UAFS Lions basketball to face tough Cornhuskers

Editor’s note: Story by Jonathan Gipson, sports information director for the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire.

A week after opening their exhibition season against the Saint Louis University Billikens, the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith Lions will make yet another lengthy road trip to play an even tougher, more-experienced foe in the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Friday in Lincoln, Neb.

Tip-off for this exhibition game will be at 7 p.m. at the Devaney Center. The game will be broadcast on KFPW-AM 1230 and on the Internet at www.sportshog1031.com.
(Link here for Twitter updates throughout the Lions’ road trip.)

UAFS, a provisional member of NCAA Division II this season, lost to the Billikens 79-51, but fourth-year Lions coach Josh Newman came away from the loss with a positive feeling about his young team.

“For the most part, we played with them for 28 minutes,” said Newman, whose Lions only trailed 37-29 at halftime. “That’s not easy to do to walk into that environment with the excitement, the energy, the tension and all of those things combined. I thought out kids responded in a very positive manner, and I am so proud of them.”

Newman expects an even tougher encounter with the Cornhuskers, who are coached by former UAFS coach Doc Sadler.

Sadler, who is from Greenwood, Ark., served two stints as Lions assistant coach (1988-91, 1997-98) and was head coach and athletic director for five seasons (1998-2003) before joining then University of Texas at El Paso coach Billy Gillispie’s staff as assistant coach.

During his five seasons at UAFS, Sadler guided the Lions to four Bi-State Conference East Division titles, two NJCAA Region II tournament titles (2001, 2002) and two NJCAA national tournament appearances. Two of his teams (2001, 2002) reached the 30-win plateau.

It will be the first time Newman and Sadler have matched wits on the hardwood as head coaches, but the two have a long history. Newman was a student manager at Arizona State when Sadler was an assistant for then Sun Devils coach Bill Frieder. He later was an assistant coach for one season (1998-99) under Sadler at UAFS.

“Doc was the first one to schedule a game with us, and without a doubt, that means a lot to us, our program and the community,” Newman said. “He’s been instrumental in everything I have ever done in my career. This is going to be an emotion-filled game. I have coached against Doc as an assistant but never as a head coach. It’s going to be an eerie feeling.”

The Huskers return five lettermen from a team that finished 18-13 last year and earned a bid to the NIT. They are picked to finish 11th in the 12-team Big 12 Conference.
Senior Sek Henry, a 6-foot-4 guard, is the Huskers’ top returning player having started 29 of the 31 games he played in last season. Henry averaged eight points and 3.4 rebounds per game and had 64 assists, eight blocked shots and 29 steals.

“We will play probably a bigger, stronger Nebraska team than the Saint Louis team we just played. Take nothing away from Saint Louis, but Nebraska is going to be bigger and stronger. That will be another test for us,” Newman said. “Hopefully, we will be better by Friday than we were this past Friday and hopefully give them (Nebraska) something to work on as well.”

Junior Josh Simmons, a transfer from Colorado State, leads the Lions in scoring with 11 points per game. Simmons, a 6-4 guard from Houston, Texas, scored the Lions’ first points as a NCAA Division II team on a 3-pointer with 16:40 left in the first half against Saint Louis.

Juniors Jason Jackson, a 6-8 center from Dallas, Texas, and Aaron McHenry, a 6-1 guard from Fayetteville, Ark., each are averaging seven rebounds per game, and junior Cedric Henderson, a 6-0 guard from Houston, Texas, is averaging five assists per game.

Newman is looking for improvement in some key areas when the Lions take the court against the Huskers, particularly offensively.

“We have to execute a little better on offense,” said Newman, whose Lions shot 39 percent from the field and committed 23 turnovers against Saint Louis. “We have to make some harder, sharper cuts, and we have to screen some bodies.”