Denver Edges USA On Last Second Shot 56-54
This was the third consecutive game where the game was decided in the final seconds and it also marked the third consecutive loss for the Jaguars.
The first half saw Denver shoot 67% from the field and from 3-point range as well as 60% from the free-throw line. While USA struggled only shooting 48% from the field and missing on all six attempts from outside the arc.
Denver had pulled away throughout the first half and went into the locker room with a 37-28 lead.
Defense tightened up for both teams in the second half. Both teams combined to shoot 34% from the floor with both teams suffering long field goal droughts. Denver shot 32% from the floor and only hit one of 11 3-point field goals and 4 of 9 free-throws. USA shot 37% from the field with no attempts at a 3-pointer and hit 12 of 18 free-throws.
The Jags went without a field goal for the final 5:58 of the game. Denver did not convert a shot over a 7:33 span late in the game. But Nate Rohnert hit a lay-up with a mere 5.1 seconds left in the game to break the tie at 54. Denver took a quick timeout so USA set up a quick play to try to tie the game and go into overtime. Coach Arrow said after the game, “The plan was either to go inside to Brandon Davis or Domonic Tilford was going to have the ball. We passed it a little too late.”
Tilford took the shot but it was waved off by the officials. Unsure if he actually got the shot off before the buzzer the officials congregated and talked it over. Eventually going to the game officials to watch a replay of the final shot and determined that, indeed it was too late.
DeAndre Coleman lead all scorers with 17 points on 4-7 shooting and connecting on 9 of 10 free-throws. Brandon Davis added 15 points but was in foul trouble late in the game. Denver had two players in double digits. Nate Rohnert scored 12 and Rob Lewis scored 11.
After the game, Lee Shirvanian talked with Coach Arrow. “I don’t know what to say. I feel bad for the guys. Yeah, we make the key mistakes but we play hard enough to win. We’ve played three games in a row that we’ve lost at the buzzer that we played hard enough to win. It’s got to change…”
Hopefully it will change for the Jags on Saturday when the Mitchell Center will host a double header. The men will take on New Orleans with tip-off set for 2pm and it will also be televised on CSS. The lady Jags also take on New Orleans with tip-off scheduled for about 7:05pm or about 30 minutes after the men’s game concludes.
Coach Joey Jones Show Recap 2009-01-28
Lee Shirvanian is on the road with the Men’s basketball squad as they travel to Denver for their match-up tomorrow night. Brian Stross is taking his place on the radio show and he has recruiting coordinator Brian Turner and Wide Receivers coach Dameyune Craig. With just one week to go until National Signing Day is upon us we will talk a little about recruiting, the Signing Day Party, the unique situation these kids are coming into and a possible tradition to start for game one.
USA will host about 9 or 10 potential recruits this weekend for their official on campus visits. As for recruiting, Sunday it goes ‘quiet’. That means they can have recruits on campus but the coaches cannot leave campus to recruit. Then on Monday it begins the recruiting dead period. The coaches may only call a recruit one time a week during the dead period to check in with them. During open recruiting they can call as many times as they wish.
They spoke about the Signing Day Party that is scheduled for 4pm on February 4th at the Mitchell Center. Joe Gottfried will speak about the football program, Coach Jones will speak about the signing class and the position coaches will speak about the position players. They are at work on compiling videos to show for each of the recruits they sign.
In previous shows they talked about how the facilities are a huge recruiting tool for USA. They spoke today about the impact the Senior Bowl will be to incoming recruits as well. They really think its going to help with landing recruits because if a player is good enough for the Senior Bowl and with USA’s proximity to the game they will definitely look for talent nearby.
The situation at USA will be very unique. New kids will be coming in but they will not have older guys to learn from so the coaches must work extra hard to teach them in a way that they will understand so they can go out on the field and execute. However, thier teaching will extend beyond the sidelines of the stadium. They will have to mentor them about what they should and should not do off the field and on campus. They expect to see them get better and better as time goes on.
Looking ahead to fall football, a caller asked about when the football team would arrive at Ladd-Peebles Stadium for the game. Dameyune said they would normally arrive two hours before the game to being their warm-ups and such. Brian Stross also asked about possible traditions like what Clemson, Alabama and Auburn have and others like Georgia have picked up recently with their walks to the stadium. Coach Jones is eager to start a tradition like that from Game 1. He is thinking about having the buses let them off on Virginia Street somewhere and have them walk the rest of the way to the Stadium.
Get your football season tickets now, also come out and support the Jaguar basketball teams. Go Jags!
Jags Fall On The Road With 3-Pointer At Buzzer
Down by one point with time expiring, Randell Daigle put up a despiration shot from 35 feet away. Everyone watched on both sidelines and arena seats as it fell to give the Jaguars their first road loss in the Sun Belt this season.
In the first three-plus minutes of the game, the Jags quickly ran out to a 7-0 lead. The Ragin’ Cajuns would end the scoreless drought by tipping in a missed shot, but would only make one of thier first 11 attempts from the floor.
ULL would counter the Jags early run with a 12-2 run of their own to give them their first lead of the game. The Jags would only lead once more in the first half at 13-12.
USA would get within two points with about four-and-a-half minutes remaining in the first half at 25-23 but would only be able to connect on two more field goals over the rest of the half.
In the first half the Jags committed eight turnovers and forced only three of their own and trailed in free-throw attempts by 13-2. They would go into halftime down nine points 37-28.
Most of the second half was the Jaguars slowly chipping away at the ULL lead. Domonic Tilford would cap off a 7-0 by the Jags with 4:14 left in the second half to put the Jags up 62-59. ULL would hit two jumpers to retake the lead with just under two minutes to go.
USA would turn the ball over three times and ULL would miss four shots from the field in the final three-plus minutes of the game. Domonic Tilford would hit a shot with 2.4 seconds left to give the Jags a 65-64 lead but would watch Daigle’s despiration shot fall at time ran out to give the Win to Louisiana-Lafayette.
DeAndre Coleman would lead all scorers with 26 points on 7-12 shooting, missing his only 3-point attempt but sinking 12-15 free-throw attempts. Coleman also added 14 rebounds with 11 coming on the defensive side. Domonic Tilford would add 16 points for the game to be the only other Jaguar in double digits scoring.
Travis Bureau would pace the Ragin’ Cajuns with 18 points on 5-11 shooting while going 2-8 from outside the arc adn 6-9 from the free-throw line. Chris Gradnigo would add 13 points and Tyren Johnson would score 11 to round out the double digit scorers for ULL.
USA would hold the advantage of scoring in the paint 28-14, pts off turnovers 12-11 but ULL would out score USA 21-5 from the bench.
USA would edge ULL in shooting percentages, 44%-35% from the field, 44%-26% from 3-point range and 77%-74% from the free-throw line. However the percentages work out, ULL had more shooting attempts 58-54 FG, 27-9 3-point and 27-17 free-throw.
USA drops to 11-9 for the season and 4-5 in the Sun Belt while ULL is 7-11 and 4-4 in the Sun Belt.
The Jaguars will finish out their two-game road swing when they visit Denver on Thursday for an 8pm tip-off. The game will be televised regionally on FSN Rocky Mountains.
Go Jags!
USA Loses On Layup In Finals Seconds Against UALR
A basket in the finals seconds allows University of Arkansas Little Rock to pull out a victory for the Jags at the Mitchell Center. A UALR layup with 15 seconds left ended a game that saw eight lead changes in the second half.
Most of the first half was played pretty tight with the largest UALR lead being six on two occasions before the Jaguars had a rough end to the first half when UALR scored six consecutive points in the finals 70 seconds to take a 34-25 lead into the locker room for halftime. A total of 25 fowls were committed in the first half with both teams visiting the charity stripe 29 times.
USA, over a two minute stretch in the second half, made their first run to get back into the game with an 8-2 run. But then UALR would extend the lead back out to seven with back-to-back shots in a 25 second span.
The Jags would then have a 7-0 run for gain a one point advantage at 44-43. Then over the next four minutes the lead would change hands five times with each teams advantage being one point until a 3-pointer put UALR up by two.
USA would regain the lead at 51-50 when Brandon Davis would convert three points the old fashioned way by making a basket while being fouled and sinking the free throw.
The trojans would pull out to a 59-55 lead in the waning minutes. The Jags would then score four points to tie the game at 59 over a 1:16 stretch. UALR would then have possession of the ball with 40 seconds left. Then Shane Edwards would lay in a basket with 15 seconds left to seal the game for the trojans at 61-59.
Domonic Tilford would lead USA in scoring with 15 on 6-19 shooting and 3-9 from beyond the arc. DeAndre Coleman scored 12 and pulled down 13 rebounds for a second double-double in the last two games. Brandon Davis rounded out the double digit scorers for USA with 11 and 8 rebounds.
The Trojans Shane Edwards lead all scorers with 23 points on 8-11 shooting, 1-2 from 3-point range and sinking all six free throw attempts. Matt Mouzy with 12 points was the only other trojan in double digits scoring.
USA out rebounded UALR 41-29 but were outshot in the game 41%-36% from the floor, 42%-19% from 3-point range. Both teams sank 14 free throws with USA going to the line 24 times, once more than UALR for the contest.
USA took the court without Ronald Douglas who injured his right shoulder in practice on Wednesday. He is expected to miss at least one week. The 6′ 8″ Douglas has averaged 5.6 points and 4.1 rebounds per game and leads the team with 39 blocked shots.
The Jaguars fall to 11-8 (4-4 SBC) for the season, 0-4 at the Mitchell Center this season but are 4-0 on the road in the Sun Belt Conference. The Jaguars will start a two game road swing when they travel to Louisiana-Lafayette for a Saturday match-up with tip-off scheduled fro 7:15pm.
GO Jags!
Coach Joey Jones Show Recap 2009-01-21
Lee Shirvanian was in the studio with Brett Bedsole while Coach Jones was on the while being on the road recruiting in New Orleans.
The beginning of the show was Lee asking Coach Jones about his experience at the Senior bowl when he was a Senior at Alabama since the Senior Bowl is coming up this weekend at Ladd-Peebles Stadium right here in Mobile, Alabama. Currently NFL coaches and scouts are in town looking at potentially draftable players in this all-star game.
They also started talking about the signing day festivities that will happen at the Mitchell Center on Wednesday, February 4th starting at 4pm. Coach Jones said that Joe Gottfried will be speaking first then Coach Jones will about the overall recruiting class. Then individual position coaches will speak about the recruits a little more in depth and somewhere along that timeline they will show some short videos that have been compiled about the recruits.
Recruiting right now is open for all coaches right now. This weekend is another on-campus recruiting visit weekend. A total of 13 potential recruits came last weekend to tour the campus and see the facilities. As many as 18 could come in this weekend and next weekend they may have about 8 or 9 recruits coming in for visits. The number could go up or down depending on how many recruits verbally commit while here. January 30th will be the beginning of a recruiting dead period from then through signing day on February 4th.
Brett Bedsole, Director of Football Operations, who was in the studio since Coach Jones was out recruiting were talking about season tickets with Travis Toth, USA’s marketing director. The season tickets are on sale and priced based on a 6 game home schedule. However, they basically have a 7th game locked in and are also working on an 8th game. If you order tickets now, the $75 for sidelines and $49 for endzone tickets will include these extra games for no extra charge. However, they will be a cutoff date in which the price will go up. Possibly in March or April.
When asked about what caliber teams USA will be playing in 2009, Coach Bedsole and Mr. Toth could not say precisely who USA would be playing but they did say that they will be playing teams that they can compete against. A good example would be Hargrave, which is a school that some schools will place recruits who do not clear for those Division I schools.
When asked about recruiting and recruits attitudes toward USA and their visit here Coach Bedsole said they have been receiving very positive words. They are enjoying their times here, part of it could be just being away from home and family in a way. But USA also houses them at the Battlehouse Hotel, which is very nice in downtown Mobile, Alabama.
Lee Shirvanian and Coach Jones seemed to indicate that Wednesday February 4th will be the last episode of the Joey Jones Show for this season. I expect it to pick back up in the fall before football season starts. But many listeners, readers and myself will miss the insights that we have gotten from the show thus far.
Go Jags!
Jones Says Propst And Mumme Not Coming To USA For OC Position
As wrote about before, Rush Propst will not be returning to the Mobile area to be the offensive coordinator with the Jaguars. He publicly released this to shoot down the unrest in the community in Colquitt County Georgia. He won five state championships at Hoover before leaving amid some controversy in 2007.
Propst has been eyeing collegiant jobs but no one offered any positions to him after leaving Hoover. He took head coaching position with Colquitt County last season and improved on a 2-8 season to go 4-6 his first season.
Another name mentioned for the Offensive Coordinator job was Hal Mumme who went 11-38 in four seasons at New Mexico State before being fired this year. But is probably more recognizable from his stint at Kentucky from 1997-2000 replacing Bill Curry.
Mumme revitalized Kentucky football which was reeling from 6 losing seasons out of seven under Curry, his lone exception was a 6-6 season that ended with a loss to Clemson in the Peach Bowl. Mumme brought in what he called the “Air Raid” offense lead by sophomore quarterback Tim Couch. His offensive coordinator through 1999 was Mike Leach who is now head coach at Texas Tech but left Kentucky to go to Oklahoma at the time.
However, the 2000 season would see questions popping up and investigations concerning NCAA rules violations. Replacing their starting quarterback with an untested freshmen seemed to alienate his team, then coupled with the off field problems lead to a 2-9 season although many games were close and the offense producing huge numbers. But nearing the end of the season it was becoming apparent that many significant NCAA rules violations had been committed by staff.
Mumme resigned after terminating his recruiting coordinator, his defensive coordinator and his football operations director being put on an eight-year “show-cause” order which blackballed him from college sports for those eight years, he resigned on national signing day in February 2001.
Coach Jones did confirm that Propst and Mumme were among the “seven or eight” coaches he has interviewed but neither would be coming to USA. Jones declined to indentify any other potential coaches who might have been interviewed. He did say he has talked with former Auburn offensive coordinator Tony Franklin but he said it was not an interview and that Franklin is not under consideration for the position.
Jaguars Win Another Road SBC Game Against ASU
Jaguars have fared very well on the road in the Sun Belt Conference this season and it continued against Arkansas State with a 74-67 victory in Jonesboro, Arkansas.
The Jaguars would put together the games first run late in the first half when USA held ASU without a field goal over 6:14 outscoring them 9-1 to take the lead at 26-20 with just over two minutes left in the first half. The game would be tied up at 28 in the final 30 seconds of the first half. But LaShun Watson would bank in a long jumper at the buzzer to take the Jags into the locker room with a two point lead.
USA would break open the close game early in the second half with a 16-1 run and would hold on for the remainder of the game for the win.
Domonic Tilford would lead all scorers with 20 on 7-15 shooting and hitting 3-6 from 3-point range and 3-4 from the free-throw line. DeAndre Coleman would score 16 on 4-11 shooting and 8-10 from the free-throw line plus adding 15 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season. LaShun Watson would score 11 and added 7 rebounds. Brandon Davis would score 10 to round out the double digit scorers for USA.
Donald Boone led Arkansas State with 17 points while JeJuan Brown added 14 and Daniel Bryant added 11 to round out the ASU double digit scorers.
USA had 34 attempts and hit 21 from the free-throw line while ASU had 27 attempts and hit 20 of them. USA led scoring in the paint with 34-26, pts off turnovers 24-15 but ASU outscored USA from the bench 38-14.
USA will be in action again on Thursday, January 22nd when they host UALR who leads the Western Division by two games. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:05pm at the Mitchell Center.
Lady Jags Win On Last Second Free-Throws By Jessica Starling
Game winning free throws with a mere 3.6 seconds left in the game seals the win for the Lady Jaguars over Arkansas State. The Jags record improves to 13-5 and 4-3 in the SBC while Arkansas State falls to 9-9 and 3-4 in the SBC.
USA had a hot start to open the half. Hitting six of their first ten shots from the floor while Nettles and Starling led the way combining to score 12 of the first 17 points for USA putting them out in front 17-12 with 13:37 left in the first half.
But Arkansas State would take the lead a few minutes later and it would be traded back an forth a few times until ASU would make their last basket of the first half at the 5:54 mark. USA would take advantage and close out the half on a 13-1 run to end the half with the Jaguars leading 36-26.
USA would continue the momentum from the end of the first half through the first four minutes of the second half by outscoring ASU 11-5 over that stretch. With 12:05 left in the second half the Jaguar lead would swell to 55-37 but ASU would not give up.
ASU’s Smith, Jefferson and Taylor would combine to score 24 of the their teams 30 points over the final 12 minutes of the game. With USA holding a 10 point lead with less than 3 minutes left in the game, ASU would score 11 unanswered points in a minute and a half putting ASU ahead 66-65.
ASU’s Jefferson was fouled with 25 seconds left and sunk both free throws to give them a one point advantage. USA’s ensuing possession saw a jump ball call when the ball was tied up. The Lady Jags had the possession arrow and thus retained the ball. On the inbounds play, Starling was held which sent her to the line with a one-and-one opportunity with 3.6 seconds left. She sunk both attempts. Arkansas State inbounded the ball and their half court shot would not fall giving the Jaguars the win.
Shakira Nettles would lead all scorers with 27 on 11-17 shooting and 4-6 from outside the arc and sinking one of two free-throw attempts. Ra’Shawna Sippio would chip in 11 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double. Jessica Starling would score 13 on 3-8 shooting and 1-4 from 3-point range and hitting all six free-throw shots, including the final two to win the game for the Jaguars. Sarda Peterson would play five minutes, seeing her first action since her ankle injury against MTSU.
Ebonie Jefferson would lead Arkansas State with 21 points on 7-10 shooting and 7-9 from the free throw line. Veronica Smith would add 14 and Jazmine Taylor would score 12 for the Red Wolves.
The Jaguars will be in action again when they host the Western Division leader UALR on Wednesday, January 21st with tip-off scheduled for 7:05pm.
Jaguars Woes At Home Continue With Loss To Troy
Troy connected on 16 of 30 shots from 3-point range in the Jaguar loss. Kenny Ware lead the way for Troy hitting 6-8 of the 3-pointers and finishing with a career-best 20 points. He was one of five Troy players in double figures. This loss dropped the Jags to 0-3 at home against Sun Belt Conference opponents, which is a stark contrast to last year when USA was 9-0 at home against SBC opponents during the regular season.
Troy opened the game with a 15-6 run in the first three-plus minutes. The Jags then went on a 10-2 run to close the gap to a single point at 17-16 with about 12 minutes left in the first half.
However, Troy would then go on a 20-2 run over the next 5:20 to break the game wide open for the Trojans. Three players combined to make give 3-pointers during the stretch, three of them by Ware. That would make the lead 37-18 when the run was over. But the Jaguars would regroup and held the Trojans without a basket for the last 3:07 of the half while scoring seven points to close the Trojans lead to 47-29 at halftime.
The lead would fluctuate from 16-21 points during the first six minutes of the second half. The Jags would get close to within 18 with 11-38 left but Troy would score the next 11 consecutive points in a 1:42 span to put the game away for the Trojans.
Bryan Sherrer would lead the Jaguars with 14 points on 4-8 shooting and connecting on his only attempt from 3-point range and hitting all five attempts from the free-throw line. Other Jags in double figures scoring were Domonic Tilford with 11 and Ronald Douglas with 10.
Five Trojans scored in double figures. Kenny Ware scored 20 points on 6-10 shooting going 6-8 from outside the arc and hitting both free-throw attempts. He also added six rebounds all on the defensive side. Richard Dekl scored 17, Brandon Hazzard scored 14, Travis Lee scored 11 and Mario Telfair socred 10.
While USA out-scored Troy 28-20 in the paint but Troy would leal all of the other categories: 18-9 pts off T/O, 10-7 2nd chance pts, 13-2 Fast break pts, and bench scoring 46-29.
Troy led the entire game and their largest lead was 33 points at the 8:09 mark in the second half. The Jaguars really need to find some sort of spark at the Mitchell Center. All Jaguar fans need to come out and support Coach Arrow, Coach Pietre and both the Men’s and Women’s teams. Both teams are coming down the stretch and they need a good push to finish out the SBC schedule.
Go Jags!
Lady Jags End Three Game Losing Streak
The University of South Alabama Lady Jags end their losing streak at three games, defeating the Troy Trojans 68-60. The Jaguars record improves to 12-5 (3-3 SBC) while Troy falls to 8-8 on the season and 3-3 in the Sun Belt Conference.
In contrast with the last few games, the Lady Jags got off to a good start to match their opponent. For the first 11 minutes of the first half both teams kept it close until Shakria Nettles broke the 17-17 tie and started a 7-2 run for the Jags. It led to USA opening up their largest lead of the half, 26-19. Troy would battle back to pull within three point at halftime, 28-25.
The Trojans would come out and score four points quickly in to begin the second half taking the lead at 29-28. Ra’Shawna Sippio would put the Jags on her back and score the next 11 points to retake the lead 41-36 with under 15 minutes to go.
The Trojans would then score 11 points unanswered over a two and a half minute span and retaking the lead from USA.
USA would then start another run of their own going on a 10-0 run, retaking the lead once again for the Jags at 51-47.
Troy, not giving up, battled back again to retake the lead for what would be their final time at 54-53. USA would close out the game with a 15-6 run and the Jaguar defense would hold strong only allowing Troy to shoot 2-15 over the that run.
Ra’Shawna Sippio would lead the Jags in scoring with 22 points on 9-19 shooting and hitting half of her 8 shots from the charity stripe. She would also come down with 11 rebounds to achieve her fifth double-double of her career.
Shakira Nettles and Jessica Starling would be the only other jags in double digits. Nettles would score 16 points on 6-12 shooting, going 3-7 from 3-point range and hitting one of her two free-throw attempts. Jessica Starling scored 12 points on 4-7 shooting while going 2-5 from outside the arc and hitting both of her two free-throw attempts.
The Trojans’ Kylie Morrissy would lead all scorers with 28 points going 10-22 and hitting 1-3 3-point attempts but hitting all 7 free-throw attempts. Donette McNair would score 9 points but would come down with 15 rebounds, 10 of them on the defensive side.
USA scored 32 points in the paint compared to Troy’s 22. USA would also out-shoot Troy 44%-33% for the game and 35%-31% from 3-point range. But Troy would hit 9-10 from the free-throw line while USA struggled hitting only 9-16.
The Lady Jaguars will play next when they visit Arkansas State on Sunday with tip-off scheduled for 2:05pm.