In each of Solomon Bozeman’s first three years as the men’s head basketball coach, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff won more games than the year prior.
That streak ended this season. The Golden Lions won six games this year after winning 13 last season and won three SWAC games after winning eight a year ago.
Bozeman said two key preseason injuries left him with one of the youngest, least experienced teams in the country.
“I knew it was going to be rough when (Trejon Ware) tore his ACL and when Anthony Sellars, we decided to redshirt him because of his knee,” Bozeman said. “Those are two legit starters, two guys that was gonna play 28, 30 minutes every night for us, if not more so. I knew it was going to be tough. I didn’t think it would be this bad.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Ware, a senior guard who has been at UAPB since the 2022-23 season, played in all 31 games last season with 12 starts, all in conference play. The point guard from Pearland, Texas, led UAPB with 97 assists. With 50 turnovers, he had the league’s third-best assist-to-turnover ratio. He also led the team in steals with 32.
Sellars transferred from Three Rivers Community College in Missouri last offseason. In his sophomore year with the Raiders, he averaged 13.1 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.
Bozeman said Sellars likely would have been UAPB’s leading scorer if healthy and may be the most talented player on the roster alongside junior Doctor Bradley, a midseason transfer into the program.
With Ware and Sellars unavailable, freshmen had to step up. Caleb Jones, a guard from Atlanta, played 658 minutes this season, tied for the second-most on the team in a season he may have otherwise redshirted. Freshman guard Raphael Dumont started 12 games.
Both were among UAPB’s top three scorers in the season-ending 65-63 loss to Alcorn State, a game UAPB needed to win to qualify for the SWAC tournament for the first time since 2021.
Bradley was the leading scorer in that game, as he was for most of UAPB’s conference schedule. After joining the team at the start of the spring semester, he averaged 19.6 points and 9.5 rebounds per game with 81 assists. On Feb. 10, he had a 22-10-10 triple-double in a loss at Jackson State.
Bozeman said this offseason, retaining players such as Bradley and junior guard Christian Moore, the team’s minutes-leader and second-leading scorer, will be important. He also wants to recruit older, more experienced players to build around the existing core.
“Trying to retain Doc is gonna be hard, but we gotta make a push for it, because he’s a different talent,” Bozeman said. “We gotta put some pieces around him. Get more shooting, get a bit more tougher inside, some things that we can build on. Continue to just grow and get older guys, man. I think you win with older. We went out and signed a younger team this year, and it showed.”
The postseason exits have already started. Dumont and junior guards Dante Sawyer and Matthew Spears have expressed their intentions to enter the transfer portal when it opens from March 24-April 22.
Sawyer was UAPB’s third-leading scorer with 8.3 points per game. He started nine games but appeared in all 31. He tied Jones for the second-most minutes played this season.
Spears did not see significant playing time in his lone season with UAPB, playing five total minutes between two nonconference games.