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!
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.
Lady Jags vs Troy Tonight! Wear Pink and get a free ticket!
Lady Jags vs Troy in the Pink Zone
The South Alabama Women’s Basketball Team will be in action Wednesday, February 9 at the Mitchell Center. Tip-off is set for 7:05 p.m. versus the Trojans of Troy University. This game will be the Pink Zone game, as fans are encouraged to wear pink for breast cancer awareness. Anyone wearing pink to the game will receive a free ticket to the game. Join us early, between 6-7 p.m., where Corn Dogs and Pepsi are for a dollar! Come out and support Coach Rick Pietri and the Jaguars Wednesday night in the Mitchell Center.
Go Jags!
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.