University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Eagles Open Exhibition Season, Nov. 4
11/1/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Eagles Open Exhibition Season, Nov. 4
Hattiesburg, Miss. - Southern Miss opens the 2002-03 basketball season with a pair of exhibition games, starting with a Nov. 4 game against a touring Spirit Express team. That game tips off at 7 p.m., in Green Coliseum.
The Golden Eagles now are three weeks into preseason practice, and Head Coach James Green says those practices continue to impress him. "We were off Thursday, but came back with a really good practice today (Friday)," he said. "If you're going to have bad practice days, they usually come after days off; but, give them (the players) credit, they came focused today, and we had a really good practice."
Green says competition for starting spots and playing time has been spirited. He listed the probable Golden Eagle starters for the Monday night game as Dante Stiggers (6-2, 162, So.) at the point guard spot, Mario Myles (6-5, 210, Sr.) at the second guard position, Clement Carter (6-5, 220, Jr.) at the small forward slot, newcomer Greg Johnson (6-6, 200, Jr.) at the second forward position and Ben Lambert (6-9, 230, Sr.) at center.
The Golden Eagles are coming off a 10-17 record in 2001-02, but should be much improved this season, with six first-year players joining a solid group of seven returning players. The returning players include Carter, the leading returning scorer from last season's team, at 10.0 points a game; Stiggers, who started 24 games last season at point guard as a true freshman and led the team in assists, at 3.3 a game; and, Lambert, who averaged 6.4 points, 5.1 rebounds and a team-best 1.8 blocked shots a game. He was the only player to start all 27 games last season.
That group of returning players also includes Myles, who started 16-of-25 games last season, while averaging 6.1 points and 3.2 rebounds a game; forward David Haywood, who played in 25 games, while averaging 2.1 points and 1.3 rebounds; and guards Ryan Powell and James Pattman, who saw action in nine and 17 games, respectively.
The newcomers will provide starting help, and depth, as well as much-needed height. Junior center Geoff Brown tops the "height" list at 6-11, junior forward Charles Gaines and redshirt freshman Jasper Johnson are close behind at 6-7, athletic junior guard-forward Greg Johnson stands in at 6-6, and freshman guard Sam Richardson stands in at 6-4.
Green's Golden Eagles end the exhibition season with a Nov. 12 game against Global Sports, also a 7 p.m., start. Following those two games, Southern Miss will open the regular season, Nov. 22, at home against Alcorn State. In fact, the Golden Eagles will play their first four regular-season games at home, before hitting the road for the Dec. 6-7, Gazette Hawkeye Challenge in Iowa City, Iowa. The Conference USA season starts Jan. 8, with a home game against TCU and concludes Mar. 8, with a game at Tulane.
Golden Eagle fans, who have not yet purchased their 2002-03 season tickets, are being offered an opportunity to preview seat locations and purchase seats of their choice, at the Nov. 4 and 12 exhibition games. Southern Miss Ticket Office personnel will be located on the concourse above Section M from one hour prior to game time, until the start of the second half. "Pick-a-Seat" will allow fans to view coliseum seating charts, pick available seats, and "test" those seats prior to purchasing them.
The 2002-03 C-USA Tournament will be played in storied Freedom Hall, in Louisville, Ky., Mar. 12-15.