Liberty Notes: Minaya stepping up game

When Liberty guard David Minaya’s shot isn’t falling, he has a tendency to disappear on the floor. That’s not blind criticism. It’s fact. Three times this season before Thursday’s game against Radford, Minaya had shot worse than 30 percent from the floor in a game. In those three games, he averaged three rebounds and 1.3 assists.

Seven times last season, Minaya shot worse than 30 percent. He averaged 2.3 rebounds and 1.6 assists in those games.

So Liberty’s coaches and players can be forgiven if they’re ecstatic over what they saw from Minaya against the Highlanders. He shook off a 4-for-16 night from the floor and was a major contributor, finishing with 11 rebounds, three assists and a steal while knocking down all six of his free-throw attempts.

“Had you not told me that [Minaya shot 4-for-16], I would have said Dave had his best game of the year, and maybe he still did,” Liberty point guard Jesse Sanders said. “His presence defensively and on the glass was huge.”

Part of Minaya’s surge Thursday was a more conscious effort to be a strong team leader, something he admitted he had to work on after Tuesday’s loss at VMI.

“Something coach [Dale Layer] stressed Saturday [at UNC Asheville] is taking ownership of this team, and that’s something I haven’t been doing a great job of,” Minaya said after the VMI game. “We have a lot of young guys, and it’s just me and Jesse out there [as seniors] with [John Brown] not playing. I’ve let my team down in a lot of areas. Just like Jesse said, we’ve got to man up. It just comes down to that.”

Minaya certainly led by example Thursday against the Highlanders, even with his shot not falling.

“That’s one thing I haven’t done this season — when I was off, finding ways to impact the game,” Minaya said Thursday. “Tonight, I just made it somewhat my job — with ‘Twan [Antwan Burrus] and Joel [Vander Pol] in foul trouble — to try to get my hand on every ball that I could.”

Rude welcome

If preparing for one of the most important races of his life wasn’t stressful enough, former Liberty athlete Josh Cox had to worry about a much bigger issue upon his arrival in Houston earlier this week.

Cox, who is running in today’s U.S. Olympic marathon trials, was the victim of an attempted carjacking near the rental car lot at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

Cox told the Houston Chronicle that he and his wife, who was driving their rental car with their 10-month-old son in the back seat, were about to turn onto JFK Boulevard in Houston when a black car pulled to the side of the pavement in front of them and a man emerged, motioning them to stop.

“At this point, nothing seemed amiss,” Cox told the Chronicle. “Then the guy puts his hand up and I’m thinking, ‘car trouble,’ and we can give him a hand.”

But the man walked in front of the car toward the driver’s side and put his right hand into his jacket, as if he were reaching for something. A suspicious Cox told his wife to flee the scene.

“We have no idea what his intentions were,” Cox told the Chronicle. “I don’t know if he had a stolen car and wanted to switch cars or to get our baggage. There was no one around. I don’t know what he wanted.”

The car followed the Coxes, waving for them to pull over. Cox instead called 911 and eventually filed a report with Houston police.

Cox, a 1998 Liberty graduate, is the current American record holder in the 50K. This is his fourth Olympic Trials. The top three finishers earn berths to this summer’s Olympics in London.

Cox won’t be the only Liberty representative in Houston. Carol Jefferson, a 2008 Liberty graduate, is entered in the women’s race. This is her first attempt at Olympic qualifying. NBC will televise two hours of race coverage, beginning today at 3.

Extra points

Work continues on the new four-sided video board at the Vines Center. The school hopes to have it fully functional for next Saturday’s LU women’s basketball game. … The Williams Football Operations Center has also undergone a recent renovation, with part of the donor room turned into extra meeting space for players and coaches. With the third floor club level at the press tower available for functions, there was no need to keep the donor room at the FOC intact. … When LU beat Radford on Thursday, it marked the first time this season in 12 tries that Liberty had won when trailing at halftime.