UCAFANS.COM | GO UCA BEARS!

I have had a difficult time in trying to put this together because I want it to be constructive and to the point.

The question was asked on the womens basketball page about where does my money go after the athletic department decided to call off the remainder of the season because of a lack of numbers in the program. Injuries and departures apparently left the womens program down to five players. Tough situation.

Many of you have seen me complain on here for a number of years about the downright decline and continued bottoming out of the mens basketball program.

In an attempt to show the decline in athletics at UCA, I went back to look at records over the past five years in football, mens and womens basketball and baseball. This is in no way a slap in the face to the other sports. I just wanted to point out the records of what appears to be the more popular sports at UCA. Please note that the odd looking records in 2020 were due to covid 19.

Football:
2018, 6-5
2019, 9-4
2020, 5-4
2021, 5-6
2022, 5-6
NOTE: The last 10 win season for the Bears was 2017, Steve Campbells last year. Is Nathan Brown on the hot seat ? Probably not, but probably should be.

Mens Basketball
2018-2019, 14-19
2019-2020, 10-21
2020-2021, 5-19
2021-2022, 11-20
2022-2023, 9-21* (Still a game remaining)
NOTE: Only one winning season since the Bears have been Division I. That was 18-17 in 2017-2018 season. I am at a total loss on this program. Teague has done a horrible job at selecting coaches. I really thought the hiring of Russ Pennell would right the ship...it didn't. Another factor going forward is the health of Head Coach Anthony Boone, who underwent heart surgery in recent weeks. I hope Coach Boone is doing better. Really good guy. The program needs a bunch of help and I am not sure where it needs to start other than removing the athletic director from the process.

Womens Basketball
2018-2019, 12-18
2019-2020, 13-16
2020-2021, 13-14
2021-2022, 9-19
2022-2023, 8-18* (Season suspended because of numbers)
NOTE: The Sugarbears have had some success since making the move to D-I.
2015-2016, 28-4...2016-2017, 26-5...2017-2018, 25-10. They made an appearance in the Big Dance. Another factor this season was the absence of Head Coach Sandra Rushing, due to her mothers health issues. She has built the program and had success. Does she want to continue ? I don't know.

Baseball:
2019, 32-27
2020, 8-8
2021, 23-28
2022, 24-29
2023, Currently 3-1...Big win over #10 Vanderbilt. Playing Missouri St. this weekend.
NOTE: I don't keep up that closely with baseball, but the program doesn't seem to be as stout as it was when Allan Gum was head coach. Baseball has had some success since the D-I move. Made an appearance in the regionals during the early D-I years before losing to Mississippi State.


In conclusion, I am interested in everyone's thoughts. Good or Bad. I still maintain that Brad Teague needs to be out TODAY. He has done some good things during his time at UCA, but he has let the program become more than stagnant. The other problem is that he is very popular out in the community and in many peoples mind, he can do no wrong. There are many people at UCA that would love to see him out as well, but when you have a president and a board of trustees that doesn't care, that leaves a really bad situation. It is like I have said earlier, no one cares and that is really sad.

Small argument here, but Monty, how can you say baseball isn't as stout of a program as when Gum was HC? Harlan has had one year and 4 games this year. There was a one win improvement from Gum's last year to Harlan's first. Maybe jumping the gun there LOL

Perhaps I did jump the gun a little bit. I couldn't remember how long Harlan had been the head coach. I honestly thought he had been head coach a couple of years.

Hate to disappoint you...this is not Monty.

The entire department needs new leadership. Beau has the best description I’ve seen on the state of affairs, “Stagnant”. Football is embarrassingly bad, basketball hasn’t been good in two decades, and they weren’t that good two decades ago (maybe a couple of D2 tourney appearances maybe?). Baseball team looks good this year, but that’s after several losing seasons.

We need a new direction and new ways to excite alumni. Myself and a couple of people on here can’t be the only ones frustrated…

Baseball has had a winning season every year since 2013 with the exception of 2021 and 2022 where they were essentially .500...

I'm not disagreeing that there's a decline, but I don't like when people make the problem out to be worse than it is with examples that are out of proportion/context.

I lost my post on this topic when trying to save....will work up again but not now...oops....

cool, now do basketball…

Football and MBB get the most criticism because they have the most fans who care about how they do...most fans mostly care only (or maybe 90%) about wins and losses...that is a truism whether you are in Conway, Fayetteville, Columbia (MO), Stillwater, Tallahassee or anywhere else....each has had their challenges the past decade and sometimes it was just bad luck, sometimes losing a good coach, sometimes player transfers or injuries, sometime administration....or many other reasons....

UCA, like other D1 schools, has lots of sports (I believe we now have 18) in different phases of the program.......in today's world win/loss is no longer the only important metric....Title 9 changed that and is more true now than ever before....plus graduation rates get lots of behind the curtain attention....the ADs these days have lot of constituents to keep happy.....still, I have never met a D1 AD that did not understand that football and MBB get you more bad attention than others give you good attention....plus managing 18 head coaches plus the off field management (like development, academic support, budget, NCAA compliance, broadcast contracts, etc) is no small chore....I had 12-15 direct report managers much of my career in business and that was nothing compared to what D1 AD's have to deal with...

As to football, the recent records post-Coach Campbell have been documented in an earlier post but are repeated below:

Football:
2018, 6-5
2019, 9-4
2020, 5-4
2021, 5-6
2022, 5-6

I was glad to see Coach Campbell get a chance to move to FBS level but wish we could have afforded to keep him...I was certainly shocked that he was not able to be at USA long-term but it is a tough world to get wins...as Mizzou's former Coach Gary Pinkel used to say after every Tigers win..."It's really hard to win a football game..." and Pinkel had a storied career as MU's winningest coach including two SEC East championships...of course, all that did was set up Barry Odom to have to win two more which is VERY tough to do.... (note.....call Fayetteville to confirm)...now a former Alma Airedale at the helm has the clock ticking...

I thought Bret Bielema might be a good move for hogs as he and Wisconsin have long had very good o-lines....what they learned, among other things, was that Big 10 o-lines are maybe a couple steps below SEC o-lines...except for The OSU....Bama and UGA are just way above the rest of the SEC as to o-lnes (and virtually all other aspects of football)...along comes Sam Pittman and hope springs eternal that he will get it done...so far better but still not there....19-17 so far....note Mizzou's coach from Alma is 17-19....it's really hard to win in D1....UCA is not the only D1 program that has had some hard seasons recently....look up Florida State and see what Mike has to overcome....

The record shows 15-9 in the first two years post-Campbell....not what UCA is used to but a pleasant surprise for a first time D1 head coach...

I think the 2020 pandemic was a disaster for all teams with all the distractions and we happened to eke out a 5-4 including a weird loss at Fargo ....I'm willing to give all these coaches a pass for 2020 as long as they kept working to build the program...given the caliber of recruits we have seen over this period that seems obvious for UCA...

So that leaves 2021 and 2022 with 5-6 records....

Think about what happened in 2022....first, probably a controllable was we did not have a ready replacement for Breylin Smith who graduated...we were fortunate the transfer portal led to Will McElvain who was an experienced FCS QB at Northern Iowa...however, he did not know our offense and players like Breylin did through no one's fault.....he was a quick study as the offense got in gear in H2 of the SEMO game but the hill was too steep to climb out for a win...second we lost huge in the transfer portal when Tyler Hudson went to Louisville..I cannot blame the guy for moving to a much higher profile P5 program and helping his NFL stock...I really believe had he not transferred we would have beaten Mo State, SEMO and Lindenwood and would have ended up 8-3 rather than 5-6 and made the FCS playoffs even as an at-large team....we would all be ecstatic....happy days are here again and all...our receiving corps was pretty good nonetheless but TH was AA level and as we saw led Louisville receivers....AAs are not easy to replace...he alone would have made life much easier for McElvain to get going...

Next fall will be a tough schedule but I feel like we will be much better on offense early in the season with a returning solid QB, our potent RB corps and a slew of capable receivers even if not AAs...the schedule with Ok State and North Dakota State is a challenge for sure.... we do get Abilene, SEMO, SFA, EKU and Tarleton on The Stripes with UAPB in PB....

That leaves us with 2021.....to refresh our memory, the schedule is below...

L @ ASU, 21-40 (2-10 but they wore our DBs out late in the game)
L @ FCS #23 Mo State, 34-43 (8-4 .... they also wore us out late)
W over UAPB, 45-23
L to Sam Houston, 35-45 (11-1 in D1 games)
W @ Abilene, 42-21
L to EKU, 35-38 (7-4..... heartbreaking loss)
W @ Lamar, 49-38
W @ Jacksonville State, 38-14 (5-6)
W over Texas Wesleyan, 63-3 (wish we had another FCS team instead but we got an open date with the WAC/SLC mess and pickings were slim to none)
L to SFA, 14-27 (8-4 in D1 games)
L @Tarleton, 3-24 (6-5...we did not play well)

The late losses at Jonesboro and Springfield were disappointments that showed we needed to shore our DBs depth which I think we did going into 2022. Sam was really very good in 2021 and we gave them a very good run for the money. SFA was pretty solid and we had our chances. Tarleton was the mystery game. EKU seems to have a knack for pulling out games at the very last...probably also shows our DB depth issues in 2021. Losses were mostly to solid teams. We were certainly very competitive in all games but Tarleton where we just got run over.

Maybe things are not as bad as the 5-6 records would imply but need to turn close losses into wins and not have another Tarleton debacle in a game that could have led to a winning season.

PS....we do not like losing season for sure...if you ever want to hear about a program with a bitter taste in their mouth just listen to Drive Time the week of the Mizzou/Arkansas game...while hogs won last season, they are 2-6 vs Mizzou since Mizzou joined the SEC.....and that does not include a couple big bowl losses to Tigers in recent years before that...not sure that Ark fans would not rather beat Mizzou than Bama...there is also likely a fair amount of rumbling in Jonesboro after 2-10 and 3-9 seasons...

Will try to tackle other sports next....

MBB is well known as to their lack of winning seasons as reported previously and copied below....

Mens Basketball
2018-2019, 14-19
2019-2020, 10-21
2020-2021, 5-19
2021-2022, 11-20
2022-2023, 9-22

The record speaks for itself.....still there have been exciting players like Jordan Howard...and Hayden Koval....and Mathieu Kamba...and Jared Chatham....

As I recall I counted the Bears had 15 games this past season decided by 10 or fewer points....the way basketball is played now days whoever leads by 3+ in the last couple minutes gets to hit FTs to win the game.....I believe the Bears were 7-8 in these games....when we play well enough we are a 500 team .....the question is are we just that outclassed by other programs, outcoached, inexperienced, all of the above or what? The games I have seen in person sure don't show lack of effort and ability to comeback from way back ...unfortunately we have a tendency to play even first 10 then get behind next 10 and have to fight back the last half....

The loss of Coach Boone mid-season surely slowed the team's development this season...kudos to Coach Widders for keeping the team together and winning a few games....I saw Coach Boone at the last SugarBears game and the last Bears game...he seemed to be in good spirits and anxious to get back but obviously not back to full strength...best wishes for a full recovery.....looking forward to his team next season...

Even though we were stuffed thoroughly by Jacksonville State (101-71) two things stood out.....our guys played very hard and forced long 3s.....the other thing is that JSU hit 19/34 3s most of which came from well behind NBA distance....their star player was 10/18 and he probably hit 5-6 from close to 30 feet away.....not sure many teams can defend that...I was impressed with several of our players....JSU was clearly out to stop Kayouloud yet he still had a decent game (12/4)...and Hunter had 16 and Cooper had 13....other than 3s (Bears had 9 made) the game stats were pretty even....the Kennesaw game (56-72 loss) was similar as stats were very close but Owls were +5 3s made which was the game difference....have to figure out better way to slow down good 3s teams....

I have not studied 2023 signees but saw the 6'9 player from Bentonville West....good overall player....both defense and offense...scores with 3s, put backs, short jumpers, turn around kisses off the glass and FTs....runs the court well and saw him defeat a double team at mid court several times...good with rebounds....he will need to get better and stronger to do all that at college level but he should help out as a freshman...

When Russ Pennell came on board I think most Bears fans were excited to have a coach who had taken a team to the Elite 8 (at Arizona when Lute Olsen was on medical leave)...he had good recruiting contacts ...like Jordan Howard....Hayden Koval...Mathieu Kamba....Jared Chatham....but for some reason it never really worked out although 2017-2018 at 18-17 seemed at the time like a big step forward....we could have played a lesser schedule and won 20+ games but playing Baylor, UCLA (although taking Bruins to OT in 106-101 loss at Pauley Pavilion), Tuls and Oregon was very tough.....

Coach Boone brought good basketball credentials and knew the players....he has made inroads with good players out of Arkansas high schools.....Cam Hunter (Bryant)...Collin Cooper (Fayetteville)......Carl Daugherty (Maumelle) looks promising...plus added some out of state players with talent.....VJ Reeves (Tuscaloosa, AL)...Elias Cato (Australia)....we have to replace Eddy's points and rebs but I think we will be better next year.....got work to do this summer.....

After watching 18 Class 6A tourney games last week I am pretty convinced that Arkansas has players who can play at mid major level.....maybe not the D1 elite level that we will not get anyway but some very good players....

Even Coach Rand Chappell had solid credentials at D2 level via Henderson State but never seemed to get the players to play D1 ball consistently...we seemed to always be one player away from an 18+ win team...

ASUN is a very good basketball conference so we have to step up the play and players.....in my view, Boone deserves a good chance to try to get that done...

By the way, I have seen posts about basketball teams having 15 players.....as I read the NCAA website, the average roster size for D1 is 16 but the scholarship max is 13....like for football not all schools use all their scholarships....UCA roster shows 15 this past season which is right at the average.....note that Arkansas also has only 15 on roster (5 from Arkansas)...as I recall a couple years back they had only 13....A-State has 16 and only 3 from in-state (2 from Jonesboro and near area)....

Likewise WBB has been addressed here earlier and the win/loss trend copied below...

2018-2019, 12-18
2019-2020, 13-16
2020-2021, 13-14
2021-2022, 9-19
2022-2023, 8-18* (Season suspended because of numbers)

First, while I have rarely seen a team's remaining games be suspended at all, I think I can understand why that was a good decision in the circumstances....it would seem very unfair to the 5 players to send them on a long road trip to northern Florida and central Tennessee when they could have ended up without enough players to finish games .....not a good situation for sure.

Second, Coach Rushing did a marvelous job over her career and took the program to a new high after Matt Daniel brought us back from a disastrous few years after Coach Marvel's first retirement....the last few years have been very challenging for sure....getting the right coach is apparently quite hard....see what happened to Matt at Marshall and A-State

Third, Coach R seems to have been a big advocate of strong defense and hold opponents to less than 50 especially in the latter years....in today's basketball a defense first team may not appeal to the best high school players who want to score and shoot lots of 3s....we certainly were not a good 3s shooting team hitting only a bit over 23% and fewer than 3 per game.........maybe just a coincidence but we averaged losing by 10 points and opponents made 3 3s per game more than did we...that is 9 of the 10 points....defense only gave up 61 per game...but still low enough to win games with a better offense...after watching most of the Class 6A tourney last week, these high school girls teams were routinely shooting 15 or more 3s and hitting 6-8.....good defense but all these teams were super fast break almost every possession and if not a layup open then they go directly to the arc and put it up...hard to see those players wanting to play such a different style game than we try to play....

We will never really know what Coach R went through these last few years trying to be good daughter and caregiver and a D1 WBB coach....if we think coaching and traveling in season is taxing...recruiting can be even more time and energy consuming....I know she seemed tired on her last post-game radio interview......if UCA were an SEC school she would never have had that opportunity with a losing record for 3+ years....we can be more patient with our people and when they have been so good in the past they somehow earn some patience....I had many situations like that in business and never wanted to pull the string on someone I had seen perform at a very high level and was still trying and working hard....not easy for anyone....Maybe in the long run people knowing they work for a patience employer has big benefits but there are times with hindsight that can seem the wrong decision ...

I knew when I saw where we started the season with only 10-11 players on roster that was cutting it really close....as I recall she really cut down the 3s shooting earlier this season as we were not very good at it...that probably did not go over well with some players...kudos to those who stayed until the end and played hard ... by the way, I counted three players on the bench during the last game that appeared to be injured in some way....not sure what that means for 2023-2024 season roster...of the 5 players who played...

5'7 Kinley Fisher was a soph from Greenwood with a year playing at Mercer... 8/2 stats with 26 games played and 30 min per game...
5'10 Gloria Fornah was soph from Ft Worth...4/2 stats with 26 GP and 34 mpg
5'11 Sierra Carter was the senior from East Pont, GA with prior experience at West Georgia...9/7 stats with 26 GP and 32 mpg...
5'9 Kierra Prim was a junior from Shawnee Mission in Overland Park...9/7 stats with 26 GP and 32 mpg
6'0 Leah Perry was a soph from Cato, Ga....1/2 stats with 23 GP and 11 mpg

These got a lot of game experience but will need some help next season....a 5'11 to 6'1 high school player with good all-around skills could have a home at D1 program....a couple experienced transfers could help also...

There will be good coaches wanting to be at UCA.....except for P5 teams throwing around millions of donor dollars to recruit coaches it is a pretty systematic process of posting nationally, seeing who pops up and getting references and interviews...not sure where UCA post coaching positions but probably posting has already been up and ended....I can think of at least one fan favorite but not sure she would have any interest in a move ....need to get done pretty quickly to get on with recruiting and retention...ADs may have their top lists but the people have to post....

It all depends on how willing the alumni are in accepting mediocrity. Losing seasons for the past two years in every major sport. Football is down, baseball is down and I would argue we have the worst basketball program in the country.

But hey, don't want to take things out of context...

I have to agree for the most part. I think we have gotten to the point where we just accept the status quo. There was a time when we pushed and had some success, but then I think we got complacent and there wasn't enough push from the top. I love Dr. Teague, but if things don't change for the better soon we need to look for a change starting at the top.

Baseball

One of the best decades ever for UCA baseball (maybe I can run that down someday) and certainly at the highest level ever...post pandemic has been a slight fall off overall but quite competitive last season in ASUN ....need to be sweeping series and not just winning series....

Along with a winning record in last decade there have been several MLB signees including one who started for Toronto in CF...a couple of solid pitching prospects now in MILB...

Composite 10-year record is 152-128 (54%)/285-238(55%)

Overall: 7 winning seasons, 2 losing and one even
Conference: 8 winning, 2 losing

9-26 vs P5, ranked or other major programs....we could have played lesser schedule and won another 8-10 games or more....

Recent records

2023 to date: 5-4/13-15.....win @ #5 Vandy...loss @ #1 LSU...

2022: 18-12/24-29...1st yr in ASUN...0-4 vs P5...#5 Vandy, #2 Texas and 2x vs #5 Ark including the 1-2 loss at Dickey- Stephens

2021: 18-22/23-28 ....last yr in SLC ....losses include @ #3 Ole Miss and @ #2 Ark...plus swept by Sam Houston State ad TAMCC (8 losses)

2020: 2-1/8-8...pandemic season

2019: 19-11/32-27....win over #23 Ok State, losses to Mizzou and Vandy, swept Sam H

2018: 17-13/32-25....2x losses to #22 Wichita State and a loss to Ok State....outscored opponents by 90 runs

2017: 17-13/34-26....2x losses to #25 Vandy and a win over Ok State

2016: 16-14/29-27....3x losses to #7 Oregon State, loss to OU and #4 Vandy

2015: 16-14/29-24....win at Wichita State, loss to #19 Ok State and OU and Ole Miss

2014: 17-13/32-22....loss at Wichita State, won 2 of 3 from Memphis

2013: 12-15/42-22....3-3 vs #3 Ms State..had a good chance to advance to Super Regionals, loss to #2 Vandy, win over #18 Ok State, win over Wichita State, swept 0-3 by #27 Sam Houston State