Tough work preps for tough foe

Saturday, Dec. 21 \| 6 p.m. \| Phoenix, Ariz.

	GRAND CANYON LOPES (4-9)	VS	EASTERN ILLINOIS PANTHERS (7-4)

WATCH: FOX 10 Xtra, ESPN3, GCULopes.com \| LISTEN: 1580 The Fanatic \| STATS: View

Grand Canyon is ready to put its nonconference season behind it like a closed door.

The Lopes staff tried to manage a short player rotation, in depth and height, by reducing the practice workload so that their energy level would be high for games. That has resulted in a 4-9 start in nonconference play that ends Saturday night when Eastern Illinois (7-4) visits GCU Arena at 6 p.m.

Practices have changed and, in turn, GCU hopes the results do too. The Lopes intensified practices and conditioning corrections with an aim on better carryover to game time.

"The effort, the intensity, the focus – everything has to transfer over to the game," GCU senior forward Carlos Johnson said. "Coach (Dan Majerle) has been preaching it to us but we have to go out there and do it. It's frustrating coming up short and losing. We've got to just want it more. I'm trying to be a better leader and bring that out of our guys. I'm going harder in practice and not letting them see me get frustrated and just fight through it."

The Lopes are on a three-game losing streak against opponents who cumulatively have gone 33-3 this season, which also included an earlier game at the No. 2 team (San Diego State) in NCAA Net Rankings.

Tuesday's loss at New Mexico marked the Lopes debut of junior guard Mikey Dixon, who sat out 11 months for NCAA transfer rules. His shooting and energy project to help the Lopes greatly but he deferred early in his first start and then misfired in a 3-for-14 game that the staff is sure will change

"The guys are doing a good job and have a good attitude," Majerle said. "They're figuring it out. It'll translate. Offensively, we were a lot better (at New Mexico). We moved the basketball. We shot 48% against a team that allows 42% (for the season). It's just the defense. We can't give up 55% and 91 points and get outrebounded by 12. A lot of that is effort."

Recent practices stop for team sprints on mistakes, even effort ones, to follow Majerle's belief that teams plays how they practice. He protected a short rotation by altering practices but now has another established scorer in Dixon, who showed his conditioning was ready with a 37-minute game that finished strongly Tuesday.

The Lopes would love to take a win into the two-week holiday break, when they will take several days off before returning for two-a-day practices leading up to their Jan. 4 WAC opener at CSU Bakersfield. It will be well-earned if they get it against an Eastern Illinois team that allows 38.1% opponent shooting (No. 30 in the nation) and has a plus-16.2 scoring margin (No. 18 in the nation).

"This is the way they've got to play," Majerle said after practice. "This is the only way we're going to play. We're losing so it doesn't make any sense to take it easier on them and then we don't go out and play well in games. So we'll play hard in practice and then it'll carry over to games. It'll just become a habit for them."

The Lopes are shown how they fail to communicate on defense, block out for rebounds, hustle back for transition defense and make the effort to grab or dive for loose balls.

"It's stuff we work on every day," Majerle said. "Right now, it's not translating to the game. We show them on film and they agree with it. So we're going to practice really, really hard until it starts translating to a game. Until we start doing that, we're not going to be good because our league is about toughness and playing hard. They have to figure it out and they will."

Tuesday's upsides came with junior center Alessandro Lever grabbing a career-best 11 rebounds while making 9 of 10 shots on Tuesday, Johnson having his second most efficient offensive game of the season Tuesday and freshman point guard Jovan Blacksher Jr. recording his best assist game (eight) since Nov. 19.

The offensive improvement is moot without better defense and the players have been open to the coaches' constructive criticism.

"It's coming from a place of love because he (Majerle) played this game at the highest level and he knows what his team is supposed to do," Johnson said. "They're supposed to come out and play hard and it's not normal for him when he doesn't see that. He wants to bring the best out of you but he's going to tell you the things that you don't want to hear but you need to hear."

Lope tracks

GCU ranks 35^th in the nation for least turnovers per game (11.7).
Blacksher (third) and Johnson (fifth) rank in the top five nationally for minutes played.
Eastern Illinois is on a three-game winning streak after winning in the past seven days at Milwaukee and Western Illinois.
Panthers 6-foot-5 junior forward George Dixon ranks 14th nationally with 3.9 offensive rebounds per game.
Eastern Illinois is in its eighth season under head coach Jay Spoonhour, the son of late legendary coach Charlie Spoonhour (Missouri State, Saint Louis and UNLV head coach).
This marks the Panthers' first game in Arizona.

Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.

Saturday, Dec. 21 | 6 p.m. | Phoenix, Ariz.

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Players Mentioned

Jovan Blacksher Jr.

Mikey Dixon

Carlos Johnson

Alessandro Lever

Grand Canyon University Athletics