The Trojans are off to a 3-2 start with wins over Missouri State, Southern Baptist and Central Arkansas.

Arkansas-Little Rock is part of the Barclays Center Classic with NC State, Memphis, Alcorn State and St. Francis Brooklyn. The Trojans lost at Memphis 68-58 on Wednesday, in a game where both team’s centers were suspended by the NCAA.

Memphis played without freshman center James Wiseman. Arkansas-Little Rock has been without sophomore center Nikola Maric, who is from Bosnia & Herzegovina. The 6-foot-10, 250-pounder has been suspended by the NCAA until Jan. 9. He averaged 10.7 points and 4.5 rebounds per game, and shot 15 of 35 on three-pointers last year.

Arkansas-Little Rock also lost Charlotte, N.C., native Rayjon Tucker a year prematurely, who averaged 20.3 points per game last year. He ultimately ended up turning pro and latched on to the Milwaukee Bucks.

Arkansas-Little Rock plays at NC State at 1 p.m. Saturday at PNC Arena. NCSU topped No. 14-seed UALR 80-66 in double overtime in the second round of the 1986 NCAA Tournament.

Arkansas-Little Rock is built around the trio of sophomore point guard Markquis Nowell, redshirt junior wing Ben Coupet Jr. and junior center Ruot Monyyong.

Head coach Darrell Walker is well known in basketball circles, having a standout college career at Arkansas, and then playing in the NBA from 1983-1993. The “Junkyard Dog” won an NBA title in his final NBA season with the 1993 Chicago Bulls. He then went into the coaching ranks in the NBA and WNBP before taking over at UALR last year, with the Trojans going 10-21.

Rankings

KenPom.com has Arkansas-Little Rock at No. 149 in the country this season, and ESPN’s College Basketball Power Index (BPI) has the Trojans at No. 253 in the country.

The Trojans are ranked No. 136 in the old RPI formula used by the NCAA — according to RealTimeRPI.com. In the newly established NET rankings done by the NCAA, Arkansas-Little Rock finished No. 237 in the country last year.

Shooting

The outside shooting woes are for real with the Trojans. NC State doesn’t normally play zone defense, and won’t like against Arkansas-Little Rock, but if they did the Trojans fit the bill. UALR’s Nowell and Coupet can make them, but the rest of the roster is a collective 3 of 30, which is almost unheard of in college basketball.

Rebounding

A trio of players are getting it done on the boards for the Trojans. Monyyong leads the way with 8.0 rebounds per contest, sophomore Kamani Johnson is 7.4 rebounds a game and Coupet chipping in 7.0 boards a contest. UALR is averaging 36.8 rebounds per game (plus 6.4 rebounding margin), and have 58 offensive rebounds in five games.

Defense

The UALR defense has been stingy this season, allowing 68 points to Memphis in a loss and 66 against Missouri State in a win. Opponents are averaging 64.8 points per game and shooting 39.5 percent from the field and 33.1 percent on three-pointers. Monyyong has eight blocks, and Nowell has 18 steals this season.

Depth

With Nowell averaging 39.8 minutes per game and Coupet not far behind at 37.2 minutes a contest, depth is not one of the Trojans’ strengths. Johnson and junior guard Jaizec Lottie are trusted. Freshman wing Isaiah Palermo has played in all five games, but has six points and 12 fouls.

The 6-7, 215-pound Johnson has been great on the boards, and had 10 points, 11 rebounds and four assists against Memphis. He’s averaging 7.0 points and 6.3 rebounds in 26.8 minutes per game. The 6-1, 180-pound Lottie is averaging 7.2 points and 2.4 assists in 25.4 minutes a contest this season. He has scored 10 points in three of the five games.

Nowell might not be big at a listed 5-7 and 155 pounds, but he’s always been a big scorer. He wasn’t a late bloomer in high school or the proverbial sleeper at prep powerhouse The Patrick School in Newark, N.J. He played with the Playaz Basketball Club 16s in the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League, and then his senior year joined New Heights on the Under Armour circuit. He just slipped through the cracks somehow and ended up at Arkansas-Little Rock.

Nowell had offers at various points of his prep career from Georgetown, Minnesota, Rutgers, Seton Hall and VCU, but ended up committing late to the Trojans on April 30, 2018. He quickly showed as a freshman what other schools were missing.

Nowell averaged 11.1 points, 4.2 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game his freshman year, and shot 35.4 percent from three-point land. He poured in a career-high 34 points and hit six three-pointers in his very first college game, a 101-92 win over Southeast Oklahoma State on Nov. 8, 2018. He went on to finish with four games of at least 20-plus points, including 24 points, six assists and five steals in a 102-94 overtime loss at Georgetown on Dec. 22, 2018.

Nowell has taken his game to the next level this season, leading the Trojans with 20.2 points, 5.2 assists, 4.4 rebounds and 3.6 steals per game. He is shooting 47.3 percent from the field and 32.3 percent of his three-pointers. He also rarely misses a free throw, going 21 of 23 this season.

Nowell has already scored at least 20 points in three of the Trojans first five games, including 28 points against Illinois State in the second contest of the season. Nowell did have the wrong kind of double-double against Memphis, getting 16 points and 10 turnovers.

PG — 11 Markell Johnson (6-1, 175, Sr., 9.5 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 7.8 apg, 1.8 spg)

SG — 13 C.J. Bryce (6-5, 210, 5th-Sr., 17.6 ppg, 8.0 rpg, 2.8 apg, 2.0 apg)

G — 10 Braxton Beverly (6-0, 180, Jr., 10.6 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 2.6 apg)

PF — 4 Jericole Hellems (6-7, 205, Soph., 10.2 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 0.0 apg)

C — 15 Manny Bates (6-11, 230, R-Fr., 7.2 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 0.4 apg, 3.8 bpg)

Arkansas-Little Rock

PG — 1 Markquis Nowell (5-7, 155, Soph., 20.2 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 5.2 apg, 3.6 spg)

SG — 33 Jovan Stulic (6-5, 205, Fr., 1.0 ppg, 1.7 rpg, 0.0 apg)

SF — 0 Ben Coupet Jr. (6-7, 185, Jr., 13.6 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 1.4 apg)

PF — 20 Kamani Johnson (6-7, 215, Soph., 6.2 ppg, 7.4 rpg, 1.8 apg, 1.2 spg)

C — 44 Ruot Monyyong (6-10, 190, Jr., 11.6 ppg, 8.0 rpg, 1.6 apg, 1.2 spg, 1.6 bpg)

18: Dunks this season by the Trojans with Monyyong getting 10 of them and junior Kris Bankston has six. Memphis had eight of the 11 dunks UALR has allowed.

27.3: Percentage from three-point land this season, with only two players that have made more than three beyond the arc. UALR is 21 of 77 on three-pointers..

60: Seconds spent on the bench this season for Nowell.

Coupet was known in middle school circles once upon a time due to two main reasons — his father and choice of high school.

Coupet was expected to be the next big thing at Chicago Simeon in the class of 2016, which is the same school that his father played for, 6-11 center Ben Coupet Sr. Simeon has produced recent NBA players Derrick Rose (Detroit Pistons), Jabari Parker (Atlanta Hawks) and Kendrick Nunn (Miami Heat). Coupet Sr. was a well known prep player at Simeon, but ended up having a modest two-year stint at Bradley from 1994-96.

Coupet Jr. had a solid prep career for Simeon, was a Rivals.com three-star prospect and ultimately ended up at UNLV. The 6-7, 185-pounder had two non-descript years in the desert and transferred to UALR, and has blossomed through five games. He’s averaging 13.6 points and 7.0 rebounds a contest, and shooting 51.9 percent from the field and has made 8 of 16 on three-pointers. All numbers the Trojans would love to see continue this season.

NC State fifth-year senior wing C.J. Bryce will be giving up a few inches at a listed 6-5, but he leads the Wolfpack with 17.6 points and 8.0 rebounds a contest.

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