Golden Eagles Head North for Tuesday Battle at Iowa State

Tuesday, November 19

Ames, IA

7 p.m. CT

Southern Miss

Iowa State

Photo by: Joe Harper

Golden Eagles Head North for Tuesday Battle at Iowa State

11/18/2019 1:26:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Game Notes (PDF)

HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- The Southern Miss men's basketball team, fresh off road games in Alabama and Florida, is now headed to the Breadbasket of America for a Tuesday night game at Iowa State. Tip-off from Hilton Coliseum is set for 7 p.m. CT.

Live video streaming is available on Cyclones.tv. John Cox will also have the radio call on the Southern Miss Learfield IMG Sports Network (Rock 104.5 in Hattiesburg/Laurel), as well as the Gameday app, starting at 6:30 p.m.

Game Notes
–    This game marks the campus-site edition of the Battle 4 Atlantis, which takes place in the Bahamas Nov. 27-29. Southern Miss' last Big 12 foe was a 55-51 loss at Kansas State in December, in which the Golden Eagles led by as much as 16 early in the second half. The Golden Eagles are seeking their first Big 12 victory in the last five tries (defeated Nebraska in November 1999).

–    The Golden Eagles have used the same starting lineup each game this year, and with the exception of freshman Hunter Dean (two minutes) making his debut against North Florida, were close to playing just seven players for the second-straight game. Freshman Artur Konontsuk scored 11 of the team's first 17 points at UNF, assisting on four of the others. At 13.3 ppg, he is the first Southern Miss freshman with three consecutive double-figure scoring games since 2017-18, and the first with three-straight starts since 2015-16.

–   Southern Miss had a chance to tie or win in the waning seconds at South Alabama, and again fell one possession short in a 66-63 road loss to North Florida. The Golden Eagles trailed by seven with 1:33 left before Gabe Watson converted a four-point play, but UNF, which was 1-for-8 at the line, went 6-for-6 over that final stretch to escape.

–   The Golden Eagles have out-rebounded their opponents by an average of 13.0 per game so far, led by seniors Leonard Harper-Baker (10.0) and Boban Jacdonmi (8.7). While still searching for their groove on three-point shots, the squad has held its last two opponents to a modest 30.8 percent showing. ISU is 10-for-46 its last two games (21.7 percent). The Cyclones, picked to finish seventh in the Big 12, bring back only 30.3 percent of its scoring from a year ago.

–   Southern Miss took 22 deep balls at South Alabama, but only 21 combined in the other two. LaDavius Draine, the defending C-USA Sixth Man of the Year, is due to break out as well. He broke the school record for three-point percentage with a 46.4 percent clip last year and has a team-high five makes on 21 attempts so far.

–    This is the fourth all-time meeting between the schools, with the three previous meetings separated by five total points. The Cyclones won the first one, 73-72 in Knoxville in 1984, followed by a 74-72 win in Tokyo four years later. ISU edged the Golden Eagles once again in 2000, 69-67, in Ames.

–    Even closer than the scores between the teams in their all-time head-to-heads are their coaching ties. Two of Southern Miss' last four head coaches (Larry Eustachy, 2004-12 and Doc Sadler, 2014-19) came by way of Ames. Eustachy was the AP Coach of the Year in 2000 and later took the Golden Eagles to the 2012 NCAA Tournament, their last-such appearance. Sadler served on Fred Hoiberg's staff for the 2013-14 season before taking the Southern Miss head job and helping the program past severe, inherited NCAA sanctions.

–   Last year, Southern Miss (CBI) made its first postseason appearance since 2012 and seventh since 2001. The Golden Eagles, still under NCAA sanctions from the vacated 2012-14 seasons, have won 36 games the last two years, each time making the C-USA semifinals and defeating the defending champ in the process. Probation formally ends on Feb. 1, 2020. Over the past five years, Southern Miss joined only Florida A&M and Saint Louis as teams to perfectly improve its league win total each season (3-5-6-7-11).

–    Southern Miss enters the season with 11 newcomers, tying for fifth in the country. The Golden Eagles lost a transformative senior class that featured Cortez Edwards (all-time steals leader; fourth member of 1,000-point, 500-rebound and 200-assist club), Tyree Griffin (434 assists in two years, No. 3 in school history) and Kevin Holland (No. 5 in games started, No. 7 in three-point makes).