University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss
SMU
Men's Basketball Hits the Road for SMU
11/10/2018 11:29:00 AM | Men's Basketball
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- The Southern Miss men's basketball team has loaded up for its first road game of the season, a 2 p.m. Sunday battle at SMU.
Fans can catch the action on ESPN3, with Dave Raymond and Stephen Howard on the call. John Cox, the Voice of the Golden Eagles, will also carry the game through the Southern Miss IMG Sports Network (Rock 104.5 in Hattiesburg/Laurel) and the Gameday app,
–  This is a true Conference USA throwback, as the Golden Eagles and Mustangs were league partners from 2005-13. The last meeting saw Southern Miss win 74-70 in Moody Coliseum on Jan. 16, 2013.
– Southern Miss' last road trip also featured a trip to this area, flying into the Dallas Love Field airport and reeling off back-to-back C-USA Tourney wins over FIU and No. 1-seeded Middle Tennessee in Frisco. It also staged a late comeback to Marshall in the semifinals before the Herd ultimately won the league and reached the NCAA Round of 32.
– The Black and Gold continued its trend of improving its C-USA win total in each season Doc Sadler has been in charge (3-5-6-7) after inheriting a two-year NCAA postseason ban and loss of scholarships amongst other sanctions, and are one of 11 teams in the nation to hold such distinction. The team's 16 wins last season marked its most since the 2011-12 NCAA Tourney squad.
– The Golden Eagles opened the year with a 111-66 win over Southeastern Baptist, its most points in Sadler's five years at the helm. It also provided a great opportunity for the team's talented newcomer class to gain playing time, as they played 82 of the game's 200 minutes. Walk-on Tyler Stevenson, who will earn a scholarship next season after the team regains lost scholarships, scored a game-high 15 points off the bench.
– Southern Miss returns 87 percent of its points from a year ago, including four starters (Cortez Edwards, Dominic Magee, Tyree Griffin and Kevin Holland). Edwards ended the season with four consecutive 20-point games, the first Golden Eagle to accomplish the feat since Chip Armelin in 2015. Edwards also averaged 27.3 ppg in the final three games to earn All-Tournament honors, which included a 30-spot against Marshall.
– Edwards needs 28 points and 58 rebounds to become the fourth player in Southern Miss history to register 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 200 assists over their career. In Tuesday's opener, he collected eight points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, which marked the first time a Golden Eagle reached double-figures in two non-scoring categories since Ronald Jackson in 1980.
 – Edwards also finished his junior season with single-season school records for steals (71) and minutes (1,219). He also has 972 points in his collegiate career, increasing his scoring totals from 1.9 to 11.0 to 16.6 ppg those first three years. Griffin, after sitting out the 2016-17 season following his transfer from Oklahoma State, was the team's second-leading scorer (15.0 ppg) and recorded 201 assists, second-most in program history (and most since Dallas Dale in 1991-92). Griffin has two, 12-assist games in his career, with one of them coming at Kansas as a sophomore.
– Holland is the only remaining Golden Eagle from Sadler's inaugural season (2014-15). He finished the season with a team-high 41.5 percent clip from beyond the arc, including a blistering 7-for-7 game against UTSA. It tied the Southern Miss record for threepointers in a game (Neil Watson also 7-for-7 in 2013), and his overall 8-for-8 game matched Marcus Crowell's 10-for-10 mark against UL Lafayette in 1990.
– Southern Miss' Thanksgiving trip to Cancun continues the trend of tropical trips. In August 2017, the squad was able to take a three-game preseason swing in The Bahamas, and in December 2016 competed in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic.
–  The Golden Eagles ranked fifth and 10th nationally for fewest turnovers per game (9.8) and assist-turnover ratio (1.51) last season.Â
