South Alabama DC Hired By Georgia
Defensive coordinator Kevin Sherrer coaching the defense on the sidelines during one of the Jaguars home games. Sherrer leaves South Alabama after one season to join his friend and new Georgia defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt’s staff.
South Alabama head football coach Joey Jones will have to fill the defensive coordinator position for the second consecutive season as first-year defensive coordinator Kevin Sherrer was hired away by the University of Georgia.
Sherrer, 40, joins newly hired Georgia defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt to coach on the defensive side of the ball. Sherrer coached the defensive backs at USA, but will likely coach either linebackers or defensive line at Georgia as Pruitt is expected to coach the secondary.
This is not a surprise to many as Sherrer and Pruitt have long had ties to each other. They both played at the University of Alabama, coached together at Hoover High School and both worked at Alabama in recent years.
This past season under Sherrer, the Jaguar defense ranked first in the Sun Belt in sacks (38), 2nd in scoring defense (25.2) and total defense (384.3) and tied for fourth in interceptions (11). The Jaguar defense ranked 50th in the nation in total defense, just five spots behind the Bulldogs.
This news comes just two weeks before National Signing Day, when high school players can sign their National Letter-of-Intents for the school of their choice.
Not necessarily related though, was the news that Shaquille Jones, a 6’2″ 165-pound defensive back from Palm Bay, FL., flipped his verbal commitment from South Alabama to the University of Louisville. He becomes the first verbal commitment to new UL head coach Bobby Petrino.
The secondary has been a position where the Jaguar coaching staff has focused a lot of their recruiting effort over the past year.
Other defensive commitments have reaffirmed their commitment to South Alabama via social media.
The timeline for the hire is a bit up in the air right now. With two weeks until National Signing Day, the staff will be focused on the recruiting trail. However, Jones would probably want to fill the position sooner rather than later and he has an advantage that just a year ago he was in the same position looking for a Defensive Coordinator. He probably has a few names already in mind from the last search along with new names from the last year.
One thing we know from experience is Coach Jones has hired great coaches each time there was an opening.
Former USA DC Bill Clark To Be Announced Head Coach At UAB
Former defensive coordinator Bill Clark working with Jake Johnson and the linebackers during individual drills during preseason camp in 2012.
Former South Alabama defensive coordinator, who left the Jaguars after the 2012 season to take over the head coaching position at Jacksonville State University, has reportedly signed a contract to become University of Alabama at Birmingham’s new head football coach.
Clark also officially let Jacksonville State know on Tuesday that he was leaving, he met with the team at 6pm to announced to them that he was leaving and JSU then announced his resignation and quickly filled his position.
UAB has not officially announced Clark, but a press conference is scheduled for 3pm on Wednesday in the Green and Gold room at Bartow Arena that will be open to the public.
Garrick McGee resigned after two seasons at UAB to go to Louisville to serve as offensive coordinator under head coach Bobby Petrino, whom he also served the same position under at Arkansas prior to accepting the head coaching position at UAB.
Clark, 45, led JSU to an 11-4 record in his first season as the head coach and made it to the FCS quarterfinals. That set an Ohio Valley Conference record for wins and tied a school record for wins by a first year coach.
JSU also set 49 school records, 13 OVC records and three NCAA records during the season. They defeated Samford and McNeese State to earn their first-ever playoff wins at the Division I level.
Clark was the offensive coordinator for four seasons at South Alabama and the Jaguars finished second in the Sun Belt Conference in total defense in 2012, their first season playing in the conference and their first season as an FBS team.
South Alabama and UAB recently announced a home-and-home series between the two in-state schools. The first game will be in 2015 in Birmingham and the second game will be in Mobile.
Jacksonville State quickly announced that offensive coordinator John Grass will assume the head coaching position with the departure of Clark. He served as assistant head coach and offensive coordinator in 2013. Under his tutalidge, the Gamecocks offense set numerous school, conference and national records.
Grass graduated from JSU in 1990 and joined Clark’s staff after 17 years as a head coach at the high school level for over 17 years. His career record was 122-61.
Grass will be formally announced on Thursday.
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.”
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.
Arkansas State Defeats Ball State 23-20, Sun Belt Goes 2-0 In Bowl Games
Arkansas State claims their second consecutive GoDaddy Bowl win in dramatic fashion as the Sun Belt Conference won both of their bowl games this post-season.
Arkansas State led 16-13 before Ball State scored a touchdown with 1:33 left in the game to take a 20-16 lead over the Red Wolves. R.J. Fleming returned the ensuing kickoff to the Red Wolves’ 41 yard line. On the third play of the drive, Fredi Knighten found J.D. McKissic for a 26-yard strike to the Ball State 19 yard line. Then two plays later Knighten found Allen Muse open in the end zone for a 13 yard touchdown to give Arkansas State a 23-20 lead.
Ball State started on their own 36 yard line with all three of their time outs. They got to the Red Wolves’ 46 yard line with six seconds left in the game. Ball State quarterback Keith Wenning connected with Willie Snead for a 10 yard gain to the ASU 36 yard line with two seconds left in the game. However the Red Wolves would be penalized for a late hit out of bounds to move the Cardinals 15 yards closer to the ASU 21 yard line.
Ball State then sent on their field goal kicker, Scot Secor, to attempt a game-tying 38 yard field goal, but the Arkansas State’s Ryan Carrethers sped around the corner and blocked the kick to preserve the win for Arkansas State.
“I just want to say that it takes special, special young men to do what they have done,” Arkansas State interim head coach John Thompson said after the game. “And to do what they did tonight, that was an example of the kind of people they are. They’re fighters, and they overcame, and they’re people that I’ve got great respect for.”
Arkansas State has hired their third coach in the last three seasons as each of the previous head coaches have spent one season with ASU and was offered higher-profile positions. Hugh Freeze spent one season there before becoming the head coach at Ole Miss. Gus Malzahn was there last season before accepting the head coaching position at Auburn. Bryan Harsin was named the head coach at Boise State University on December 13th.
Blake Anderson was named the new head coach on December 19, he was the offensive coordinator for Larry Fedora at North Carolina and Southern Miss before that. His contract is for five years for $700,000 per with a $3 million buyout for the first two years.
Louisiana-Lafayette defeated Tulane 24-21 in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl on December 21 in the Sun Belt’s only other bowl appearance this bowl season.
Jones To Begin Search For New WR Coach Friday
South Alabama head football coach Joey Jones told AL.com that he will formally begin the search for a new wide receivers coach on Friday. Jones is replacing Jerry Mack who accepted the head coaching position at North Carolina Central University after coaching the wide receivers at USA for the last two seasons.
“Really I haven’t talked to anybody, although I’ve had several inquiries,” Jones was quoted by AL.com. “I’m going to deal with it starting Friday. I’m starting to set up some interviews and I’m making a few calls. … I’ve got about four of five names, guys that I like, that I’m going to pursue.”
Currently he does not anticipate any other changes to the coaching staff before next season, though he cautioned that that could always change quickly.
Jones also announced that spring practice will begin on March 10 and will go for four week and end on April 5. In prior seasons the team would begin in mid-to-late February and would take time off in the middle of drills for spring break. This season they decided to wait until after spring break to being practice.
The four Junior College signees are expected to enroll prior to the beginning of the semester and would be eligible to participate in spring practice.
Two of the signees were All-America selections: Jimmie Gipson III (DE/OLB) from East Mississippi CC and Braedon Bowman (TE) from Scottsdale AZ CC. They also signed Nigel Green (S) from Mississippi Gulf Coast CC and Demaris Rancifer (LB) from Pearl River CC.
Louisiana-Lafayette and Tulane, both teams the Jaguars faced this past season, played in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl where the Ragin’ Cajun’s defeated the Green Wave 24-21 in what Jaguar fans referred to as the “Lost to South Alabama Bowl”.
The only other team to receive a bowl invite from the Sun Belt, Arkansas State, will play on Sunday at Ladd-Peebles stadium in the GoDaddy.com Bowl against Ball State.
The Jags, though they were bowl eligible in their first season of eligibilty, were not extended a bowl invite. The Jags lost to the Red Wolves 17-16 in Mobile but defeated Louiana-Lafayette in the regular season finale to allow Arkansas State claim a share of the Conference championship.
Two Arkansas State players said they were very impressed at how the Jags played this season. Also ASU fans also reached out Jaguar fans to come to the bowl game and join them in their tailgating festivities on Sunday, January 5.
South Alabama Sports Weekend Roundup
Football
Recruiting has been heating up but with a dead-period between now and January 3. During the dead period coaches can call recruits, but they cannot meet with players on university campus nor anywhere else.
Coach Jones will be looking at replacements for former wide receivers coach Jerry Mack, who accepted the head coaching position with North Carolina Central University last week.
Men’s Basketball
The South Alabama men’s basketball team traveled to North Little Rock, Arkansas to face the University of Arkansas on Saturday night. The Jags were down by 12 and cut their deficit to three midway through the second half, but Arkansas went on a 6-0 run to reclaim control and win 72-60.
The loss drops the Jags back to .500 on the season at 6-6 while the Razorbacks improve to 12-2 on the season.
Senior Antoine Allen scored a game high 21 points for the Jaguars as he converted three 3-pointers and 13 of them coming in the second half.
Junior Mychal Ammons added 14 points and six rebounds while Senior Augustine Rubit was held to a season low eight points but his 10 rebounds allowed him to surpass the 1,000 career rebound mark and is only two shy of a new Sun Belt Conference career record.
The Razorbacks had four score in double-digits. Bobby Portis scored 15, with 12 of them coming in the first half. Rashad Madden added 12 with eight of them coming in the second half. Michael Aualls and Alandise Harris added 11 and 10 points respectively.
The Jags are 0-5 on the road or in neutral site games while they are 6-1 at home. A season high 20 turnovers complicated the game for the Jaguars.
After a break for Christmas the Jags will travel to Las Cruces, New Mexico to face New Mexico State on Saturday, December 28 at 8pm CST.
Women’s Basketball
The Lady Jags traveled to Winston-Salem, North Carolina to face the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest on Friday evening.
The Jags fell 92-66 as a pair of Demon Deacons combined to score 51 points. Derica Hamby led the way with 31 points and 11 rebounds for her ninth double-double of the season and both were game-highs. She was 12-of-20 from the floor while added four assists and four steals.
Chelsea Douglas added 20 points on 7-of-19 shooting with five assists and four steals.
As a team, Wake Forest forced 25 Jaguar turnovers and had 15 steals. They dominated the paint with a 50-18 scoring advantage as well as points off turnovers with a 31-14 advantage. They also dominated the glass with a rebounding advantage of 51-28 with 24 of them being offensive rebounds.
Meghan Dunn led USA with 17 points, all in the second half, as she went 6-of-11 from the floor and went 5-of-8 from three-point range. Ronneka Robertson added 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting. Jennifer Johnson was just short of a double-double with nine points and nine rebounds with a career high four blocked shots.
The Lady Jags, who are now 2-8 on the season, will break for Christmas and will return to action on January 1 when they begin their Sun Belt Schedule by hosting Western Kentucky at the Mitchell Center.
Men’s Tennis
The South Alabama men’s tennis team released their 2014 spring schedule. It features a six-match home stand and two tournaments. They begin their season with Florida A&M and Florida State in Tallahassee. They could also face two ranked teams in the final three home matches of the season.
The conference tournament will be in New Orleans on April 18-20. Their full schedule can be found here.
Wide Receivers Coach Jerry Mack Accepts Head Coaching Position at NC Central University
Wide Receivers coach Jerry Mack was named the head football coach at North Carolina Central University. | WTVD-TV http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd
Former South Alabama assistant coach Jerry Mack has accepted the head coaching position at North Carolina State. He becomes the 22nd head coach in NCCU history and his first head coaching position.
He replaces interim head coach Dwayne Foster who led the Eagles to a 5-7 record after former head coach Henry Frazier III was fired in August after allegedly violating the terms of a domestic voilence order. Mack just finished his second season as the wide receivers coach at South Alabama.
Mack, 33, played wide receiver at Jackson State and Arkansas State. He was an assistant coach at Delta State, Jackson State, Central Arkansas, Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Memphis before coming to Mobile. He also had three internships in the NFL with the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills.
This is the second Jaguar assistant coach to accept a FCS head coaching position in the last two seasons. Former defensive coordinator Bill Clark was named head coach at Jacksonville State University last year.
Good luck coach Mack!
Four JuCo Players Sign With USA
The University of South Alabama head football coach Joey Jones announced that four junior college transfers have signed on to play football.
Of the four, two of them were named first-team National Junior College Athletic Association All-Americans this fall. They signed National Letter-of-Intents on Wednesday.
Braedon Bowman, Jimmie Gipson III, Nigel Green and Demarius Rancifer will all enroll prior to the start of the spring semester and will all have two years of eligibility. Three of the four come from programs that finished in the top 10 of the final NJCAA Top 10 poll including one from JuCo National Champion East Mississippi CC.
Bowman, a 6’4″ 210-pound tight end from Mesa, AZ, was named a first-team All-American as well as a first-team All-Western States Football League and All-Arizona Community College Athletic Conference. He helped Scottsdale (AZ) CC to a 10-1 record on the season and ranked 4th in the final NJCAA poll. He recorded team-high totals with 66 receptions for 1,030 yards, 13 touchdowns and 78 points as his team won the WSFL title and the Valley of the Sun Bowl after falling in their first game of the season. Bowman caught a season-best nine passes for 142 yards and matched his reception total in the WSFL championship contest against Mesa (AZ) CC. He also had three other games where he went over 100 yards receiving.
Gipson III, a 6′ 255-pound defensive end/outside linebacker is a native of Coldwater, MS, was also chosen a first-team All-American after leading the NJCAA with 17 sacks and helping EMCC to a national title. They defeated previously top-ranked Georgia Military JC 52-32 in the Mississippi Bowl to finish the season 12-0. He was a first-team All-Region selection as he totaled 65 tackles, 24 of them for a loss. He was named his teams Defensive MVP in the national championship as he tallied eight tackles including four sacks. He was also named the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges (MACJC) North Division Defesnive Line MVP. During his senior season in high school, he helped his team go 15-0 to win the state 6A Championship.
Green, a 6’1″ 160-pound safety, was credited with 83 tackles in two seasons at Mississippi Gulf Coast CC as they went 17-4 during those two seasons. They finished ninth in the final NJCAA poll with an 8-2 record after finishing the 2012 season 9-2 an finishing ranked 6th in the final poll. He posted 41 total tackles as a sophomore.
Rancifer, a 6’4″ 205-pound inside linebacker from Pensacola, FL., had a team-high 66 tackles including eight tackles for loss to earn his first All-State South Division. He spent two years at Kentucky, sitting out as a redshirt before playing in 11 games in 2012.
South Alabama finished tied for third in the Sun Belt Conference standings, had 10 student-athletes earning all-conference recognition and head coach Joey Jones was named the Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year.
“As we neared the end of the season, we realized we needed some individuals to replace our outside linebacker/defensive line players,” stated Jones. “We always need to recruit really good guys in the secondary, they are very hard to find, and we needed another tight end because Wes [Saxton] is going to be a senior and we wanted someone to come in and help with two tight-end sets who will also be back the following year.”
South Alabama Sports Weekend Roundup
Women’s Basketball
Senior Olivia Mohler against Jackson State during the 2012 season.
South Alabama has a familiar face returning, but in a different capacity.
Olivia Mohler, former Jaguar volleyball standout, has returned to South Alabama but will be joining the Jaguar basketball squad.
She decided to play volleyball over basketball at USA and her volleyball eligibility expired after the 2011-2012 season. She was then offered the opportunity to play a season of basketball for the Lady Jaguars but she chose to persue a professional volleyball career overseas. However, when she failed to get her visa in time and had to return home, the opportunity resurfaced when she returned to USA to complete her work for her degree.
On Friday, she joined the lady Jags for her first basketball practice since high school.
First head Jaguar head coach Terry Fowler noticed her 6’2″ height coupled with her athleticism and competitive nature was a perfect fit for the basketball team.
The Lady Jaguars are on a two-game winning streak as they are set to host Ole Miss on Monday night at the Mitchell Center. She may see her first minutes of playing time then with only three practices under her belt.
“When the volleyball didn’t work out (overseas) and I came back, I talked to the coaches again and I decided to give it a shot,” Mohler told AL.com. “I’ve always loved the sport. They had said that I could contribute if I worked hard. I wanted to see if that opportunity was still there and it was. I guess it depends on how hard I work (how quickly she appears in a game). Hopefully, if I continue to work hard the coaches have said I can definitely contribute to the team the rest of the season.
“As far as volleyball and basketball go, as far as the level of play, playing volleyball and basketball is pretty much the same competition-wise, but the sports really don’t have a lot in common. There’s a lot more jumping in volleyball than basketball but the conditioning I’ve been doing is a whole lot different than what I’ve done in past years. … My basketball knowledge, just getting that back, I’ve been telling the coaches I’m working hard to get that back. I’m going to give it everything I’ve got. They are giving me the opportunity to play and I’m going to do everything I can for them. Hopefully my basketball knowledge will come back real quick.”
“I missed it a lot more than I thought I would, actually,” Mohler continued with AL.com. “It was kind of an easier decision to make when I was in high school. My dad and my brother both played basketball in college (at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College) and they were always pushing (me) toward basketball. Every year that I played volleyball I found myself watching (basketball) more and playing it more because I missed it a lot. I guess because it is in the family and it was hard because it was something I didn’t completely stop doing.”
Welcome back Olivia!
Men’s Basketball
Augustine Rubit was named to the All-SBC First Team and also SBC Preseason Player of the Year. Photo by John Adams | usajaguars.com
Augustine Rubit scored a career-high 35 points but Gonzaga held on for a 68-59 win over the Jaguars in the “Battle in Seattle” on Saturday.
The Bulldogs built up a 22-3 lead over the Jaguars with 9:49 left to play in the opening half, but Augustine Rubit connected on a 3-pointer which sparked the Jaguars to begin clawing their way back into the game.
With 9:39 left in the half, Rubit hits his first three-pointer, then after a Gonzaga dunk Rubit answered with one of his own, then after a turnover by Gary Bell Jr, Rubit hit a second three-pointer. A steal by Rubit on the other end of the court would set up Antoine Allen to nail a three and just like that the Jaguars were within ten points, 24-14 with 8:28 left until halftime.
South Alabama would cut the lead down to seven points with 3:45 left in the half after two free-throws by Rubit made it 30-23, but USA would only only net one basket the rest of the half and would go into the locker room down 41-25.
USA would open the second half on a 10-3 run, which included another 3-pointer by Rubit, to cut the lead to single digits again. But the Jaguars could only get within eight points of the ‘Zags the rest of the way.
Rubit took the team on his back as he was the only Jaguar in double-digits scoring for the game. He had 35 points and seven rebounds to lead the Jags on 11-of-16 shooting while making all 10 of his free-throw attempts. Aakim Saintil was the next closest scorer with eight points. Antoine Allen added six points and six rebounds.
Gonzaga had three to score in double-digits with Bell Jr leading the way with 20 points to go along with six rebounds. Sam Dower Jr. added 12 points and 11 rebounds and Kevin Pangos put in 10 points.
The Jaguars fall to 5-5 on the season as Gonzaga improves to 10-1. The national press calls the ‘zags win “ugly” and “too close for comfort”. Both teams struggled from the field as Gonzaga shot 41% and USA shot 32% for the game.
USA returns home to the Mitchell Center to face Dillard on Tuesday night for a 7:05pm tipoff.
Football
South Alabama receivers coach Jerry Mack is among four candidates for the head coaching position at North Carolina Central. Along with Mack, Winston-Salem head coach Connell Maynor, Southern University head coach Dawson Odoms and Nevada tight ends coach James Spadey are the top four for the position.
Mack is a native of Memphis and began playing at Jackson State before transferring to Arkansas State. As an assistant coach he has had stints at Delta State, Jackson State, Central Arkansas, Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Memphis prior to South Alabama. He has also had internships in the NFL with the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills.
We could hear who they decide to hire by Thursday.
27 current and former Student-Athletes Graduate
South Alabama had 27 current and former USA student-athletes graduate Saturday at the Mitchell Center during the schools annual fall graduation ceremony. Among them six where All-Sun Belt Conference honorees and a pair of Player of the Year honorees.
Augustine Rubit was the 2012-2013 Player of the Year, but he was unable to attend due to the game against Gonzaga. Brittany Fowler was the softball Player of the Year also earned her degree.
Nolan Earley, Romelle Jones, Shelby Owen, Eddy Cabrera, Matt Calcagnini, Clifton Crews, Charles Harris, Bryson James, Kenneth Johnson, Alonzo Long, Byron Sneed, Montavious Williams, Drew Cofield, Jeff DeBlieux, Anthony Izzio, Brent Mitchell, Graham Odom, Ashton Krause, Jeff Long, Josh Nelson, Veronica Cherizol, Camille Reynolds, Chris Bockstael, Elina Strauniece were among the student-athletes who earned their degrees on Saturday.
Congratulations Jaguars!!