Men’s Basketball defeats LSU in Overtime
The Jags overcame a 12 point deficit to defeat LSU in overtime in Baton Rouge on Wednesday night.
Augustine Rubit was the leading scorer for the Jags with 20, a season high. While Xavier Roberson added 19, a career high also. Antoine Lundy, another career high with 13 points. While Javier Carter had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
South Alabama’s run started in the final eight minutes of the second half after LSU took the lead by a score of 61-50. They Jags then scored seven consecutive points. The run would be ended with a field goal by LSU but the Jags would tie the game at 63 after two baskets by Lundy and another by Carter.
Rubit would give the Jags the lead with 3:01 left in the second half, it’s first lead since the first half. The teams would exchange baskets before LSU would sink two foul shots to pull ahead 67-66 with 2:13 left in the second half. Two more foul shots would extend the LSU lead to three points.
Freddie Goldstein would make one free throw with about 18 seconds left in the second half. The Jags would maintain possession after he would miss the second shot, but the ball would go out of bounds on LSU. Goldstein would then tie the game at the buzzer on a jumper sending the game into overtime tied at 69.
Carter would give the Jags the lead in overtime after sinking two foul shots. But LSU would make two foul shots to counter, but Roberson would hit two key baskets. Rubit would seal the game with a field goal with 24 seconds left in the overtime period for your final score of USA 79 – LSU 75.
South Alabama returns to the hardwood on Wednesday, November 30 when they host UAB at the Mitchell Center for a 7:05 p.m. tipoff. Come out and support your Jags!
Basketball Season tips off this weekend
South Alabama Men’s basketball team starts their season on Saturday in Starkville Mississippi against Mississippi State University. Tipoff is scheduled for 1pm.
The University of Alabama football team will be playing MSU later in the day, so tune into WNSP 105.5 at 1pm for the Jaguars basketball game, then you can tune in to ESPN at 6:45pm for kickoff of the Crimson Tide.
Unfortunately Auburn’s football game will overlap the end of the Jags basketball game since their game is scheduled to kickoff at 2:30pm in Athens Georgia and will be broadcast on CBS.
South Alabama also announced two players signing with the Men’s basketball team for next season. Antoine Allen is a 6’1″, 185 pound guard currently attending Palm Beach State Junior College. He originally signed with Miami FL and will have two years of eligibility remaining.
Delvin Dickerson is a 6’5″ 200 pound forward and currently attends Westbury Christian High School in Houston Texas. He will be a freshman next year at South Alabama.
Coach Arrow completes first weekend of practice
Coach Ronnie Arrow and his staff completed their first weekend of practice with eight new guards on the roster for the upcoming season. With that many players at that position being new, obviously they would be behind the rest of the team in learning Coach Arrows system.
Coach Arrow said it was exactly what he expected, lots of learning for the guards. “The post men know from years past what we’re doing,” Said Coach Arrow. “For the guards, it’s a whole new ballgame. We’ve only been going a couple of days but yesterday we had a good practice. They showed that they learned a lot from the first day–not everything, but that’s expected.”
However not all positions are new. Augustine Rubit returns after being named 2011 Sun Belt Conference freshman of the year to lead the post players. “Needless to say, Aug and Javier are doing well and Lundy has come back wanting to do really well this year,” Arrow said. “He’s lost a lot of weight and is moving so much better. He’s looking like the old Lundy that we recruited, going after rebounds and doing those types of things. Hersey has been a pleasant surprise, he’s showing more physicality and finishing power, which we were hoping to see. All of our post men are competing.” Arrow was talking about Javier Carter, Antoine Lundy and DeAndre Hersey.
The current game of basketball is very heavy in guard play. So the coaching staff is trying to build the team from the ground up and be ready for the season opening game on November 12.
“We’re trying not to overdose them right now,” Coach Arrow said. “We’re trying to break it down as much as possible. I’ve tried to go back to four years ago when we had a really good team and I was new, the coaching staff was new and the players didn’t know our system. When you have all new guards, that’s pretty much how it is. I’ve tried to go back and break it down like that. They don’t react the way you want because their brains are still learning and it’s keeping them from going all out, but yesterday (Sunday) I saw a lot of improvement from guys that were bewildered out there.”
The Jaguars first exhibition game is coming up on Wednesday, November 2 against Spring Hill with tip-off set for 7:05 pm.
Jags drop both road games in Florida
South Alabama started Sun Belt Conference play with a loss at Arkansas State but rebounded with a win against Middle Tennessee State in Mobile to start the new year. However the Jags road swing through the State of Florida didn’t go as well.
Last year, the Jags early season road swing through Florida saw a huge win over the University of Florida which was followed up by wins at FIU and FAU. This season, the Jags didn’t play the Gators and wound up on the losing end of both games agaist FAU and FIU.
South Alabama is a fairly young team. The only seniors are Tim Williams, Gary Redus and Raymond Sims and two juniors consist of Allyn Cooks and Antoine Lundy. But freshman Augustine Rubit has been a major contributor to the team.
South Alabama’s woes has come from outside the 3-point arc. When teams get decent looks at the basket and makes their shots, it’s quite hard to match up shot for shot. But the problems get worse when the Jags get behind and appear to have confidence problems when shooting.
The Jags have improved their free-throw shooting from the beginning of the season. Hopefully coach Ronnie Arrow can get the team back to a more even keel.
South Alabama begins a three game home stand on Saturday, January 15th when Louisiana Monroe visits. Followed by Western Kentucky on Thursday January 20th and finally Florida International on Saturday, January 22nd.
Jags Fall in Louisville 97-70
On Saturday, the Jags dropped to 2-5 on the road in Louisville, Kentucky when they took on the University of Louisville, why the Cardindals improve to 6-0. The Cardinals shot over 50% from the floor while the Jags shot much less than that to fall 97-70.
Jags sophomore Martino Brock lead the Jags in scoring with 24 points while adding 7 rebounds and a team best 4 assists. Also redshirt freshman Augustine Rubit got his third double-double of the season by scoring 15 points and tied for a game high 14 rebounds while also blocking two shots.
In addition to shooting over 50% from the floor, the Cardinals also shot over 51% from three-point range. The Jags on the other hand went 3-of-4 in the first half, but would go 2-of-12 in the second half from 3-point range.
A positive note for the game, the Jags shot over 75% from the free-throw line for the first time this year by converting 86.2%. However the Cardinals outscored the Jags on the inside 52-14.
The Jags will return to play on Sunday at the Mitchell Center when they host Houston Baptist.
Jaguar Men’s Basketball Begin Season Against Tough Competition
South Alabama has started this young season with a 2-3 record. But they have had a rough two game stretch with games against UAB and LSU.
The Jags opened the season with a win over Spring Hill College 81-53 in the Mitchell Center. But then they followed that up with a big loss in Hattiesburg against Southern Miss 93-58. Then the Jags regrouped and won against Central Michigan in overtime 82-76.
South Alabama started the game with some poor shooting but overcame it late in the first half with a 12-3 run to put the Jags down by only three at halftime.
However, the second half saw the Blazers take over the game. They started the second half with a 10-0 run with back to back 3’s. The Jags Augustine Rubit then make two foul shots followed by another run by the Blazers going 15-0 this time. This huge run by the Blazers, 25-2 in fact, put the Jags up 61-35. After that, the Blazers coasted to an 82-58 victory.
South Alabama then took on LSU in the Coors Classic at the Mitchell Center on Sunday. The first half saw LSU drain 12 of 17 from outside the 3 point line in the first half on the way to their 25 point halftime lead against the Jaguars. In the first half, the Tigers shot 66.7% from the floor and 76.9% from 3-point range in route to the 48-23 halftime lead.
LSU would stretch their lead out to 28 points with 15:10 remaining in the second half. But the Tigers could not keep the hot hand and their shots cooled off while the Jaguars fought hard to make a game of it.
While the Jags were not threatening to take the lead, the Jaguars did cut the lead to 13 with 2:50 left in the game and capped off a 15-5 run. However the Jags would only make one field goal the rest of the way and would not get closer than 12 points to the Tigers lead. Martino Brock lead the team with 15 points in the game.
With these two losses combined with the USM loss and with a trip to Tuscaloosa on Wednesday, some fans have asked the question if Coach Ronnie Arrow needs to go. I think it’s too early in the season to be calling for a coaches head in this scenerio. These first five games hardly make the season.
But some players that he has recruited have not turned out for the best. The teams APR has brought the NCAA ire upon the program. With two players leaving the team while they were ineligible, the NCAA has penalized the team by taking away 2 scholarships and restricting the teams practice hours over the course of a week to 16 instead of 20. Then combine that with the team appearing to be completely unprepared at times in the USM, UAB and LSU games and one can understand how some fans could be irate.
Coach Arrow seems to have some impressive recruits ready to come into his program. The Jags have lots of basketball left to be played this season. So lets get out to the Mitchell Center and cheer on those kids, both the Men and the Women, and show them that Jaguar Nation is behind them just as much as we were behind the football team this season.
Go Jags!
Happy Thanksgiving
From all of us here at Thunderjags, we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving. We hope everyone enjoys their time with friends and family. Don’t eat too much though!
The men’s basketball team will be back in action on Sunday when they host LSU at the Mitchell Center. Tip-off is set for 3pm.
Go Jags!
“South In Your Mouth” No More?
Athletic Director Joey Erdmann decided that the cheerleaders, dance team and pep band cannot lead the crowd in their traditional “USA, South In Your Mouth” chants after a successful Jag free throw. He cited the University’s intent to move away from potentially “politically incorrect” statements.
The chant has been used in the Mitchell Center for over a decade. It has even been featured in several SBC Tournaments, nationally televised games on ESPN and more regionally televised games on Comcast SportsNet. But now the University feels that the chant is not a proper representation of South Alabama Spirit.
The USA Outlaws was told by USA Marketing Director Travis Toth that they should consider new strategies and chants. They even had their latest T-Shirt design denied by the University because it featured the slogan on the back.
But in a good sign, the move has already been met with harsh resistence. Fans and students both have been making their voices clear that they do not share the the University’s view on the subject.
Can you come up with a better chant? Do you want to come up with another chant? We will have to wait and see what the cheerleaders come up with and if they intend to try to chant over the fans and students who insist on chanting “South In Your Mouth” in defiance.
Madison Salter, representative of the Outlaws mentioned, “We’ve been asked to move on but we can’t make anyone change overnight.” I’m sure the administration has implied some sort of punishment to the student organization if they defiantly chant the traditional saying. However, I hope that is not the case.
The University of Alabama prohibited the band from leading the crowd in their traditionally victory song, “Rammer, Jammer” several years ago. However they changed their mind after defiant fans and students continued to sing the song. Now it is a fixture at Alabama victories.
So it remains possible that “South In Your Mouth” could make a comeback. It’s more “politically correct” than ‘Rammer, Jammer” is in my book, and I consider myself an Alabama fan.
South Alabama Men’s Basketball Program Lose Scholarships, Practice Time
It was announced a couple weeks ago that the South Alabama basketball program will be punished for not meeting the NCAA mandatory minimum academic progress. But USA was not the only school to get punished.
The Jags will lose two scholarships which reduces them from 13 scholarships to 11 scholarships. Additionally, it’s weekly practice time will be cut from 20 hours per week to 16 hours per week.
The NCAA mandatory minimum score is 925 on the Academic Progress Rate while the men’s basketball program only managed an 888 score, the men’s tennis team scored a 896. Both were sanctioned. Athletic Director Joel Erdmann said that the penalty is what is referred to as “phase-two historical penalty.”
UAB was the other program in the state that faced similar problems as USA. All 21 programs at Alabama scored above minimum, while the football team scored a 957 which is well above the Division-I average of 944. The Alabama men’s basketball team raised its score 44 points to 966, which was the only sport that has failed to reach the minimum in the last three years.
The men’s basketball program at Auburn was on shaky ground with a 916, but did not face penalties because no ineligible players left the program during the last year. The Jags, if you remember, had two players leave the program due to ineligibility. LaShun Watson and Raymond Sim were both ineligible for the second half of the basketball season due to academics.
The formula for calculating this can be complex. Programs with an APR under 925, generally, cannot replace scholarships held by a student-athlete who left the program while academically ineligible in the prior academic year. Then the NCAA can add to the penalties for chronically under performing programs. Such as what USA faced, limits on practice time, but they can also include a ban on postseason play.
The sanctions faced by the UAB basketball program, which scored below 900 for three consecutive years, but the NCAA agreed to waive the ban after UAB presented an improvement plan. Their plan included stringent admissions standards and closer supervision by the administration.
Of the ten teams the NCAA said were subject to postseason bans, only Portland State men’s basketball team will be barred from postseason play. UAB football and Jacksonville State men’s basketball received full or conditional waivers.
April 12th Vanguard Sports Poll
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