USA Softball Ranked 20th In Preseason Poll
The 2013 South Alabama Softball Team earned their second consecutive SBC Tournament title after defeated WKU 2-0 on Saturday, May 11, 2013 | sunbeltsports.org
The University of South Alabama Softball team set a new first in program history on Tuesday. After repeating and Conference champs last season and hosting their very first NCAA Tournament regional, the Jaguars are ranked in the USA Today/NFCA Division I preseason Top 25 poll.
USA earned a spot at #20 in the preseason poll and are one of two Sun Belt schools in the top 25 as Louisiana-Lafayette was voted #13. Western Kentucky received voted but were not ranked in the top 25.
Last season the Jaguars posted a 48-9 record overall and reached the championship game of the NCAA Tournament regional and were ranked #17.
Three other teams from the State of Alabama were ranked or received votes in the poll. Alabama was ranked #6, USA #20, UAB #21 and Auburn received votes but were not in the top 25.
USA will play UAB on February 6 at Jaguar Field then again on February 19 in Birmingham. The Jags will also play Alabama on April 2 in Tuscaloosa.
USA will face other preseason top 25 teams as well. They will face #23 Georgia three times (twice in Georgia tournament February 15, 16 and once in Orlando tournament on February 23), #18 ranked Baylor in the Gulfport, MS. tournament, #17 LSU on April 23 in Baton Rouge and #13 ULL April 12-13 in Lafayette.
They will also face Virginia Tech and Western Kentucky, both schools receiving votes in the poll, but not enough to rank them in the top 25.
“It is always an honor to be recognized as one of the top programs in the NCAA,” said Jaguar head coach Becky Clark. “As coaches and players, we know that all of this will ultimately be played out on the field. I definitely think the preseason list is an indicator of the type of softball that is being played in the Sun Belt; to have two teams in the Top 20 and another team receiving votes is a testament to the hard work put in by the coaches and student-athletes in our conference.”
Jaguar Field is undergoing renovations that should be ready by the time the season starts. The Softball team is also getting a new indoor batting and pitching complex, a new and larger press box, sunken dugouts and will have seating that will wrap around from dugout to dugout.
The Jags are returning seven starters from last season. Their season begins on February 6th against UAB at Jaguar Field. First pitch is set for 6pm.
Go Jags!
South Alabama Sports Weekend Roundup
Men’s Basketball
The Men’s basketball team saw their 34-27 halftime lead over Louisiana-Monroe be overtaken in route to the Warhawks 64-58 win on Saturday night at the Mitchell Center.
The Warhark defense held the Jags to 22.2% shooting from the floor in the second half and a mere 9.1% from 3-point range. The Jags only shot 32.2% for the game.
ULM shot 48% in the second half as Tylor Ongwae and Nick Collola combined for 24 points in the second half. Ongwae ended the game with a career high 19 points, 14 of them in the second half.
ULM began the second half by scoring the first seven points to tie the Jaguars at 34-all. They then used an 11-3 run midway through the second half to take their largest lead of the game at 47-43.
The Jags countered with a 6-0 run, with the last four coming from the foul line, as the Jags cut the Warhawk lead to one point, 52-51. But ULM answered with an 8-2 run to take a 60-53 lead with 2:18 left in the game.
Antoine Allen gave the Jags some life by hitting a 3-pointer with less than a minute remaining, but USA then missed their last three shots of the game.
Augustine Rubit had team highs of 18 points and 12 rebounds for his eighth double-double of the season and 50th of his career which is second in school history behind Terry Catledge’s 52 and leads all active Division I players. Aakim Saintil added 11 points, his third consecutive game in double-digits. Mychal Ammons added eight points and 12 rebounds.
Dionte Ferguson scored all seven of his points from the foul line and tied his season high with six rebounds.
“Unfortunately, offensively, we didn’t do a good job of attacking,” head coach Matthew Graves said. “We settled for a lot of 3-point shots when we had an advantage on getting the ball inside to Augustine (Rubit) and Mychal (Ammons). Our guards continued to shoot shots and you try to sub guys in and out and they keep doing the same thing. It’s very frustrating that we’re not learning from some of the mistakes that we’ve made in previous games.”
South Alabama drops to 7-12 overall and 1-5 in Sun Belt play. ULM improves to 6-7 overall and 3-2 in conference play. The Jags will travel to UT-Arlington on Saturday, January 25th for a 7:30pm tipoff.
Women’s Basketball
The Lady Jaguars picked up their third conference win of the season as Rachel Cumbo connected on all four of her foul shots in the final 18.3 seconds to seal the win over ULM 72-70 on Saturday afternoon at the Mitchell Center.
Cumbo led all scorers with 19 points and made all eight of her free-throw attempts, went 4-of-6 from the field and 3-of-4 from outside the 3-point arc.
Ronneka Robertson earned her first double-double of the seaons with 12 points and 11 rebounds while also going a perfect 6-of-6 from the foul line.
Meghan Dunn finished with 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting. Breanna Hall added another double-digit performance off of the bench with 10 points.
The Lady Jaguars improve to 5-11 overall and 3-3 in Conference play. They will travel to UT-Arlington on Saturday, January 25th for a 5pm tipoff.
Football
As the Jaguar staff are on the road recruiting, they will be getting ready for a big push this weekend as they will have a big group of players visiting over the weekend just in time for the Senior Bowl.
But there were some media reports about head coach Joey Jones being a potential ‘dark horse’ candidate for UAB’s head coaching position. The position became vacant when Garrick McGee left the program after two seasons to return to being an offensive coordinator under Bobby Petrino at his new head coaching position at Louisville.
Though many close to the program never though that Jones was ever considering the position. He was contacted, probably for the school to find out about former South Alabama defensive coordinator Bill Clark, who interviewed for the position. Clark left Mobile after the 2012 season to take the head coaching position at Jacksonville State.
Reports are swirling that Clark may be named the head coach at UAB but other names being linked to the position are former Wake Forest head coach Jim Grobe and former Clemson head coach Tommy Bowden.
In an interview with AL.com, coach Jones said, “I’m staying at South Alabama. I’m not going anywhere.” Jones coached high school and college football in Birmingham and played for the University of Alabama and the Birmingham Stallions during his football career, but has been at South Alabama for the last five seasons as he was hired to start the program at South Alabama.
As South Alabama continues to improve and make waves in the Sun Belt and the college football landscape, these reports will increase. So, Jaguar fans, don’t be caught by surprise when his name is linked to more open coaching positions in the future. The best advice comes from a British saying, “Keep Calm and Carry On.”
USA Announces Jaguar Sports Properties With Pat Greenwood As Director Of Multimedia Operations
Head coach Joey Jones speaks with sideline reporter Pat Greenwood heading into halftime against Middle Tennessee on Saturday, November 17, 2012.
On Thursday, South Alabama Athletics Director Joel Erdmann announced that the University will part ways with IMG College and will create the Jaguar Sports Properties division.
J.D. Byars was named the Director of Broadcasting/Corporate Sales Executive, Ashley Ehlert was named the unit’s Account Executive and Mike Geidlin as named the Assistant Business Manager for the group. The three began their duties earlier this month.
Local 15’s Pat Greenwood will join the staff as Director of Multimedia/Corporate Sales Executive on March 1. Greenwood has been the sideline reporter for the Jaguar football team since it began and did some color commentary for football and men’s basketball broadcasts on occasion over the last couple years.
JSP will be overseen by current Associate Athletics Director for External Affairs Travis Toth. The group will be responsible for athletic corporate and multimedia sales as well as radio and television production including game broadcasts and coaches’ shows.
“These hires reflect well-seasoned and superior professionals in their field of expertise,” Erdmann said. “The mission of Jaguar Sports Properties is to generate revenue through sponsorships which are paid directly to the department while expanding our awareness, growing our fan base and solidifying our brand. The broadcast assignments for applicable sports – including current radio personality Lee Shirvanian — will be announced later this semester. We anticipate a tremendous broadcast team promoting several sports and the department as whole using radio, television and ever-growing on-line content.”
“This is a very exciting and important time for our department,” explained Erdmann. “Approximately five years ago we entered into a partnership with IMG College which gave them the rights to manage our sponsorship and multi-media sales. That partnership was a prudent decision as working with IMG helped us in navigating the birth of an FBS football program. We deeply appreciate IMG College for that guidance and support. The decision to go in a different direction and create an internal unit was amicable in nature and primarily based on our desire to have complete control of our advertising inventory, our audio and video productions, our sales strategies and stewardship of our sponsors.”
It is expected that Lee Shirvanian will continue his work announcing baseball and basketball but the football announcing crew may change and is currently being considered. ALso Erdmann wants to add affiliate radio stations to expand reach and help increase the fanbase.
USA Defeats ULL 81-73, Ending Six Game Skid
Augustine Rubit moved into 4th place all-time with 112 blocks in his 100th start as a Jaguar. Photo by John Adams | usajaguars.com
The University of South Alabama men’s basketball team earned their first Sun Belt Conference win of the season on Thursday night 81-73. The Jags held off a late surge by Louisiana-Lafayette that saw a 15-point lead dwindle to only two points with 2:23 left in the game.
The win improved their record to 7-11 overall and 1-4 in conference play while snapping a six game losing streak.
Senior Augustine Rubit led all scorers with 21 points while shooting 7-of-10 from the floor and making all seven attempts from the foul line. He also tied a career high with five blocks which was part of a 12 block night for the Jaguar team, which tied for third in school history and a new record at the Mitchell Center.
The Jags opened a 13-point lead by scoring the final six points of the first half and continuing the trend in the second half by scoring five of the first six points of the second half. But the Rajun’ Cajuns would use a 13-5 run midway through the second half to reduce a 15-point Jaguar lead down to seven points. Another run of 11-3 would further reduce the lead to 69-67 with 2:23 left in the game.
But the Jaguars recomposed themselves and scored eight unanswered points over a 43 second span to jump out to a 77-67 lead. From there the Jags were able hold on to secure the victory.
Only one Jaguar starter failed to reach double-digits. Freshman Ken Williams scored 18 points on 3-pointers, Aakim Saintil set a new career high with 15 points. Senior Antoine Allen added 12 points.
Mychal Ammons had eight rebounds and set a new career high with five assists.
Elfrid Payton led ULL with 18 points and a game-high six assists. Shawn Long earned his eighth double-double of the year with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Kevin Brown added 14 points off the bench on 4-of-5 shooting from outside the 3-point arc.
Rubit moved into fourth place in career shot blocks with 112 as he started his 100th game in a Jaguar uniform.
The victory celebration will be short lived as the Jaguars will be preparing for Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday at 7:30pm. The game is to be televised on the Sun Belt Network (CSS/Cox Sports). Check your local listings or come out and support your Jaguars!
USA And ULL Square Off Tonight At The Mitchell Center
The South Alabama men’s basketball team look to break their six game skid and claim their first Sun Belt Conference victory tonight against Louisiana-Lafayette.
Tipoff is scheduled for 7:05pm at the Mitchell Center.
Also on Saturday the Men and Women will have a double-header against Louisiana-Monroe with the women scheduled to start at 5pm and the men scheduled for 7:30pm. They will also air on the Sun Belt Network.
Come out and support your Jaguars!
Lady Jaguars Fall To Lousiana-Lafayette 65-60
Relentless defensive pressure by Louisiana-Lafayette forced a season-high 30 turnovers by South Alabama on Wednesday as the Jags fell 65-60, for their third consecutive game and for the first time in conference play at home. This loss also broke a 10-game winning streak for the Jags against ULL.
The Ragin’ Cajuns enter the game leading the conference in both turnover margin and steals of which they had nine. Those 30 turnovers led to 27 points for the Cajuns.
After a 10-0 run over a three minute span, the Jags led ULL 46-41 with 9:23 left in the game but ULL put together another run to answer the Jaguars. In less than two minutes the Cajuns put together an 11-0 run to take a 52-46 lead with 7:31 left in the game.
The Jags would fight to the end and made it a one-possession game with 28.6 seconds left, but they could not take advantage of some late opportunities.
The Jags (4-11, 2-3 SBC) had three players in double figures led by Ronneka Robertson and Breanna Hall’s 15 points each. Robertson was 7-of-10 from the field and led the team with nine rebounds. Hall was 4-of-10 from the field with three 3-pointers and made all of her attempts from the charity stripe to set a new career-high for the junior.
Rachel Cumbo was a perfect 6-of-6 from the free throw line as she added 14 points for the Jaguars.
The rest of the Jaguar team shot just 2-of-10 from the foul line but shot 60% from the field.
ULL’s Brooklyn Arceneaux led all scorers with a career high 19 points as she was 6-of-11 from the field and 7-of-11 from the foul line. Kia Wilridge earned her first double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
The Cajuns went to the foul line 11 more times than USA and made 18 of their 31 attempts.
South Alabama will look to break their streak on Saturday when they host Louisiana-Monroe for a 5pm tip on the Sun Belt Network.
USA Basketball Both Host UL-Lafayette Wednesday, Thursday
Both the men’s and women’s basketball teams return home looking to break losing streaks.
Tonight the women will host UL-Lafayette at the Mitchell Center then Thursday night the men will try to break their six game skid against UL-Lafayette as well.
The Jaguar men have earned all six of their wins at the Mitchell Center this season. However a deeper look at the numbers shows that they have played some lower caliber teams at home. Their road schedule early in the season was full of tough challenges. But they will have to win both at home and away in order to make it into the conference tournament.
And there’s no time better than now to break one streak and start another.
The women tip off at 7:05pm Wednesday night while the men tip off at 7:05 on Thursday night.
Sun Belt Conference Reference Guide Released
On Monday the Sun Belt Conference released a University Reference Guide in order to help avoid confusion concerning its member institutions in the future.
The primary example are the two members in Louisiana, the University of Louisiana At Monroe and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, are the two primary examples.
The Sun Belt announced that it will refer to ULM as UL-Monroe on the first reference and ULM subsequently as an abbreviation. The University of Louisiana at Lafayette will be UL-Lafayette on first reference then subsequent references will be UL-L as an abbreviation.
UL-Lafayette preferred to be called Louisiana and encouraged sports announcers to drop Lafayette and just refer to them as University of Louisiana or simply Louisiana. A state senator said that they would not introduce legislation to tighten state law governing how public universities can refer to themselves, but added that ULL “just needs to do what’s right” and use their full name in all official references.
In legislation passed in 1999 that allowed the school to change it’s name also included a provision that forced them to refer their “municipal locations” for all “academic, public relations, atheltic, as well as other purposes not specified.”
Even the universities website, www.louisiana.edu simply refers to “Louisiana” and under their proper use of the University’s name, it states that ULL in an inaccurate reference. They also say that Lafayette and U of L are both inaccurate and denote other institutions. They say their athletics nickname is Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns. The formal and official name of the university is University of Louisiana At Lafayette and that UL Lafayette may be used as an abbreviation.
This clarification by the conference comes ahead of the addition of four new teams next season with two of them also causing further confusion when it comes to abberviations.
Arkansas State is regularly known as ASU however Appalachian State was regularly known as ASU in their conference and thus cannot be the same in this league. Similarly for Georgia State and Georgia Southern. Sun Belt Conference commissioner Karl Benson said that the schools were very compliant with what they would like to be called and each Sun Belt President or Chancellor approved the references.
But these changes will not require changes to logos or uniforms. The refernece guide will help keep consistency between public announcers at games as well as school’s media relations departments and teh respective media for each school.
“The conference office works for our member universities, and they are the ones that tell us how we want to be referenced,” Commissioner Benson stated. “That is what has led this process is that our member universities should be referenced as they want to be referenced regardless of history or tradition or state guidelines.”
“The universities have accepted the document and what they do internally is not subject to conference regulation,” Benson said. “We’ve sent out a document to our member universities encouraging them to adhere to the reference guide even though it may not be what they normally or historically or traditionally have referenced, but we are encouraging them to, again, take the broader pieces that let’s from a conference standpoint, a collegiate standpoint, a conference member standpoint reference our conference members as they want to be referenced.”
South Alabama Sports Weekend Roundup
Men’s Basketball
The South Alabama Men’s basketball team lost 72-60 to Arkansas State in Jonesboro, Arkansas on Saturday night for thier sixth consecutive loss. The Jags fell to 6-11 overall and 0-4 in Sun Belt play while Arkansas State improves to 10-5 overall and 3-1 in Sun Belt play.
South Alabama shot 34.5% from the floor and 28.6% from 3-point range. Freshman Aakim Saintil led the Jags in scoring with 10 points while Augustine Rubit added nine points and seven rebounds. Freshman Ken Williams also scored nine points while Mychal Ammons added eight points and seven rebounds. Freshman Isaiah Maston scored eight points. Only one Jaguar made four field goals with no other Jaguar equally or surpassing that.
The Red Wolves outrebounded the Jaguars 41-33 as USA only had five assists to go along with nine turnovers.
ASU’s Kirk Van Slyke led all scorers with 21 points and 14 rebounds with Ed Townsel added 12 points and 10 rebounds as they shot 42.6% from the floor though the Jaguars did hold them to only 25% shooting from outside the 3-point arc.
South Alabama will try to get their first conference win this week when they return to Mobile to host two-consecutive games. The first will be on Thursday evening against Louisiana-Lafayette at 7:05pm then they will host Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday at 4:05pm.
Football
South Alabama and UAB will meet for the first time on the gridiron in 2015.
The Blazers and the Jaguars were once in-state rivals when they both were in the Sun Belt Conference. They have renewed their basketball rivalry on the hardwood many times since the Blazer moved the Conference USA but they have not faced each other since South Alabama began their football program in 2009.
Former Jaguar Luis Gonzalez Eliminated From BWAA Hall Of Fame Ballot
Former Jaguar baseball player Luis Gonzalez was eliminated from the National Baseball Hall of Fame ballot on Wednesday. Photo: downtownphoenix.com
Former Jaguar baseball Star Luis Gonzalez was on the ballot for the National Baseball Hall of Fame this year. Unfortunately it will be his only appearance.
The Baseball Writers’ Association of American announced the results of their annual vote as to whom, if any, will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux and Frank Thomas were all elected to the Hall of Fame as they were named on at least 75% of the 571 ballots cast.
Gonzalez received five votes which totaled 0.9% of the ballots which is below the threshold of 5% in order to continue to be considered by the BWAA. A player can remain on the ballot for up to 15 years as long as they receive 5% of the vote annually.
Gonzalez was an All-American first baseman for the Jaguars in 1988. He set the school record for RBI’s in a season with 80, which still stands. When he left USA after three seasons he held the school career record for games, runs, doubles, and RBIs. Those marks have sence been overtaken.
Gonzalez was selected by Houston in the fourth round of the 1988 draft.
As an outfielder he spent 19 seasons in the Majors. He is most notably known for his game-winning hit in the bottom of the ninth inning in the 2001 World Series for the Arizona Diamondbacks against the New York Yankees.
In addition to the Diamondbacks, he also played for the Houston Astros, Chicago Cubs, Detroit Tigers, LA Dodgers and the Florida Marlins.
In 2,591 games in his career he hit .283 with 1,412 runs, 596 doubles, 354 home runs, 1,439 RBIs, 1,155 walks and a .479 slugging average. He was a five-time All-Star selection and led the National League in hits in 1999 with 206. He scored 100 runs in each season from 1999-2001 and drove in 100 runs each season from 1999-2003. He also hit a career high 57 home runs in 2001.
South Alabama retired his jersey and has named their hitting facility the “Luis Gonzalez Hitting Facility” in his honor.