University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss
Millsaps
Tuesday's Men's Basketball Game is Final Home Contest of 2018 Calendar Year
12/10/2018 4:56:00 PM | Men's Basketball
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- The Southern Miss men's basketball team will take its home floor for the final time until 2019 on Tuesday afternoon when it hosts Millsaps at 4 p.m. CT.
Fans unable to make it to the matinee matchup can follow along through the Southern Miss IMG Sports Network (Rock 104.5 in Hattiesburg/Laurel), as well as the USM Gameday app. Live video streaming is also available on CUSA.tv.
-Millsaps (8-0) is also the alma mater of the Golden Eagles' interim Director of Athletics, Jeff Mitchell, who was a four-year baseball letterwinner for the Majors and later served as their Director of Athletics Media Relations.
– Southern Miss is off to its best start (6-2) through eight games since the 2011-12 NCAA Tournament season, excluding vacated seasons from the 2012-13 season to the start of 2014-15.
– The Golden Eagles most recently posted the fourth-best shooting game in school history, 65.7 percent against Rust. Five players reached double-figure scoring, and the squad held a 36-point halftime lead.
– Southern Miss is 5-0 when shooting 45 percent or better, and 6-1 when holding its opponents to under that mark.
– Leonard Harper-Baker continues to be one of the key difference-makers on the squad, shooting 81.5 percent from the field (22-for-27) with 7.8 rebounds per game. Even with the small sample size, it would mark the best average for a season in the Doc Sadler era. Harper-Baker also produced career-highs of 18 points in a big bounce-back win over South Alabama. His athleticsm and aggressiveness in the post has complemented the Golden Eagles' guard-heavy rotation.
–  Cortez Edwards became the 37th member of Southern Miss' 1,000-point club at Troy, going 11-for-16 from the field with 26 points at Troy. He is the first since Flowers in 2011 to reach that mark, and is now 33rd in school history with 1,076. Next up for Edwards is Gary Flowers at 1,078 from 2009-11.
– Edwards needs 21 rebounds to become the fourth player in Southern Miss history to register 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 200 assists over their career. Edwards also finished his junior season with single-season school records for steals (71) and minutes (1,219). He has also increased his scoring totals from 1.9 to 11.0 to 16.6 ppg his first three years.
– Southern Miss is No. 3 nationally for assist-turnover ratio (1.85) and No. 13 for fewest turnovers (10.3 pg). As for the latter category, the Black and Gold have made major improvements over the course of Doc Sadler's tenure. The team was No. 296 in the 2014-15 season, then finished No. 245, 117 and No. 5 for the 2017-18 campaign. The Golden Eagles currently lead C-USA in assist-turnover ratio, assists per game, fewest fouls per game, field goal percentage and turnovers per game.
– Sadler has emphasized getting to the free-throw line as a contributor to success. He notes that last year's team vastly improved on foul shooting as the year went on, and this year's team is primed to do the same. It was the eighth game of last season when Southern Miss crossed 70 percent for the first time and ultimately did it 17 times over the final 27 games. The current squad has reached that mark twice in eight games, but is shooting 62.6 percent and will look to push the ball all 40 minutes.
– 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.
– Southern Miss returns 87 percent of its points from a year ago (No. 20 nationally), including four starters (Griffin, Edwards, Dominic Magee, Kevin Holland). Edwards ended last 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.
