By Jason Pugh, Northwestern State Associate Athletic Director for External Relations; featured photo by Chris Reich, NSU Photographic Services
HOUSTON – As the Northwestern State men’s basketball prepares to cap a three-game road trip with Saturday afternoon’s game at Rice, it has proven to be a bit of a quick study.
Entering the 2 p.m. ESPN+ matchup with the Owls inside Tudor Fieldhouse, the Demons (1-2) have shown the ability to process information and make adjustments – even though they are far from a finished product.
“This group is very receptive to coaching and learning and getting better,” second-year head coach Rick Cabrera said. “We’re looking forward to making improvements. We played two really good opponents (on this road trip), and I feel we have a lot to fix. We have to learn how to finish ball games and take care of the ball a lot better. That’s the good thing about basketball – you have multiple games and multiple practices to fix things.”
After being outrebounded by three against Dallas Christian in its opener, Northwestern cleaned up its act on the glass in losses at power-conference foes Texas Tech and Oklahoma.
The Demons outrebounded Oklahoma for the majority of the game and finished the first two-thirds of their road trip a combined minus-4 on the boards.
A driving force behind the turnaround in rebounding has been Kilgore College transfer Willie Williams, who turned in his first career double-double at Oklahoma, scoring 11 points and grabbing a team-leading 10 rebounds. Williams enters Saturday’s game averaging 7.0 rebounds per game, ranking him eighth in the Southland Conference.
“Willie, in the recruiting process, that was a staple about him,” Cabrera said. “He’s about 6-5, but he has a Kevin Love knack for rebounding. He knows what angles to be at. He knows how to pursue the ball. That’s a strength. It’s something he’s been taught by someone along the way. He has a gift of pursuing rebounds, and we expect him to continue to do that.”
Rebounding against Rice (2-1) will be pivotal for the Demons.
The Owls have outrebounded their first three opponents – FIU, Florida State and ULM – by an average 4.3 caroms per game under first-year coach Rob Lanier.
Lanier’s first Rice roster features eight players who stand 6-foot-7 or taller, including 6-10 junior Caden Powell, a Wyoming transfer whose 8.0 rebounds per game lead the team.
“Rob Lanier is a phenomenal coach,” Cabrera said. “I coached against him when he was at Georgia State and I was an assistant at Arkansas State. He had some really good teams and won a couple of championships there. His teams are always tough. They rebound well. They have great size. They always guard. We’ve got our hands full executing offensively and stopping them defensively.”
Taking care of business on the boards – both offensively and defensively – would give the Demons an opportunity to collect their first win in program history against the Owls, but Cabrera said it will take more than just another double-figure effort from Williams.
“JT Warren is someone who is good (at chasing down rebounds),” Cabrera said. “Jerald (Colonel), Lado (Laku) and J.C. Riley are getting better at doing that. We’ve got to get our guards to rebound as well. I challenge them to get two defensive rebounds a game. Just don’t expect guys like Willie and JT to get all the rebounds. It’s called gang rebounding for a reason. They’re going to get better at that.”