Men’s BBall To Play In Coaches Vs Cancer; Coach Pietri Pleased With Beginning Of Women’s Practices
Some dates have been set for the South Alabama men’s basketball team. The Jags will be participating in the 2012 Coaches vs. Cancer Classic as announced by the National Association of Basketball Coaches and American Cancer Society announced this week.
The four regional hosts will be BYU, Florida State, Notre Dame and Saint Joesph’s beginning on November 9. The championship rounds will be held on November 16-17 in Brooklyn, N.Y.
The Jags will open the season at regional host Florida State on November 9. They will then host William Carey before traveling to Atlanta for three sub-regional games where they will face Tennessee State on November 19th at 3pm CST. They will then face Monmouth on November 20th at 3pm CST and finally the Jags will take on Georgia State to close out the three-day tournament on November 21st at 2pm CST.
Tennessee State returns four starters from last season where they won 20 games and finished second in the Ohio Valley Conference. Monmouth had a 12-20 record last season but went 10-8 in the Northeast Conference. Georgia State went 22-12 last season but lost four starters and seven letterwinners.
Lady Jaguars
Coach Rick Pietri is pleased with the progress the Lady Jaguar basketball team has done so far as they have begun practices for the 2012-2013 season.
“I think our first two practices have been good,” Pietri said. “It appears that from top to bottom this group is in good shape from a conditioning standpoint. I believe for the first time since I have been here, we were able to go five-on-five in our closing segments the other day. We’ve shown some promise in terms of things that we could be capable of doing on the offensive end of the floor. We haven’t even talked about defense yet as a team, but we’ll do that towards the end of the week. I do like what I’ve seen from both the veterans and newcomers and after two days of practice, I’m encouraged, but of course there’s a long way to go.”
Men’s Basketball Announces 2012-2013 Schedule
South Alabama Men’s Basketball released their 2012-2013 season schedule on Tuesday. In addition to the Sun Belt schedule, they have some good non-conference games.
The Jags will open with a game at Florida State on November 9 before returning home to face William Carey on November 14.
They will then have the Coaches vs Cancer Classic in Atlanta, Georgia on November 19-21. After a two game road trip to FAU and FIU, they return home to host New Mexico State on December 4. They then travel to Birmingham to face UAB on December 8. Then return back home to Mobile to face Texas A&M-Corpus Christi before leaping fully into the Sun Belt Conference schedule.
The Sun Belt conference Tournament will be held March 8 – 11 in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
View the full schedule here.
Men’s Basketball Adds Two Transfers
South Alabama Men’s Basketball team picked up two late transfers. Jeremy Jones and Dionte Ferguson have enrolled at South Alabama and will join the basketball program head basketball coach Ronnie Arrow announced on Wednesday.
Since both transfer from Division I schools, they will have to sit out the 2012-2013 season and will be eligibile the next season.
Jones transfers to USA from Kansas State, where he played for one season and will have one year of eligibility remaining. He is a 6’2″ guard from Chicago. He averaged 3.1 points in 20 games last season for Kansas State.
As a member of Seward County Community College in 2010-2011, Jones led them to a 27-7 record and a runner-up finish in the Region VI tournament. He averaged 18.6 points and 4.5 assists in 34 games to lead the team. He was honored as part of the Third Team NJCAA All-American and First Team All-Region VI honors.
“Jeremy was a very good player at Seward and we recruited him pretty hard,” head coach Ronnie Arrow stated. “He decided he wanted to go to a large school like Kansas State, but I don’t think he would have been as interested in us now if we didn’t recruit him so hard. He only has one year left so he can sit this year, practice with us every day and learn our system. Next year, we graduate we three players so it’s a good time for a player his size to come here.”
Ferguson transfers from Morehead State after two seasons and will have two seasons of eligibility left. Ferguson, a native of Prattville, stands 6’7″ tall. He played in 37 games in two seasons at Morehead State and averaged 1.2 points per game. “After talking with Morehead State’s coaching staff, Dionte is a player they would like to have stayed, but he wanted to get closer to home,” Arrow said. “He’s a strong player that can get physical. He’s mostly a ‘4’ player that can go outside, but he’s an athlete and strong. We feel like, after spending a year getting to know our system, he has a really good chance of coming in and playing a lot the next two years.”
Jags Basketball Split First Two Games, Final Game Of Tour Tonight
South Alabama basketball got a head start on the season this week as they began their Canadian exhibition tour.
The Jags first game was against Windsor in Ontario, Canada. It took a big fourth-quarter rally in order for the Jags to send the game into overtime. But the Jags were outscored 8-6 in the overtime period to fall 82-80.
Junior Augustine Rubit led all players with 27 points and 11 rebounds for a double-double. Mychal Ammons also had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Seniors Javier Carter and Freddie Goldstein scored in double digits with 17 and 11 respectively.
“I thought we came out and played good early in the first four or five minutes but we let them get too far ahead,” said Jaguar Men’s head basketball coach Ronnie Arrow. “We had a great comeback but we just couldn’t finish it out. Hopefully we learned from it, which is what this is all about. Naturally we want to win, but I think this did us some good. We saw some things that we need to work on. Tomorrow night we’ll start a completely different bunch—we’ll probably play the two new inside guys a lot more than the ones back from last year and give them a chance to get some minutes.”
“We shot 38 percent (from the floor) in the first half, that was the start of it, and then we didn’t guard on top of it and that’s how we got down so much,” Arrow said.
The Jags entered the fourth quarter trailing 60-46 as the Jags were outpaced 26-17 in the third quarter.
Tuesday night the Jags took on Western (Ontario) University in London, Ontario, Canada. The Jags busted the game wide open with a 21-2 run in the third quarter as they ran away with a 68-47 win.
South Alabama was led by senior Xavier Roberson who scored a game-high 15 points off the bench. He shot 6-for-9 from the floor and 2-for4 from three point range and added three assists. Junior Augustine Rubit also came off the bench to add 11 points and two steals.
Coach Arrow started a completely different starting lineup from Monday nights loss. The new lineup came out of the gates quickly with a 5-1 run and used a 16-3 run to build a 21-11 lead by the end of the first quarter. Western got within five points in the second quarter but the Jags tightened up the defense. Western missed their first five shots of the second half and went 1-for-14 from the floor with six turnovers in the third quarter.
“I thought tonight we really got out and played hard,” said Jaguar Men’s head basketball coach Ronnie Arrow. “We had some guys that were hurt last night and didn’t play and they really helped us tonight. I thought our defense really helped us score.”
“Our effort defensively tonight was good,” he continued. “We practice that good defense leads to offense. I was telling our guys that I hope they understand that tonight because I thought this team had some good shooters and were quicker overall, and we used that defense tonight to take out some good shooters out of their range.”
The Jags will close out their trip won Thursday night at 6pm CDT.
Jaguar Men’s Basketball To Hold Public Scrimmage On Friday
The USA Men’s Basketball team will hold a public intrasquad scrimmage on Friday afternoon. The scrimmage will be held at the Striplin Practice Facility next to the Mitchell Center.
The scrimmage will begin at 4pm.
This is the teams final prep before they begin a preseason exhibition tour through Canada. They are scheduled to play three games next week against Canadian universities.
Go Jags!
Jags Basketball Prepping For Canadian Tour
A Frustrated Coach Arrow sheds his coat.
The Jaguar basketball team is gearing up for its summer exhibition tour through Canada. While preparing for this trip, Coach Arrow knew a few things must be addressed from last season. Last year’s Men’s basketball team ranked near the bottom of the SBC in the assist/turnover ratio and in turnover margin.
But with the experience of returning seniors Trey Anderson and Wendell Wright to help steer their new teammates Dre Connor and Barrington Stevens, Coach Arrow believes this team will be better. Anderson finished sixth in the conference in assists per game.
Coach Arrow has plans to help improve ball security. He is utilizing basic drills with high-pressure, game-like conditions with pressing defensive intensity to help ready them for game time.
“It doesn’t do you any good to dribble and pass with nobody on you—you have to do it with ‘heat’ on you to be able to fully develop those skills,” Arrow said. “We’ve tried to put as much pressure on those guards as we can. Today we’ll start working on our presses and working full court, which will enable them to not only do it in half-court situations, but in full court, with double teams and making decisions in the full 94 feet.”
Connor is a JuCo transfer while Stevens is a freshman. The third new member of the backcourt is Junior transfer Antoine Allen. He is formerly from Miami and will give the Jags an additional outside shot threat. “Antoine is further ahead than the other two guards,” Arrow commented. “I think a lot of it has to do with strength. He’s a lot stronger than they are and he’s able to maneuver and get open better because of that strength factor. He’s played at a higher level than they did at Miami. All of those things combined have allowed him to be further ahead than those two.”
The Jags will continue to work throughout the week before opening their exhibition tour on August 13 against Windsor.
Sun Belt Championship Men’s Basketball Bracket Set
The Seeds have been set for the Sun Belt Tournament that will be held in Hot Springs Arkansas March 3-6.
1. Middle Tennesse (14-2)
2. UALR (11-5)
3. Denver (11-5)
4. UL-Lafayette (10-6)
5. North Texas (9-7)
6. South Alabama (8-8)
7. Western Kentucky (7-9)
8. Florida Atlantic (7-9)
9. Arkansas State (8-10)
10. Florida International (5-11)
11. Troy (5-11)
The matchups for Saturday, March 4 are:
Game 1: #6 South Alabama vs #11 Troy
Game 2: #8 FAU vs #9 ASU
Game 3: #7 WKU vs #10 FIU
Sunday, March 4
Game 4: #1 MTSU vs Winner of Game 2
Game 5: #4 ULL vs #5 North Texas
Game 6: #2 UALR vs Winner of Game 3
Game 7: #3 Denver vs Winner of Game 1
Monday, March 5
Game 8: Game 4 Winner vs Game 5 Winner
Game 9: Game 6 Winner vs Game 7 Winner
Tuesday, March 6
Championship game, Game 8 Winner vs Game 9 Winner
Jags host North Texas on Thursday; Doubleheader on Saturday
Come out to The Mitch for South Alabama Men’s Basketball vs. North Texas Thursday @ 7:05 PM and enjoy $1 Hot Dogs from 6-7 PM.
The Jags dropped their first game of the Sun Belt schedule on New Years Eve when they had a troublesome first half in Murfreesboro, TN against Middle Tennessee State. MTSU is 13-2 on the season and 2-0 in the Sun Belt which is first place in the eastern division and overall in the conference. Arkansas-Little Rock leads the western division with a 2-0 Sun Belt record but an overall record of 5-11 on the season.
The South Alabama Men’s Basketball Team will host the North Texas Mean Green Thursday, January 5th at the Mitchell Center. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. Tickets start at $5. While you’re there, take advantage of $1 Hot Dogs from 6-7 p.m. during the pre-game.
Come out and support Head Coach Ronnie Arrow, Sun Belt Conference Pre-Season Player of the Year Augustine Rubit, and the Jaguars in the first home Sun Belt Conference game of the 2011-12 season.
Saturday, January 7th is $1 Day…all tickets in the upper level are only $1…Hot dogs and Pepsi’s are also $1 all day. The Jaguars will play Denver University in a doubleheader with the Lady Jags tip-off at 1 p.m. and the Men’s team will tip-off at 3:30 p.m. The Men’s game will be televised live on CSS so come out with your facepaint and signs.
Tickets are available in advance at the south side ticket office inside the Mitchell Center Monday through Friday between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. You may also purchase tickets at any walk up ticket window the day / night of the game. Tickets start at $5. For more information you can call 461-1USA or visit www.usajaguars.com.
Upcoming Home Basketball Games:
Thursday, January 5
South Alabama Men’s Basketball vs. North Texas @ 7:05 p.m.
Saturday, January 7 (Doubleheader)
$1 Day…All upper level seats are $1 for this doubleheader…$1 Hot Dogs and Pepsis all day too!
South Alabama Women’s Basketball vs. Denver @ 1 p.m.
South Alabama Men’s Basketball vs. Denver @ 3:30 p.m.
USA Men’s Basketball vs. Alcorn State Sunday @ 3:05 PM
South Alabama Men’s Basketball vs. Alcorn State Sunday @ 3:05 PM!
The South Alabama Men’s Basketball Team will host the Braves of Alcorn State Sunday, December 11th at the Mitchell Center. Tip-off is scheduled at 3:05 p.m. Tickets start at $5. Take advantage of $1 Hot Dogs from 2-3 p.m. Come out and support Head Coach Ronnie Arrow, Sun Belt Conference Pre-Season Player of the Year Augustine Rubit, and the Jaguars as they prepare for conference play.
You may purchase tickets at any walk up ticket window today. Tickets start at $5. For more information you can call 461-1USA or visit www.usajaguars.com.
Upcoming Home Basketball Games:
Saturday, December 10 at the Mitchell Center
South Alabama Women’s Basketball vs. Talladega @ 7:05 p.m.
Sunday, December 11 at the Mitchell Center
South Alabama Men’s Basketball vs. Alcorn State @ 3:05 p.m.
Monday, December 19 at the Mitchell Center
South Alabama Men’s Basketball vs. Georgia Southern @ 7:05 p.m.
Go Jags!
Jags host Southern Miss
South Alabama Basketball Doubleheader Wednesday @ 5:05 PM!
The South Alabama Men’s Basketball Team will host the Southern Miss Golden Eagles Wednesday night, December 7th at the Mitchell Center in the second game of a doubleheader. Tip-off for the men’s game will be 30 minutes following the conclusion of the Lady Jags versus the Spring Hill College Badgers scheduled at 5:05 p.m. Tickets start at $5 and one ticket is good for both games. Take advantage of $1 Hot Dogs from 4-7 p.m. Come out and support Head Coach Ronnie Arrow, Sun Belt Conference Pre-Season Player of the Year Augustine Rubit, and the Jaguars as they go for four wins in a row.
You may purchase your tickets in advance at the south side Ticket Office inside the Mitchell Center Monday through Friday between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. You may also purchase tickets at any walk up ticket window the day / night of the game. Tickets start at $5. One $5 ticket is good for both games. For more information you can call 461-1USA or visit www.usajaguars.com.
Upcoming Home Basketball Games:
Wednesday, December 7 at the Mitchell Center
South Alabama Women’s Basketball vs. Spring Hill College @ 5:05 p.m.
South Alabama Men’s Basketball vs. Southern Miss @ 7:05 p.m.
Saturday, December 10 at the Mitchell Center
South Alabama Women’s Basketball vs. Talladega @ 7:05 p.m.
Sunday, December 11 at the Mitchell Center
South Alabama Men’s Basketball vs. Alcorn State @ 3:05 p.m.
Monday, December 19 at the Mitchell Center
South Alabama Men’s Basketball vs. Georgia Southern @ 7:05 p.m.
Go Jags!