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Final record: 23-6 (13-3)!

UCA teams headed in opposite directions for final 4 games
Posted: February 22, 2010 - 9:23pm
By David McCollum

University of Central Arkansas basketball coaches Matt Daniel and Rand Chappell reflected on the challenges Monday of the stretch run of the Southland Conference season.

The Sugar Bears (19-6, 9-3) are battling Stephen F. Austin for the Southland Conference East title. Although UCA is ineligible for the postseason conference tournament, the turnaround of 13 victories from last season marks the biggest turnaround in NCAA Division I this season. Daniel said Monday at the weekly Bearbackers luncheon that the Sugar Bears’ game at SFA on March 3 could be the SLC’s selection for a “wild card” game on its television package.

“That’s says a lot because it’s a women’s game and they are not often televised and it speaks a lot for what we are trying to do,” Daniel said.

With Saturday’s victory over Texas-Arlington, the Bears are 4-2 against the league’s West Division, normally the dominant one.

“The East Division is 8-18 against the West and four of those victories are us,” Daniel said. “In the last four years, UTA has defeated us by 29, 22 and 31 points. So beating them eight at their place is another sign of progress.”

The Sugar Bears’ RPI is 204, which is an 100-point improvement over last season. And Daniel said there is an outside chance the Sugar Bears could get into the WNIT field if they win their division. The WNIT this year will consist of 65 teams that do not make the 64-team NCAA field. UCA is ineligible for the NCAA tournament because of the Division transition.

“Just to be in that (WNIT) conversation is quite astounding,” Daniel said...

Coaching the females
Submitted by David McCollum on Mon, 2010-02-22 22:15

We've witnessed some pretty good college coaching jobs involving females in Faulkner County this season.

The obvious is Matt Daniel, who is in his second year with the UCA Sugar Bears and, albeit one of the softest schedules in the country, has led his team to a 19-6 record and the biggest turnaround for wins in NCAA Division I this season. After pretty much cleaning house on veteran players, he's taken a group of freshmen and sophomores to challenge for the Southland Conference East title.