After UALR followed two Sun Belt East Division championships with two straight losing seasons, coach Steve Shields took stock of the program and made some changes to his coaching staff and his roster in an attempt to rebuild the foundation of the program.

The Trojans started by focusing on defense and rebounding and rode those strengths all the way to a share of the Sun Belt West Division title, the No. 2 seed in the Sun Belt tournament and a trip to the semifinals.

UALR's season finally ended with a 70-55 loss to NCAA Tournament-bound Western Kentucky but the Trojans still finished 20-11 and 11-17 in the Sun Belt after winning only 14 games in each of the two previous seasons.

The prospects for more success are bright for a team that will return all but two seniors, both of whom were part-time starters. The Trojans will build off a foundation that includes nine of their top 10 scorers and seven of their top nine players in terms of minutes per game.

With so many key players returning from a strong defensive team, what the Trojans need now is better scoring. While sophomore guards Steven Moore and Matt Mouzy and sophomore forward Mike Smith all showed potential as go-to scorers late in the season, no UALR player averaged more than 9.8 points per game.

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