Men's Basketball Begins Jay Ladner Era with Tuesday Home Exhibition

Tuesday, October 29

Reed Green Coliseum

7 p.m. CT

Southern Miss

Mississippi College (EXH)

Men's Basketball Begins Jay Ladner Era with Tuesday Home Exhibition

10/28/2019 8:40:00 AM | Men's Basketball

HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- All eyes will be on Reed Green Coliseum when the Southern Miss men's basketball team takes the floor on Tuesday night. Head coach and Hattiesburg native Jay Ladner, a two-sport letterwinner and member of the 1987 NIT championship team, will lead the Golden Eagles in their 2019-20 exhibition opener against Mississippi College. Tip-off is at 7 p.m., and admission is free.

Fans can listen to the game through the Southern Miss IMG Learfield Sports Network (Rock 104.5 in Hattiesburg/Laurel). Live stats and other updates will be available via @SouthernMissMBB on Twitter.

Mississippi College is led by Mike Jones, who was an assistant at Southern Miss under legendary head coach M.K. Turk for eight years. Jones even recruited Ladner out of Oak Grove High School, but took the head coach position at Copiah-Lincoln CC before Ladner's playing career began. Southern Miss won an exhibition against the Choctaws in November 2016, but have not played in a regular-season game since 1965.

Southern Miss lost a transformative senior class from last season's 20-win team, but return two of its top players. LaDavius Draine broke the school record for three-point percentage by one-tenth of a point, going 78-for-168 (46.4 percent) to lead Conference USA and earn Sixth-Man of the Year honors by the league. Leonard Harper-Baker returns for his senior year after placing third in C-USA play with both a 58.2 percent shooting clip and 8.9 rebounds per game.

The Golden Eagles return just 35.3 and 37.5 percent of its minutes and scoring, respectively, from a year ago, with 11 newcomers out of its 17 players.

The regular season begins Tuesday, Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. against Delta State. Single-game and season tickets are available through SouthernMissTickets.com, calling 1-800-844-TICK or visiting the Pat Ferlise Center during normal business hours.