University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss
UAB
Men's Basketball Continues Homestand Saturday with UAB
1/11/2019 3:10:00 PM | Men's Basketball
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- Southern Miss fans have one more opportunity to catch the Golden Eagle men's basketball team before another road trip next week, as the Black and Gold host the UAB Blazers (10-6, 2-1 C-USA) Saturday at 4 p.m. CT.
The game will air on ESPN Plus (with Lee Roberts and Larry Boyd), and John Cox will have the radio call on the Southern Miss IMG Sports Network (Rock 104.5 in Hattiesburg/Laurel) and USM Gameday app.
– Southern Miss' first home game in 30 days went as well as it had hoped, defeating Middle Tennessee 77-70 and never trailing. The Golden Eagles led by as much as 16 early in the second half and were led by Tyree Griffin (21 points, seven assists), and a 13-for-17 showing at the foul line (77 percent). It was the first time the team had cracked 70 percent at the charity stripe this season when earning 10 or more attempts.
– The Golden Eagles (9-7, 1-3 C-USA) are looking to defeat UAB for the first time of the Doc Sadler era. The Blazers won the two meetings last season 86-75 and 87-69, shooting 62 percent. Dominic Magee, who had limited playing time Thursday after missing the previous three games to injury, averaged 18 ppg in those two contests. The Jan. 11 matchup in Birmingham was also where LaDavius Draine entered the spotlight, going 8-for-11 with a career-high 19 points. He had just 30 over 79 minutes for the season prior.
– Draine is shooting 45.6 percent from beyond the arc this season, which ranks No. 4 in C-USA. Nine of the sophomore's 12 double-figure scoring games have come away from home, and another group of those nine have come against C-USA foes. Since last season, he has improved his 3FG percentage from 40.0 to 45.6, his scoring from 5.5 to 9.3 ppg, and he has committed just three turnovers in 304 minutes. Draine's 85 percent free-throw shooting (17-for-20) also leads the team.
– Something will have to give as UAB brings in the league's fourth-best offense (46.0 FG%) to counter Southern Miss' third-ranked defense (39.9 percent). Zack Bryant averaged a team-high 18.5 ppg against Southern Miss in last year's two meetings, but the next four scorers are no longer with the team. UAB also currently boasts the league's No. 2 overall three-point defense (30.8 percent), while the Golden Eagles' 8-for-16 (50 percent) showing on Thursday was its best since going 13-for-24 (54.2 percent) at SMU on Nov. 11.
– Since the start of the 2017-18 season, Southern Miss has led at the half in 19 of its 20 home games. It will be vital for the team to start out fast in its efforts to reverse recent luck with UAB, which trailed 30-22 at LA Tech before falling 64-53 on Thursday. The only other mutual opponent the teams have is Troy, which won in Birmingham 74-73 on Dec. 21.
– Southern Miss, after ODU's loss at FAU, is the only C-USA school to have not allowed 80 points in a game this season. It happened to the Golden Eagles eight times in each of the last two seasons, and this current 15-game streak is a single-season best since the 2011-12 squad did so in its final 24 games. The Golden Eagles are allowing their opponents just a 39.9 percent shooting clip this season after it was 46.1 last season and have not allowed more than 40 points in a half since Nov. 20 versus North Florida.
– Southern Miss is No. 3 nationally for assist-turnover ratio (1.75) and No. 6 for fewest turnovers (9.8 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). SMU is the only team to have won the turnover battle over the Golden Eagles this year.
– The Golden Eagles lead C-USA with a 44.6 three-point percentage in league play, while UAB is second in allowing a 27.5 percent mark. Tyree Griffin is second in assists (6.5), third in steals (2.0) and eighth in assist-turnover ratio (2.4), while Edwards ranks third in steals (2.0) and fifth in rebounding (7.0). Griffin has 305 dimes in less than two years with the program, with his 201 last season ranking as the second-most in school history.
