University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Saturday, December 15
Wichita, KS
4:30 p.m. CT
Southern Miss
at
Wichita State
Photo by: Joe Harper
Men's Basketball begins six-game road swing at Wichita State
12/14/2018 9:15:00 AM | Men's Basketball
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- The Southern Miss men's basketball team is ready to fly the friendly skies for a Saturday tilt at Wichita State. Tip-off is set for 4:30 p.m. CT on CBS Sports Network.
Rich Waltz and Bob Wenzel will have the call from INTRUST Bank Arena. Online streaming is also available for CBSSN subscribers here. John Cox, the Voice of the Golden Eagles, will also serve his duties on the Southern Miss IMG Sports Network (Rock 104.5 in Hattiesburg/Laurel) and the USM Gameday app.
–    Southern Miss is off to its best start (7-2) through nine games since the 2011-12 NCAA Tournament season, excluding vacated seasons of 2012-13, 2013-14 and the first six wins of 2014-15.
–    This begins a six-game road swing for the Golden Eagles. The Jan. 10 home game versus Middle Tennessee will be its first in 30 days, the longest-such stretch away from Hattiesburg since a seven-game span in the 1997-98 season (31 days). The 1978-79 team also went 38 days between home contests.
–    Saturday marks only the second all-time meeting between the schools, as Wichita State defeated the Golden Eagles 59-51 on Dec. 22, 2012 (also inside INTRUST Bank Arena). The Shockers went to the Final Four that season and were helped by future NBA players Cleanthony Early and Fred VanVleet, who Southern Miss held to a combined 3-for-16 shooting. Doc Sadler and Gregg Marshall have faced each other only once before, a 76-49 win for the Shockers over Nebraska in the 2011 NIT.
–    Leonard Harper-Baker continues to be one of the key difference-makers on the squad, shooting a team-best 76.7 percent from the field (23-for-30) with 8.7 boards per game. Even with the small sample size, it would mark the best rebound average for a season in the Doc Sadler era. His athleticsm and aggressiveness in the post has complemented the Golden Eagles' guard-heavy rotation.Â
–     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 in the contest. He is the first since Gary Flowers in 2011 to reach that mark, and is now No. 32 in school history with 1,091. Next up for Edwards is John Vitrano (1967-70) at 1,117.
–    Edwards needs 15 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 increased his scoring totals from 1.9 to 11.0 to 16.6 ppg his first three years, and his 152 steals rank No. 5 all-time.
–    Southern Miss is No. 1 nationally for assist-turnover ratio (1.89) and No. 11 for fewest turnovers (10.1 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 (first time averaging less than 10 per game since the 2008-09 season). The Golden Eagles currently rank first or second in C-USA for scoring margin, field goal percentage offense and defense, assists, assist-turnover ratio and defensive rebounds.
–   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 nine games, but is shooting 62.0 percent and will look to push the ball all 40 minutes.
–   Southern Miss is 2-0 in true road games, both before Thanksgiving. It averaged just 1.5 over Sadler's first four seasons. This is also just the fifth game for the Golden Eagles against an AAC team of the Sadler era, falling twice to Tulane and once to Memphis before snapping SMU's 32-game home non-conference winning streak on Nov. 11.
Rich Waltz and Bob Wenzel will have the call from INTRUST Bank Arena. Online streaming is also available for CBSSN subscribers here. John Cox, the Voice of the Golden Eagles, will also serve his duties on the Southern Miss IMG Sports Network (Rock 104.5 in Hattiesburg/Laurel) and the USM Gameday app.
–    Southern Miss is off to its best start (7-2) through nine games since the 2011-12 NCAA Tournament season, excluding vacated seasons of 2012-13, 2013-14 and the first six wins of 2014-15.
–    This begins a six-game road swing for the Golden Eagles. The Jan. 10 home game versus Middle Tennessee will be its first in 30 days, the longest-such stretch away from Hattiesburg since a seven-game span in the 1997-98 season (31 days). The 1978-79 team also went 38 days between home contests.
–    Saturday marks only the second all-time meeting between the schools, as Wichita State defeated the Golden Eagles 59-51 on Dec. 22, 2012 (also inside INTRUST Bank Arena). The Shockers went to the Final Four that season and were helped by future NBA players Cleanthony Early and Fred VanVleet, who Southern Miss held to a combined 3-for-16 shooting. Doc Sadler and Gregg Marshall have faced each other only once before, a 76-49 win for the Shockers over Nebraska in the 2011 NIT.
–    Leonard Harper-Baker continues to be one of the key difference-makers on the squad, shooting a team-best 76.7 percent from the field (23-for-30) with 8.7 boards per game. Even with the small sample size, it would mark the best rebound average for a season in the Doc Sadler era. His athleticsm and aggressiveness in the post has complemented the Golden Eagles' guard-heavy rotation.Â
–     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 in the contest. He is the first since Gary Flowers in 2011 to reach that mark, and is now No. 32 in school history with 1,091. Next up for Edwards is John Vitrano (1967-70) at 1,117.
–    Edwards needs 15 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 increased his scoring totals from 1.9 to 11.0 to 16.6 ppg his first three years, and his 152 steals rank No. 5 all-time.
–    Southern Miss is No. 1 nationally for assist-turnover ratio (1.89) and No. 11 for fewest turnovers (10.1 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 (first time averaging less than 10 per game since the 2008-09 season). The Golden Eagles currently rank first or second in C-USA for scoring margin, field goal percentage offense and defense, assists, assist-turnover ratio and defensive rebounds.
–   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 nine games, but is shooting 62.0 percent and will look to push the ball all 40 minutes.
–   Southern Miss is 2-0 in true road games, both before Thanksgiving. It averaged just 1.5 over Sadler's first four seasons. This is also just the fifth game for the Golden Eagles against an AAC team of the Sadler era, falling twice to Tulane and once to Memphis before snapping SMU's 32-game home non-conference winning streak on Nov. 11.
Players Mentioned
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