University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss Announces 2004-05 Men's Basketball Schedule
9/1/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Files associated with this release:
2004-05 Men's Basketball Schedule (PDF)
Southern Miss Announces 2004-05 Men's Basketball Schedule
Larry Eustachy |
HATTIESBURG, Miss. ? Southern Miss Head Basketball Coach Larry Eustachy and Director of Athletics Richard Giannini today released the 2004-05 men's basketball schedule that will feature a possible 11 postseason teams from a year ago, including seven who advanced to the NCAA Tournament.
Fourteen home dates and two non-conference tournaments highlight the schedule, the first under Eustachy, the 2000 National Coach of the Year by both The Associated Press and the United States Basketball Writers Association and the 2001 AP National Coach of the Year runner-up who has a 260-145 record in 13 seasons as an NCAA Division I head coach.
Among the postseason teams that Southern Miss will face this season are eight squads from Conference USA, including six -- UAB, Memphis, Louisville, DePaul, Cincinnati and Charlotte -- who advanced to the NCAA Tournament. Three of those teams -- Cincinnati, DePaul and Memphis -- all advanced to the second round of the tournament, while UAB made it to the Sweet 16. League foes Saint Louis and Marquette both competed in the Owens Corning NIT Tournament last season.
Non-conference opponent LSU, which the Golden Eagles will host at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum on Saturday, Dec. 18, also advanced to the NIT. Nevada, a 2004 Sweet Sixteen participant, and Iowa, an NIT qualifier, are both hosting non-conference tournaments in which Southern Miss will take part in and are other possible opponents.
"This season?s schedule will be a good one for our team," Eustachy said. "We have six newcomers, along with our eight returning players, who all need to try to gain confidence and experience early. This schedule will hopefully allow us to do that.
"At the same time, there are difficult road games against some quality non-conference opponents. Those games should prepare us for another tough Conference USA schedule, which includes nine teams that advanced to postseason play last year."
Exhibition action kicks off when the Golden Eagles host Belhaven on Friday, Nov. 6, at Green Coliseum, followed by another contest on Thursday, Nov. 11 against West Alabama.
Southern Miss opens the regular season on the road at the Jim Thorpe Classic in Reno, Nevada. The team meets Georgia State in the opener on Nov. 20, with Nevada and Colorado-Colorado Springs also taking part in the event.
The Golden Eagles then return home with a two-game stint against Southeastern Louisiana (Nov. 24) and McNeese State (Nov. 27).
December's action begins with the second non-conference tournament of the season, where Southern Miss will compete alongside UNC-Greensboro, Centenary and host Iowa in the Gazette Hawkeye Challenge. The Golden Eagles open that tourney against UNC-Greensboro on Dec. 3.
Four more home games, including a "home" contest on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and two away contests complete the December portion of the schedule. The Golden Eagles will host Spring Hill (Dec. 7), Alcorn State (Dec. 11), LSU (Dec. 18) and William Carey (Dec. 28), and will travel to nearby road games at South Alabama (Dec. 20) and New Orleans (Dec. 30).
The schedule also will feature 16 Conference USA games, using the one-division league format for the second year in a row, where Southern Miss will face every team in the league at least once and then taking on three regional opponents -- Houston, Memphis and Tulane -- twice. The league slate begins with a pair of road games at UAB (Jan. 5) and Memphis (Jan. 9). Other conference road games include Houston (Jan. 15), Marquette (Feb. 5), Tulane (Feb. 9), Cincinnati (Feb. 16), East Carolina (March 23) and Charlotte (March 26).
C-USA home games include the conference home opener against Louisville on January 12, followed by a four-game home stand against Saint Louis (Jan. 19), Tulane (Jan. 22), DePaul (Jan. 29) and USF (Feb. 2). Southern Miss also hosts Houston (Feb. 12), Memphis (Feb. 19) and TCU (March 5).
The conference tournament this season will be played March 9-12, in Memphis, Tenn.
The complete schedule follows:
Nov. - 6, Belhaven (exhibition); 11, West Alabama (exhibition); 20-21, Jim Thorpe Classic at Reno, Nev. (host Nevada, Georgia State and Colorado-Colorado Springs); 24, Southeastern La.; 27, McNeese State;
Dec. - 3-4, Gazette Hawkeye Challenge at Iowa City, Iowa (host Iowa, UNC-Greensboro and Centenary); 7, Spring Hill; 11, Alcorn State; 18, LSU (at Mississippi Coast Coliseum); 20, at South Alabama; 28, William Carey; 30, at New Orleans;
Jan. - 5, at UAB; 9, at Memphis; 12, Louisville; 19, Saint Louis; 15, at Houston; 22, Tulane; 29, DePaul;
Feb. - 2, USF; 5, at Marquette; 9, at Tulane; 12, Houston; 16, at Cincinnati; 19, Memphis; 23, at East Carolina; 26, at Charlotte;
Mar. - 5, TCU; 9-12, at C-USA Tournament (Memphis, Tenn.)
