PINE BLUFF — They’re confident, eager and, at least on paper, completely overmatched.
The Arkansas-Pine Bluff men’s basketball team is set to embark on a monster of a nonconference schedule, one that will keep the small, historically black college’s athletic department in the black but is almost sure to chew up some psyches in the process.
The Golden Lions will leave Pine Bluff today for a Friday night season-opener at Colorado. After that, they’ll leave Boulder and fly to Houston, eventually arriving at College Station, Texas, for a Saturday night game at Texas A&M.
And that’s just getting started. In all, UAPB will play 11 nonconference games before starting Southwestern Athletic Conference play, all on the road and most against power conference teams like Nebraska (Nov. 22 ), Georgia Tech (Nov. 25 ), Missouri (Dec. 2 ) and Purdue (Dec. 6. )
The Golden Lions’ first home game, the SWAC opener against Mississippi Valley State, won’t be until 2009.
For schools in low-end Division I conferences like the SWAC and Mid Eastern Athletic Conference, which operate on shoestring athletic budgets, liberally sprinkling “guarantee” road games on the nonconference schedule is a matter of fiscal survival.
But Skip Perkins, UAPB’s athletic director, will readily admit the Golden Lions are setting a new precedent, for better or for worse.
“We’re kind of stuck in that vicious cycle,” Perkins said. “The men’s basketball makes so much money through guaranteed games that to sustain a budget, it’s kind of the only way possible.”
Or, as Perkins later put it: “They have to take one for the team.”
“The team” in this case is UAPB’s 13 sports, each of which will nab a share of the $ 715, 000 the Golden Lions make from the 11 nonconference games. Football, the school’s only other moneymaker, gets off easy: The Golden Lions are set to make $ 500, 000 next season off three “classics,” games at neutral sites against other black colleges where event promoters pay each program to come and play.
But there are no classics in basketball, just one-off games against the nation’s elite.
“It could be a bonus,” first-year Golden Lions Coach George Ivory said. “A lot of these kids grew up playing with these kids who went to bigger universities. It’s a challenge. I think, on any given night, anything can happen.”
Yes, Ivory is an optimist, but at least the optimism is grounded in experience. A SWAC guy through and through, Ivory was a standout player at Mississippi Valley State before cutting his teeth in assistant jobs at Grambling, MVSU and UAPB before taking over in Pine Bluff.
Ivory has played and coached in his fair share of guarantee games, but he said he’s never been a part of a schedule like this.
“You’ve basically got to get them in shape, work on a game plan for what you want to do the whole year,” Ivory said. “That’s basically what we’ve been doing, getting ready for not only nonconference but the whole season.”
Perkins said he doesn’t factor in the results of guarantee games when evaluating his coaches, so that’s some solace for Ivory. Then again, it’s also Perkins who advises on, and then signs off, on the killer schedule.
Upon examining the athletic department’s year-end financial statements, Perkins will call for either an easier but less lucrative schedule, or one that’s tougher and more profitable.
It’s then up to the coach to get in touch with other associate athletic directors or directors of basketball operations and whip up a game contract. And though Ivory has yet to coach a game at UAPB, he’s already earned high marks for his negotiating chops.
While the nonconference slate involves heavy representation from the Big 12, Big Ten and Atlantic Coast Conference, the Golden Lions have managed to pull in some mid-majors like Creighton and San Diego State.
Plus, each guarantee game will net UAPB at least $ 70, 000, with some going as high as $ 80, 000.
“He makes sure we get our bang for our buck,” Perkins said. “You don’t want to go 800 miles and only get chump change.”
But some of the dollar amounts can be misleading. A school can offer $ 75, 000, for example, but that may or may not include the price of air travel, bus travel, overnight accommodation or meals. As a general rule of thumb, the more well-heeled the school, the more that school is willing to foot the entire bill plus cough up a nice guarantee.
But well-funded schools tend to be at the top of the basketball pecking order, meaning teams like UAPB pay for their courtesy on the court.
“It’s a matter of picking a game you think you have a chance to compete in,” Ivory said.
At least the Golden Lions have fun in the process. Unlike SWAC play, where the travel is strictly by bus and the hotels strictly two-star, the nonconference road games involve air travel, better locales and comfy beds.
“They go first class these first 11 games,” Perkins said. “They’ll be going around in luxury.”
Truth be told, UAPB’s players might be willing to trade some luxury for victories. Junior guard Terrance Calvin has had some moments in some prominent places — he scored 17 points as a freshman against a nationally ranked Nevada team led by All-America forward Nick Fazekas — but after a while, the novelty of losing in style wears off.
“We came close to beating Houston,” Calvin said. “Wichita State. Nevada. Fresno State. Being close is not winning. Every loss is the same to me, be it by 40, 50, 10, 1.”
Relief should be on the way. The athletic department received an extra monetary boost by selling more football season tickets than expected, and next season’s three classics should take the pressure off the basketball team to turn a profit.
“I’d rather see that we play maybe eight games on the road,” Perkins said. “That will be our plan going into ’ 09.”
Ivory, ever on the sunny side, reminds his players that every big-name opponent is preparation for a first-round NCAA Tournament game.
Providing, of course, they manage to win the SWAC with egos intact.
“A game like that lets a player know that a team’s got to work hard every day,” Ivory said. “You’ve got to be ready to play, not just say we’re going to lose automatically.”
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