College basketball: UTPB men try to develop scoring prowess

Teams coached by Dwaine Osborne rarely have problems scoring points.

And the UTPB basketball team hasn’t struggled to put the ball in the basket at any point recently.

Right now, though — as the Falcons prepare to face Angelo State at 7 p.m. tonight in San Angelo in their season opener — scoring points is the problem Osborne is trying to fix in his first season at the helm of the UTPB basketball program.

“We don’t have great individual offensive skill players,” Osborne said. “Every dribble, every pass, every shot, it’s a struggle.”

At Glenville State, Osborne’s teams routinely averaged more than 80 points per game. Last year, the final year of Randy Lee’s four-year head coaching tenure at UTPB, the Falcons averaged 75.8 points per game. Quintan Lipkins and Rob Harris finished No. 1 and No. 2 in the Heartland Conference in scoring, respectively.

But those guys have graduated. Alen Hardy and Jabari Caldwell, who filled roles as scorers off the bench, are no longer with the team.

Senior Justin Bailey, a wing player who finished third on the team in scoring, is probably the Falcons’ best option, but Bailey has been fighting a stress fracture in his foot throughout the preseason.

As soon as he’s completely healthy, Bailey knows he’ll have to carry the load.

“You look on the court, we don’t have much talent,” Bailey said. “We have to come out hard and play a lot of defense.”

Stressing defense is almost a foreign concept to the UTPB men’s basketball program, a team that ran up and down the floor last season. Every game turned into a shootout, and the Falcons allowed 77.9 points per game.

But in the end, that lack of defensive pressure hurt the Falcons late in games, and UTPB finished a disappointing 9-18.

Osborne isn’t about to let defense be the Falcons downfall again.

“He’s strong on discipline,” Bailey said. “Personally, I think he’s one of the best coaches I’ve ever had. We’ve needed discipline the last two years.”

No matter how good the Falcons are on defense — and UTPB probably won’t morph into a suffocating unit overnight — they still have to score some points.

To get the ball in the basket, Osborne is trying to mold the offense to the talents of his players.

And trying to get his players to understand their talents better.

Like sophomore guard Elijah Jordan, an athletic player who took 13 three-pointers among his 49 shots last season and only made two.

Jordan is much better off the dribble.

“More or less, my game has been sporadic,” Jordan said. “He’s set it up so that I can do what I do best. And that’s what he’s done for the rest of the team.”

Like senior Charles Harper, who finished fourth on the team with 6.6 points per game a year ago.

A slasher, Harper has been learning to distribute the ball out to his teammates more under Osborne’s tutelage.

Because this team has to be willing to change to start putting the ball in the basket frequently again.

“It’s been a little difficult adapting to the new offensive and defensive schemes,” Harper said. “We’re trying to find chemistry between the players. It’s going to take time, but we’re going to get there.”