Tiger Turnaround

PRAIRIE GROVE -- Year after year Prairie Grove consistently holds their own rebounding against taller girls basketball teams and more often than not wins games advancing in postseason.

Head coach Kevin Froud is the architect of many an undersized squad maximizing their abilities which translates into success on the hardwood. His exhortation is simple, "box out." The Lady Tigers executed so well that last season there were several occasions when the ball hit the floor before they picked it up because the Prairie Grove girls kept a body on their opponents.

"We stress they got to block out, get a rear on somebody. My whole philosophy is a lot of times officials aren't going to call over the back but they will if it looks like a horse shoe," Froud said. "I tell the girls, 'You won't hear me say a whole lot to you if you get called for a foul and you're trying to rebound but you will hear something from me if you're not trying to block out and your girl gets the rebound."

Prairie Grove averaged 17.5 rebounds-per-game and 44.7 points-per-contest during 2014-2015 in compiling a 23-12 overall record on their way to the state 4A semifinals. Those numbers are slightly deceiving at first glance. Prairie Grove started 2-8 absorbing nonconference losses to 7A schools: Fort Smith Northside, Rogers, Fayetteville and Springdale Har-Ber, as well as 5A Farmington.

"We try to play those schools in larger classifications and there are some that are in smaller classifications like Greenland (51-39 loss) that is in 3A and they are as good as we are," Froud said.

Froud doesn't compare teams from year-to-year. What he purposely does is schedule games against coaches he knows are going to present a challenge.

"I learned that a long time ago at Greenland with Coach Reeves. He always scheduled tough nonconference games to get his team better cause once he got into conference he knew his games weren't going to be as tough."

"In our case [at Prairie Grove], our conference is so hard and so difficult that I schedule those tough nonconference games to get our girls ready for conference."

Although the Lady Tigers sustained three losses to Farmington, each time they improved as indicated by the final margins. Farmington routed Prairie Grove, 63-35, on Dec. 2, but four days later when the schools met in the Lady Bulldog Classic hosted by Fayetteville the final was 48-38 with a similar score, 53-42, occurring on Dec. 12 and Farmington coach Brad Johnson noticed.

"We played them three times in ten days. After the third game I told Coach Froud I didn't want to play him again," Johnson said. "It's a testament to them, to those kids and they way they worked to have the season they did. Their early nonconference schedule was brutal."

Froud marked a 47-46 win on the road at Huntsville on Dec. 16 as a turning point.

"When we reached conference we upset Huntsville. That gave us a lot of confidence and we kind of steamrolled on," Froud said. "By the end of the season we were playing our best basketball."

Prairie Grove posted a 12-2 league record earning a share of the 4A-1 regular season crown, winning district and finishing as Regional runner-up, eventually reaching the 4A state semifinal before coming up one-point short in a 40-39 season-ending loss to Ozark.

"The main thing is the girls kept trusting and believing in what we were trying to accomplish and it paid off in the end," Froud said. "They saw some of the fruits of their labor."

Johnson echoed those sentiments.

"At one point they were 2-7, but to keep them focused, to see the big picture, for me as a fan watching his team develop he did a great job," Johnson said. "That was one of Coach Froud's better coaching performances in a career that's had a lot of great coaching performances."