Texas State’s practices keep getting shorter.
The Bobcats (7-6, 0-2 Sun Belt) have been dealing with a dearth of healthy bigs this season. Senior forward Chandler Davis has missed all year recovering from back surgery in the summer. Redshirt sophomore forward Alonzo Sule was extremely limited in last week’s road trip, playing 10 minutes against Georgia Southern and sitting out against Georgia State.
It doesn’t leave Danny Kaspar with many options to roll out on the court during practice. Senior center Eric Terry rarely comes off the floor when both Davis and Sule are out. The head coach has been ending sessions 15-20 minutes early to help keep his players fresh, but there’s not much else he can do.
“We really could use a healthy Alonzo Sule and a healthy Chandler Davis in terms of — not only the games — but in terms of practice,” Kaspar said. “We've got 12 guys on scholarship and two of them are hurt. So we're no better than 80 percent of what we need to be (health-wise).”
The maroon and gold will be under even more stress this weekend, playing three games over the next five days. The team begins with a pair of road games against Little Rock (8-5, 2-0) and Arkansas State (10-3, 2-0) on Thursday and Saturday, respectively, then returns home to host Troy (5-8, 1-1) on Monday.
Kaspar isn’t a fan of the way the conference set the schedule up.
“With us going four on the road and then having to return home and play a quick game on Monday is being very, very, very unfair to us and UT (Arlington) that has put our young men at somewhat of a disadvantage,” Kaspar said. “And I just don't think that that's the way — I'd like to see if anyone in the country is having to do that other than other than us and UTA. So, it is what it is. And we have to try to overcome that if we can win both of these Arkansas games, which would be very difficult, or at least get a split.”
Both Arkansas teams are currently on 3-game winning streaks and defeated Louisiana and Louisiana-Monroe last weekend. Little Rock ranks 160th in adjusted efficiency margin as of Tuesday, seven spots below Texas State per KenPom. Arkansas State ranks 227th.
Trojans sophomore guard Markquis Nowell leads the league in scoring, averaging 19.8 points per game. Little Rock also holds the second-highest rebounding margin in the Sun Belt with a plus-4.2 per game mark.
Kaspar attributed a lot of the team’s growth to head coach Darrell Walker gaining experience with the school.
“The coach has now had two years to get a system implemented,” Kaspar said. “And it's looking a lot better now than it did last year, during his first year.”
Kaspar also noted he’s seen a lot of improvement from Arkansas State as well. The Red Wolves have been shooting the ball efficiently this year, making .457 percent of their field goals, good for fourth in the conference.
Sule practiced with the team on Tuesday and Kaspar hopes to have him back to full strength soon. Davis will miss “another, probably, couple of weeks, at least.”
But Texas State doesn’t have time to make excuses. The team knows it needs to bounce back after dropping its first two league games.
“In terms of effort, in terms of hard work, you know, this team is fighting. And that's really one of the main things I can ask for,” Kaspar said. “Can we do a little bit more? Yes, we always can. If we were 13-0, I'd say, 'Hey, we still have a little room for improvement.' We need we need to improve our defensive rebounding, we need to improve our offensive rebounding and we need to shoot the ball a little bit better.”
The Bobcats will take on the Trojans in Little Rock, Arkansas, on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. They’ll follow it up with a game against Arkansas State in Jonesboro at 2 p.m.
