University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Saturday, December 29
Ruston, La.
4 p.m. CT
Southern Miss
at
Louisiana Tech
Southern Miss Begins C-USA Play Saturday at Louisiana Tech
12/28/2018 9:42:00 AM | Men's Basketball
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- The Golden Eagle men's basketball team celebrated eight nights of hotels and bus rides (Dec. 15-22) in the Midwest with a few days of holiday break, but it has been business as usual since returning to practice Wednesday.Â
Southern Miss (8-4)Â battles rival Louisiana Tech (10-3) at 4 p.m. CT on Saturday. The game will air on ESPN Plus, with Lyn Rollins and Stan Humphries on the call. Humphries, who started a Super Bowl with the Chargers and won one with the Redskins, also served as an assistant women's basketball coach at ULM from 2014-16.Â
John Cox, the Voice of the Golden Eagles, will carry the game on the Southern Miss IMG Sports Network (Rock 104.5 in Hattiesburg/Laurel) as well as the USM Gameday app.Â
– Southern Miss is off to its best start (8-4) through 12 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 year's team is 3-2 in true road games after having just six combined victories over the previous four years.
– The Golden Eagles are coming off a huge 66-60 win at South Dakota. The Coyotes were 30-4 at home since opening their new arena. Southern Miss trailed 34-29 at the half, which was its largest halftime deficit before winning since Feb. 16, 2017 versus FIU (trailed 22-15). The Golden Eagles did not trail for the final nine minutes at South Dakota. Redshirt-senior Kevin Holland broke out for a season-high three three-pointers, and Boban Jacdonmi had a career-high six points (3-for-5 FG) in just eight minutes off the bench, a positive sign for the team's post depth moving forward.
– This is the fourth installment of 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.
– Southern Miss allowed just 178 points over the gruelling, eight-night stretch in the Midwest, its best three-game Division I span since yielding the same total from Jan. 5-12, 2017 against UTEP, UTSA and ODU. Kansas State's 55 points were its fewest at home since Feb. 10, and it was the best Golden Eagle defensive output in a loss since ODU won 54-50 in that aforementioned meeting.
– The last meeting between the teams (March 3) saw Southern Miss earn its first victory over the Bulldogs in the Doc Sadler era. The squad was red-hot in the first half, outshooting LA Tech 59-26 percent and holding a 40-17 lead. LA Tech cut it down to two twice in the last three minutes, but the Golden Eagles held on to close the regular-season on a high note. The previous matchup was all LA Tech, as it built a 57-27 at the half en route to a 89-66 victory (Jan. 27).
– Sadler's emphasis for the team on road games is to win games on the defensive end. With the exception of LA Tech's 1-for-15 three-point shooting in the first half of the March 3 meeting, the Bulldogs were 20-for-43 the other 60 minutes. LA Tech's 35.8 percent deep shooting this year ranks No. 4 in the conference, and it is 7-0 at home. The only mutual opponent thus far has been Wichita State, which the Bulldogs topped 71-58 on the road to begin the season. Southern Miss rallied from 16 points down to take the lead with under a minute left before falling 63-60 on Dec. 15.
– Edwards recorded his 11th-career double-double (14 points, 11 rebounds) in Friday's win to become the fourth player in Southern Miss history to register 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 200 assists over their career.
– Southern Miss is No. 2 nationally for assist-turnover ratio (1.84) and No. 6 for fewest turnovers (9.6 pg). As for the latter category, the Black and Gold have made major improvements over the course of Sadler's tenure. The team was No. 296 in the 2014-15 season, then finished No. 245, 117 and No. 5 in 2017-18 (first time averaging less than 10 per game since the 2008-09 season).Â
– The Golden Eagles currently rank first in C-USA for assist-turnover ratio, assists per game, fewest fouls per game and turnovers per game. Griffin and Edwards rank No. 2 and 3 for steals per game, respectively.Â
Southern Miss (8-4)Â battles rival Louisiana Tech (10-3) at 4 p.m. CT on Saturday. The game will air on ESPN Plus, with Lyn Rollins and Stan Humphries on the call. Humphries, who started a Super Bowl with the Chargers and won one with the Redskins, also served as an assistant women's basketball coach at ULM from 2014-16.Â
John Cox, the Voice of the Golden Eagles, will carry the game on the Southern Miss IMG Sports Network (Rock 104.5 in Hattiesburg/Laurel) as well as the USM Gameday app.Â
– Southern Miss is off to its best start (8-4) through 12 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 year's team is 3-2 in true road games after having just six combined victories over the previous four years.
– The Golden Eagles are coming off a huge 66-60 win at South Dakota. The Coyotes were 30-4 at home since opening their new arena. Southern Miss trailed 34-29 at the half, which was its largest halftime deficit before winning since Feb. 16, 2017 versus FIU (trailed 22-15). The Golden Eagles did not trail for the final nine minutes at South Dakota. Redshirt-senior Kevin Holland broke out for a season-high three three-pointers, and Boban Jacdonmi had a career-high six points (3-for-5 FG) in just eight minutes off the bench, a positive sign for the team's post depth moving forward.
– This is the fourth installment of 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.
– Southern Miss allowed just 178 points over the gruelling, eight-night stretch in the Midwest, its best three-game Division I span since yielding the same total from Jan. 5-12, 2017 against UTEP, UTSA and ODU. Kansas State's 55 points were its fewest at home since Feb. 10, and it was the best Golden Eagle defensive output in a loss since ODU won 54-50 in that aforementioned meeting.
– The last meeting between the teams (March 3) saw Southern Miss earn its first victory over the Bulldogs in the Doc Sadler era. The squad was red-hot in the first half, outshooting LA Tech 59-26 percent and holding a 40-17 lead. LA Tech cut it down to two twice in the last three minutes, but the Golden Eagles held on to close the regular-season on a high note. The previous matchup was all LA Tech, as it built a 57-27 at the half en route to a 89-66 victory (Jan. 27).
– Sadler's emphasis for the team on road games is to win games on the defensive end. With the exception of LA Tech's 1-for-15 three-point shooting in the first half of the March 3 meeting, the Bulldogs were 20-for-43 the other 60 minutes. LA Tech's 35.8 percent deep shooting this year ranks No. 4 in the conference, and it is 7-0 at home. The only mutual opponent thus far has been Wichita State, which the Bulldogs topped 71-58 on the road to begin the season. Southern Miss rallied from 16 points down to take the lead with under a minute left before falling 63-60 on Dec. 15.
– Edwards recorded his 11th-career double-double (14 points, 11 rebounds) in Friday's win to become the fourth player in Southern Miss history to register 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 200 assists over their career.
– Southern Miss is No. 2 nationally for assist-turnover ratio (1.84) and No. 6 for fewest turnovers (9.6 pg). As for the latter category, the Black and Gold have made major improvements over the course of Sadler's tenure. The team was No. 296 in the 2014-15 season, then finished No. 245, 117 and No. 5 in 2017-18 (first time averaging less than 10 per game since the 2008-09 season).Â
– The Golden Eagles currently rank first in C-USA for assist-turnover ratio, assists per game, fewest fouls per game and turnovers per game. Griffin and Edwards rank No. 2 and 3 for steals per game, respectively.Â
Players Mentioned
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/ Men's Basketball
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