LSUS Pilots ranked 8th in NAIA
December 09, 2004
Shreveport, LA---As the LSUS men’s basketball team huddled around head coach Chad McDowell before taking the floor for their first contest of the year they roared, “1-2-3-TOGETHER!” The Pilots went on to win the tip off resulting in a lay-up and their first basket by Rico Payne, and they never looked back. This was November 6, 2003, the beginning of the LSUS Pilots story. Since then, the Pilots have compiled a 28-14 record, which includes a very impressive 13-1 record at the Dock, and have earned an NAIA Division I Men’s Basketball National Ranking of 8th.
The Pilots returned all five starters from the 03-04 season in Fredericko Payne, Derrick Rogers, Justin Collins, Derrick Sowell, and Abraham Saxson, and also welcome the return of Freddy Hughes, and Carlon Simmons. The additions of Derrick Hill and David Walker have added the much needed depth off the bench every coach is looking for.
In the Pilots ’04-05 season opener, they squared off against the 5th ranked Oklahoma Baptist University on the road. LSUS picked up a convincing 68-58 win, handing OBU their first loss in a home opener since 1977. The Pilots went on to win 4 straight games after their season opener which was capped off by a 118-115 double overtime victory over East Texas Baptist University.
At 5-0 on the season, the Pilots hit their first stumbling block of the year squaring off against two NCAA Division I opponents in Northwestern State University and Southeastern Louisiana University. The Pilots suffered a 107-80 loss to NSU, and then fell 80-53 to SLU, knocking the Pilots record to 5-2.
“We know we cannot overestimate any opponent on our schedule as we tried to create the toughest schedule we could. We knew we were in tough against NSU and SLU, but, you take the good with the bad and keep on trying to move forward,” commented head Coach Chad McDowell.
And move forward they did. After the loss to SLU, the Pilots traveled to McKenzie, TN to the McKenzie Rotary Club Classic where they squared off against 25th ranked Brescia University. The Pilots went on to collect their second win against a top 25 opponent by defeating Brescia 62-52. As excited they were about the win, they could not look past the Bethel College Wildcats who were up next for the Pilots.
LSUS went on to defeat the Wildcats 92-80 in the final game of the MRCC in what may have been the toughest road win for the Pilots since their resurrection in 2003. “This was a huge test for our guy’s. They showed great composure and stuck to our game plan and never lost site of what we are trying to teach here at LSUS. When we play “TOGETHER”, we are going to be a tough team to beat,” concluded McDowell after picking up their 7th win of the season.
At 7-2, the Pilots were hopeful of improving upon their pre-season ranking of 35th in the Country. When the NAIA released its first Top 25 poll on December 7th, the Pilots did not see their name as an honorable mention, nor were they between 20-25 where they had hoped to be. The Pilots jumped to 8th in the Country. “We were very excited to see our name in the Top 10. We knew we deserved to be there, but being the new kid on the block you have to prove yourself to a lot of people and we were not expecting to be so high,” said McDowell. Some coaches believe that the rankings do not mean much. But to the Pilots, it shows that hard work and dedication does not go unrewarded.
Being ranked in the Top 10 this early in the year puts a lot of pressure on the Pilots as they now have something that everyone in the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference wants to take away from them. The GCAC has 3 other teams in the Top 30 with the University of Mobile (8-3) at 19th, Southern University-New Orleans (4-1) at 23rd, and Xaxier University coming in at 29th.
LSUS must take on Sam Houston State University on December 11, before returning home for their much anticipated conference home opener versus Xavier University December 14. These two teams split the season series last year 1-1. Xavier was the only team to defeat the Pilots at the Dock the entire season as each team won on their opponents’ home court. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30pm.
Division I Men's Basketball Rating #1 - December 7, 2004
|
Rank |
Last Week |
School |
1st Place Votes |
Record |
Total Points |
|
1 |
6 |
Concordia (Calif.) |
9 |
8-1 |
297 |
|
2 |
1 |
Mountain State (W.Va.) |
|
11-1 |
279 |
|
3 |
2 |
Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) |
|
6-1 |
270 |
|
4 |
19 |
Oklahoma Christian |
3 |
10-0 |
263 |
|
5 |
11 |
Southern Polytechnic (Ga.) |
|
11-1 |
237 |
|
6 |
NR |
Trevecca Nazarene (Tenn.) |
|
11-1 |
214 |
|
7 |
NR |
Cumberland (Ky.) |
|
7-1 |
207 |
|
8 |
NR |
LSU-Shreveport (La.) |
|
6-2 |
205 |
|
9 |
5 |
Oklahoma Baptist |
|
8-1 |
203 |
|
10 |
NR |
Christian Heritage (Calif.) |
|
7-2 |
191 |
|
11 |
NR |
Montana-Western |
|
9-3 |
190 |
|
12 |
8 |
Georgetown (Ky.) |
|
9-1 |
167 |
|
13 |
18 |
McKendree (Ill.) |
|
10-3 |
131 |
|
14 |
10 |
Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) |
|
7-3 |
128 |
|
15 |
NR |
Biola (Calif.) |
|
7-1 |
124 |
|
16 |
12 |
Lubbock Christian (Texas) |
|
8-2 |
117 |
|
17 |
20 |
St. Xavier (Ill.) |
|
7-1 |
115 |
|
18 |
16 |
Union (Tenn.) |
|
9-2 |
114 |
|
19 |
4 |
Mobile (Ala.) |
|
8-3 |
108 |
|
20 |
NR |
Faulkner (Ala.) |
|
8-2 |
67 |
|
21 |
3 |
Azusa Pacific (Calif.) |
|
5-2 |
60 |
|
22 |
NR |
Wayland Baptist (Texas) |
|
7-0 |
51 |
|
23 |
13 |
Southern-New Orleans (La.) |
|
4-1 |
27 |
|
24 |
NR |
Carroll (Mont.) |
|
10-3 |
24 |
|
25 |
NR |
Bacone (Okla.) |
|
8-1 |
22 |
Others Receiving Votes:
Oklahoma City, 12; Pikeville (Ky.), 12; Missouri Baptist, 10; Xavier (La.), 9; Georgia Southwestern, 9; Westmont (Calif.), 6; Cumberland (Tenn.), 9; Langston (Okla.), 4; Robert Morris (Ill.), 4; Brescia (Ky.), 3; Lambuth (Tenn.), 3; Reinhardt (Ga.), 3; Westminster (Utah), 3; John Brown (Ark.), 2.
All LSUS News Releases are Online at: http://www.lsus.edu/athletics/
To receive LSUS Sports Releases by e-mail, contact Allan Cantwell at: sports@pilot.lsus.edu
LSUS Athletics Contact:
Allan Cantwell
Sports Information
318-797-5194 (office)
