Jackie Manuel has become a crucial piece of the puzzle for the UNC Greensboro men's basketball team this season.
Unfortunately for the Spartans, Manuel's college playing career ended in 2005, after he was a two-time All-Atlantic Coast Conference Defensive Team member for North Carolina, which he helped to a national championship in 2005.
Southern ConferenceUNCG's Spartans have only six healthy scholarship players, however, so the 6-foot-5 31-year-old has been pressed into practice duty in his third season on Wes Miller's coaching staff.
The Spartans enter the final weekend of the Southern Conference regular season with a 9-20 overall record and a 5-11 mark in conference play. They are one of the more perplexing teams in the SoCon, as they rank in the top half in most offensive and defensive categories but are destined to finish in the lower half of the standings. They are ninth with two games to go.
Thirteen of their 20 losses have come by 10 points or less, with four defeats by fewer than five points.
"To never feel like you're at full strength is difficult to encounter," Miller said Tuesday. "We've been on the wrong end of some close games, but this has been as much fun as I've ever had coaching a team as long as I've been in the profession. They're a really good group of kids, and they've bought into the process of getting better. The only difficult days I've had were after tough losses.
"I love my team. I just don't love where we are in the standings."
On paper, UNCG's starting lineup matches up with anybody in the conference. The Spartans have been led by last year's conference freshman of the year Tevon Saddler, a 6-6 guard. Diante Baldwin is a tough point guard. Nicholas Paulos is a long, rangy shooter who hit 10 3-pointers in a game two seasons ago. R.J. White and Kayel Locke are tough, physical post players.
All but Baldwin rank in the top 21 in the conference in scoring, but because of the injuries -- including a recent one to guard Clay Byrd that will make him a game-time decision Thursday -- Marvin Smith is the team's only scholarship player off the bench.
Wins this week over Samford and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga could push the Spartans as high as sixth in the SoCon, as they would hold the tiebreaker edge over Virginia Military Institute -- a team UNCG swept in the regular season. The Spartans' makeup could make them a dangerous team in the conference tournament, but they say next week's trip to Asheville, N.C., has not been brought up in the team's conversations in the last month.
"We only preach the process of getting better the next day," Miller said. "We don't have to trick our guys; we're committed to each other and the program. We want to wake up, get better tomorrow and stay invested in the process."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.