richard donated
one dollar for all 752 students in attendance to
the Kitty Degree Foundation-a breast cancer
awareness organization.
"A big thank you to the people who came to
game tonight for a great cause," Richard said.
"My wife and I will donate based on the numbers.
I'm sure the numbers are good. They looked good,
and we'll try to get our team to play better
next time."
•The "Pink Zone" game against ASU on
Feb. 10 drew a total of 2,561 fans at ULM's Fant-Ewing
Coliseum.
By The Numbers: 1-Win in 12 Sun Belt
games as of Feb. 13 for ULM.
Quote To Note:
"It was ugly. I didn't
want to watch it anymore. They
were scoring so easily. That was
butter defense."
-ULM
coach Keith Richard on his team's defense
against ASU on Feb. 10.
STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL
This Week's Games:
•at Denver, Feb. 17
Key Matchup: ULM forward Tommie
Sykes could have an interesting matchup with
Denver big man Chris Udofia. Neither side is
incredibly imposing underneath, but Sykes and
Udofia are easily the best post players in this
matchup. If one side can take advantage in the
paint, it could prove to be the difference.
•at North Texas, Feb. 19
Key Matchup: UNT guard Tristan
Thompson leads the Sun Belt in scoring, but his
defense this season has been questionable.
ULM guard Fred Brown can light it
up with the best of them in the Sun Belt, but
also struggles to defend as well. Defense could
be an interesting part of this high-scoring
matchup.
Player Notes
•Senior G Fred Brown was 12th in the
Sun Belt with 13.6 points per game as of Feb.
13.
•Senior F Tommie Sykes was 11th in
the Sun Belt with 6.3 rebounds per game as of
Feb. 13.