University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Golden Eagles Get Ready For First Scrimmage
10/16/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Golden Eagles Get Ready For First Scrimmage
Hattiesburg, Miss. - Southern Miss' basketball Golden Eagles continued their early-morning workouts Wednesday as they head into the first major scrimmage of the season Saturday morning at 10:30 in Green Coliseum, and Head Coach James Green continues to be impressed with the progress his team is making.
"We're doing some things that we have to improve on, such as turning the ball over," he said. "But, we're turning the ball over while trying to some things that we've put in that are new. Basically, we're getting good looks, and, from top to bottom, our effort has been really good. Our listening is still good, and as long as we can continue to do that, I think we'll continue to improve every day.
"We're probably further along offensively than we've ever been at this point, not because we've put is so much offense, but because we have better offensive players."
Green and his staff are in the process of working six new players into the system, and the head coach says that's a tough process. "Some of the drills we use are tougher than others, and some of our older guys kind of take advantage of knowing the drills, but that's just part of the process," Green said. "The new players also have to learn the concept of how we try to do things, but I think that, as a group, they've come in and really adapted to what we want to do. Sometimes they forget a little easier than the older guys, but the more we work, the more this becomes second nature to them."
The Golden Eagles scrimmage for the first time Saturday morning at 10:30. Golden Eagle fans and the general public is invited, encouraged to attend. "The football game time change put us in a little tighter squeeze, but we invite fans to come by for whatever period of time they have that day. We would love to have as many fans as possible for the scrimmage," Green said. "I think it will be worth it to the fans to get a look at what we're doing, and I know it will mean a lot to the players to see a lot of fans coming in and out of the coliseum while we're scrimmaging.
"We want to use that scrimmage to see what kind of carryover we can have, with a week's practice,
how well the players can take the practices out and put it into a game-condition setting, where there are people watching, with officials working the game," Green said. "We tend to be aggressive in our style of play and being able to call fouls will help us in that regard. Also, seeing what guys perform well with each other will be another interesting aspect of this first scrimmage. It should be fun, and it will give us a good look at what kind of progress we've made in a week of practice."
The Golden Eagles scrimmage will follow an 8 a.m., Commitment and Education breakfast that will be held in the Elam Arms dining room. Current players, their parents, former players and friends of the program have been invited to attend, and Green says it's an effort to educate parents and fans and others associated with the program on their respective roles.
"We want to educate our parents on their roles with the players, we want the players to understand their roles, we want coaches and administrators and our fans all to understand their roles," Green said. "Above that, we want our players to understand that there are people out there who care about them, who care about basketball, and want to see us win a championship. This is just a good way for the public to learn our new faces, see our players up and speaking, to find out more about what we are trying to do with this program, and learn about some of the things we need in order for our program to grow and get better."
The Golden Eagles continue their early-morning schedule next week, Conference USA's annual men's and women's basketball media day is scheduled for Nov. 3, in Chicago, Ill., and Southern Miss opens the season the following day with a 7 p.m., exhibition game against Spirit Express.
Season tickets remain on sale through the Athletic Ticket Office located in the Ferlise Center, or by calling, 601-266-5418 or 1-800-844-TICK. A variety of ticket packages is available for the fast-approaching 15-game home schedule that will feature a Jan. 25 "home" game against Houston in the Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, as well as Green Coliseum games against most of the top teams in the league, including Memphis and Louisville.
