University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Eagles Open Regular Season Against Jackson State
11/15/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Eagles Open Regular Season Against Jackson State
Hattiesburg, Miss. - The Southern Miss basketball Golden Eagles open their 2001-02 regular season, Nov. 17, at home against intrastate rival Jackson State, a team also opening its regular season. The 7 p.m., game follows the afternoon Southern Miss-Tulane football game and caps a rare on-campus, day-night twinbill.
Southern Miss split a pair of preseason exhibition games, losing to the Global All-Stars, 78-77, on a last-second shot and beating Spirit Express, 87-65. Jackson State won its two exhibition games, beating the Vasda Blue team, 82-74, and Tougaloo, 79-60.
The two teams have played eight times previous to tonight's game, with the Golden Eagles holding a 7-1 edge in the series that started in 1987. The Tigers claimed their only victory in the series with a 64-63 decision in the 1998 game.
The series has produced both defensive struggles (a 44-40 Southern Miss victory in 1997) and offensive fireworks (a 90-67 Southern Miss victory in the 2000 game).
Jackson State is coached by Andy Stoglin, who has won 211 career games, including 178 at Jackson State.
The Tigers return all five starters from last year's 7-23 team, including forward Richard Bradley, who averaged 15.3 points and 8.3 rebounds a game last season as a junior.
The Golden Eagles are coming off a solid exhibition game victory over a Spirit Express team that had won its two previous games before meeting Southern Miss. Following the game, Head Coach James Green said he saw considerable progress from the first exhibition game to the second. "I thought we played much better tonight," he said. "Especially in the second half. We still have some areas we need a lot of work on. We don't contest shots on the perimeter very well, and we have to do a better job of rebounding, on both ends of the court.
"But those are things you expect at this point in the season, and especially so when you're working in as many new faces
In that game, the Eagles put five players in double figures with senior forward Elvin Mims leading the way with 19, 14 of those coming in the second half.
Southern Miss lost its only other exhibition game, 78-77, to the Global All-Stars on a last-second, long-range three-pointer.
Following tonight's game, Southern Miss will play in the Hispanic College Fund Classic, in Albuquerque, N.M., Nov. 23-24. The Golden Eagles will play West Virginia in the opening round and either New Mexico or Pacific Nov. 24.