Little Rock Opens 2020-21 Season Facing Prairie View A&M in Louisville

GAME 1 | PRAIRIE VIEW A&M
Date	Wednesday, Nov. 25
Time	12 p.m. CT
Location	Louisville, Ky.
Arena	KFC Yum! Center
2019-20 Records	Little Rock (21-10, 15-5 SBC) Prairie View (19-13, 14-4 SWAC)
Watch	ESPN3
Listen	106.7 FM The Ride
Live Stats	TrojanStats.com
Notes	Little Rock | Prairie View A&M

LITTLE ROCK - Little Rock's 2020-21 campaign gets underway Wednesday afternoon from Louisville, Kentucky, as the Trojans face Prairie View A&M at 12 p.m. CT at the KFC Yum! Center as part of the Wade Houston Tipoff Classic. The Trojans' battle with the Panthers will stream live on ESPN3 with Trojan Hall of Famer Ray Tucker returning as the "Voice of the Trojans." This year's Little Rock radio broadcasts will be heard on 106.7 FM The Ride.

"This will be a very good challenge for our basketball team," said head coach Darrell Walker. "This tournament is filled with very good teams and we start out with a Prairie View team that won their conference last season. It will be a good measuring point for where we are, and I know our guys are very excited to play against someone other than themselves."

GAME STORYLINES

• Little Rock begins its 83rd season of basketball and 43rd season at the Division I level Wednesday, facing Prairie View A&M on opening day of the 2020-21 NCAA basketball season.

• Little Rock is 42-40 all-time in season openers, winning six of its last eight. Head coach Darrell Walker has won both of his season openers at the  helm of the Trojans, defeating Southeastern Oklahoma 101-92 in overtime in 2018-19 and besting Missouri State 67-66 in Springfield, Missouri in 2019-20.

• The Trojans and Panthers meet for the eight time Wednesday with Little Rock holding a 6-1 edge in the series. The Trojans have won the last six games with the last meeting occurring in 2002, a 76-65 Trojan win in Little Rock.

• Little Rock engineered one of the best turnarounds in the country in 2019-20, posting a +11 margin in wins. After winning 10 games in 2018-19, the Trojans won 21 in 2019-20, tied for the second-greatest improvement in the nation.

• The Trojans have been tabbed the preseason favorite to win the Sun Belt's west division, garnering nine of 12 first place votes from the league's head coaches.

• Wednesday's game is Little Rock's 30th game in the state of Kentucky, 29 of which stem from the era of the Little Rock/Western Kentucky Sun Belt rivalry. The Trojans' last game in the Bluegrass State was an 87-83 win over the Hilltoppers in Bowling Green in 2014. Little Rock has played one other game at the KFC Yum! Center, falling to second-ranked Kentucky 73-51 on January 3, 2012. 

• Little Rock's Ruot Monyyong, the 2020-21 Sun Belt Preseason Player of the Year, is the Trojan with the closest hometown to the Louisville bubble. Monyyong is from Nashville, Tennessee, 175 miles southwest of the KFC Yum! Center.

• Little Rock was picked fourth in the preseason College Insider.com Mid Major Top-25 poll, released on Monday. The Trojans sit fourth behind Gonzaga, Northern Iowa and Loyola Chicago and are scheduled to face three teams among the top-12 this season, including Winthrop (No. 9), Georgia State (No. 11) and UNC Greensboro (No. 12).

NEWS AND NOTES

SCOUTING THE PANTHERS
2019-20: 19-13 overall, 14-4 SWAC (1st)
First Three Games: vs. Little Rock (Nov. 25), vs. Evansville (Nov. 27), at Louisville (Nov. 29) - all at KFC Yum! Center
Head Coach: Byron Smith (Houston, 1991). 6th season at Prairie View A&M (76-68) 

LAST WE MET
Its been a minute since Little Rock and Prairie View A&M have met on the hardwood with the last meeting coming on December 19, 2002 - a 76-65 Trojan win at AllTel Arena in North Little Rock. Nick Zachery was the leading scorer for Little Rock, finishing with 29 points, while Mark Green added 12 points and 11 rebounds in then-head coach Steve Shields' first season.

EARLY SEASON TARGET
Little Rock heads into the 2020-21 season with a target on its back, tabbed as the preseason favorite to win the Sun Belt's west division. The Trojans received nine of 12 possible first place votes among the league's head coaches - a far cry from the predicted 11th place finish heading into the 2019-20 season.

YEAR THREE
2020-21 marks year number three for head coach Darrell Walker at the helm of the Trojans, compiling a 31-31 record in his first two seasons. After a 10-21 campaign in 2018-19, Walker was named the Sun Belt Coach of the Year in 2019-20 after flipping Little Rock's record to 21-10, leading the Trojans to the league's regular season title. He became the fourth Trojan to be named Sun Belt Coach of the Year, joining Wimp Sanderson (1995-96), Steve Shields (2003-04) and Chris Beard (2015-16).

I AM RUOT
After earning Defensive Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year honors, senior Ruot Monyyong was named the 2020-21 Sun Belt Preseason Player of the Year on November 11. A Lefty Driesell Defensive All-American in 2019-20, Monyyong led the Sun Belt in rebounds (9.8), defensive rebounds (7.6), blocks (2.0) and double-doubles (16) last season while ranking among the top-40 nationally in six different statistical categories.

HEART OVER HEIGHT
Following his breakout season in 2019-20, junior Markquis Nowell has Sun Belt Player of the Year aspirations of his own. A Lou Henson All-American, Nowell was named a preseason first team All-Sun Belt selection, ranking in the top-four in the Sun Belt in six statistical categories while leading the league in free throw percentage (87.9%) and three pointers per game (2.8).

CLOSING IN ON 1,000
Markquis Nowell sits well within striking range of joining an elite Trojan club, needing 241 points to become the 21st member of the Little Rock 1,000-point club. He sits at 759 entering the season, scoring 481 in 2019-20, and would be the first member since Will Neighbour in 2014.

CLUTCH COUPET
Little Rock had a third player earn preseason All-Sun Belt honors as senior Ben Coupet Jr. was tabbed a third-team selection. Coupet started all 31 games for the Trojans in 2019-20 and ranked third in both points (11.2) and rebounds (4.7), scoring in double figures 20 times.

NOT TODAY
Little Rock's presence inside should be a factor for the Trojans throughout the season as they return two of the top shot blockers in program history. Kris Bankston (64 career blocks) and Ruot Monyyong (62) rank 12th and 13th, respectively, on the program's career block list. Monyyong's 62 blocks in 2019-20 was the third-most in a season in program history and the most for a Trojan since becoming a Division I program in 1978-79.

TROJANS vs. THE SWAC
Little Rock's showdown with Prairie View A&M will be the Trojans' 84th all-time meeting against current members of the Southwest Athletic Conference with Little Rock boasting a 50-33 (.602) record against the league. The last game against a member of the SWAC was a 75-66 win by Arkansas-Pine Bluff at the Jack Stephens Center on November 24, 2018.

LITTLE ROCK IN THE BLUEGRASS STATE
Little Rock heads to the Bluegrass State for the first time since 2014 as the Trojans have played 29 games in the state of Kentucky in program history, compiling an 8-21 record. The majority of those came when Western Kentucky was a Sun Belt rival as the Trojans posted a 5-18 record against the Hilltoppers in Bowling Green, winning its last game in the state 87-83 on January 16, 2014. Little Rock is 3-2 in neutral site Sun Belt tournament games in Bowling Green and is 0-1 all-time at the KFC Yum! Center, dropping a 73-51 decision to second-ranked Kentucky on January 3, 2012.

EUROPEAN CONNECTION 
A hallmark of Darrell Walker's teams in Little Rock has been its European pipeline, a connection that grew again during the offseason. The Trojan roster consists of six players from European countries, including three from Serbia (Marko Andric, Marko Lukic and Jovan Stulic), two from Bosnia-Herzegovina (Admir Besovic and Nikola Maric) and one from France (Yacine Toumi).

LENGTH, LENGTH, LENGTH
Another characteristic of Darrell Walker's teams is length, something that comes with abundance with the 2020-21 Trojan squad. Little Rock's roster boasts an average height of 6' 5 1/2" as 11 of the 15-man roster sits 6' 5" or taller. The tall, physical presence is especially felt inside where the quintet of Nikola Maric (6' 10"), Kris Bankston (6' 8"), Yacine Toumi (6' 9"), Ruot Monyyong (6' 10") and Admir Besovic (7' 0") boast an average height of 6' 8 1/2."

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