Golden Eagles Head to Marshall for Nationally Televised Sun Belt Game

HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- The Southern Miss (14-3, 3-1 SBC) men's basketball team travels to Marshall (13-4, 2-2 SBC) on Thursday night to tangle with the Thundering Herd on ESPN2 at 8 p.m. CST.

How to Follow
- Follow the game on ESPN2 at 8 p.m. CST, with Connor Onion and David Padgett on the call
- John Cox will carry the game on the Southern Miss Learfield Sports Network (Rock 104.5 in Hattiesburg/Laurel) and the Gameday App
- Follow @SouthernMissMBB on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook

Golden Eagle Nuggets
- DeAndre Pinckney was named the Sun Belt Player of the Week after averaging 22.5 points per game and 12.0 rebounds per game
- Pinckney went for a career-high 24 points and added 11 rebounds in a 65-60 win at ULM Saturday afternoon
- Last Tuesday, Austin Crowley was named the Sun Belt Player of the Week after his career-high 30-point performance against App State
- Pinckney and Crowley became the first Golden Eagles to win back-to-back conference player of the week honors since Michael Craig (Jan. 20, 2014) and Neil Watson (Jan. 27, 2014)
- Crowley added 21 points in the ULM win and went for 14 in Thursday's loss at Louisiana
- Southern Miss is of to its best conference start since the 2011-12 season
- Its13 wins are the most before New Year's Day and tie the 13 wins the 2011-12 team recorded before the holiday
- The Golden Eagles picked up their first Sun Belt win in program history in a 64-60 win against Troy on Dec. 29, 2022
- Crowley and Pinckney have scored 10-plus points in each of their last eight and seven games, respectively
- Crowley (17.2), Felipe Haase (14.8) and Pinckney (13.5) are the only Golden Eagles averaging double-digit points per game
- As of Monday, Southern Miss ranks 32nd in scoring defense (62.0), 16th in scoring margin (14.1), 25th in steals per game (9.3), 14th in turnover margin (4.8) and 30th in turnovers forced per game (16.7)
- Mo Arnold's 2.31 assists to turnover ratio ranks third in the Sun Belt and 63^rd in Division I basketball
- Crowley's 2.47 steals per game and 42 total steals lead the conference. He ranks 12^th nationally in steals per game and 5^th in total steals
- Southern Miss had a record-breaking day in the steals department against Lamar on Dec. 10 as its 21 steals was the fourth most in a single game in program history
- Three days later it set a program record for three-point attempts when it tried 42 at Lamar on Dec. 13
- Pinckney (7.5) and Haase (7.0) pace the Golden Eagles on the glass, while Pinckney leads the with 128 total rebounds
- Jay Ladner switched up the starting lineup against ULM, using the fifth starting five of the season. He went with Crowley, Arnold, Pinckney, Haase and Jeffery Armstrong

Scouting the Thundering Herd
- Sun Belt leading scorer Taevion Kinsey leads a 13-4 Marshall team into the Cam Henderson Center
- Kinsey is averaging 20.9 points per game, while Andrew Taylor is averaging 18.8 points per game
- The Thundering Herd have five total players averaging more than eight points per game
- Micah Handlogten leads the Herd on the glass at 11.2 rebounds per game with 191 total rebounds
- Marshall's 43.2 rebounds per game ranks 2^nd nationally and its 15.2 offensive rebounds per game leads the country

Series History
- Thursday's game marks the 27^th all-time meeting between the former C-USA rivals
- Marshall leads the series 17-9 and is 2-9 in its home gym
- Southern Miss' last win in the series came via a 82-73 score at the C-USA Tournament in 2019
- After winning back-to-back games against Marshall, the Herd answered with two wins of their own in 2020 and 2022

Up Next
- Southern Miss will conclude its four-game road trip when it heads to Arkansas State on Saturday. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. on ESPN+

Golden Eagles Head to Marshall for Nationally Televised Sun Belt Game

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Jeffery Armstrong

Mo Arnold

Austin Crowley

Felipe Haase

DeAndre Pinckney

University of Southern Mississippi Athletics