USA Men Defeat Spring Hill 73-40
The Jaguar Men’s Basketball team defeated the Spring Hill Badgers 73-40 in an exhibition game Monday night at the Mitchell Center. The defense led the way as the Jags held their opponents to 21.7% shooting in the second half and 28.3% for the game.
“I think that our defense was really good tonight,” Jaguars Men’s Basketball head coach Ronnie Arrow said. “We held them to 28 percent. Last year we beat them by 24 and won 17 games. We’ll use it as a measuring stick. We’ve got to go to work because the next game is a big game for us and we’ve got a lot of work to do as far as taking care of the ball.”
Sophomore Mychal Ammons scored 17 of his game-high 21 points in the second half while pulling down eight rebounds. He scored 10 in a row late in the second half. “I thought late in the game Mychal came up with some big things for us,” Arrow said.
Neither the Jags nor the Badgers shot well in the game. The Jags only converted 34.5% of their shots from the floor including 29% in the first half.
The Jags began on a shooting slump by going 0-for-10 with five turnovers in a stretch that spanned nearly eight minutes. That stretch allowed the Badgers to cut the Jaguar lead to 21-17, a mere four points, with 3:55 left to play in the first half. But the Jags defense turned up the heat and allowed the Jags to close the half with a 10-1 run.
“The press early was good but our half-court defense limited them and held them to 28 percent,” Arrow commented. “Any time you hold a team to 28 percent I think that’s pretty good.”
Mychal Ammons lead the Jags with 21 points going 8-of-11 from the field and 2-of-3 from three point range. Freddie Goldstein and Xavier Roberson both scored 13 points each. Goldstein added eight rebounds. Augustine Rubit chipped in 11 points and seven rebounds for the game. Three other Jags scored for the Jags as well.
The Jags wrapped up their preseason exhibition schedule with a 3-1 record. They will open up the regular season with a trip to Florida State on Friday with a game against the Seminoles set to tip-off at 6pm.
Jaguar Men’s Basketball Hosts Spring Hill College Tonight
The South Alabama Men’s basketball team will play an exhibition game on Monday night at the Mitchell Center. The Jaguars will host Spring Hill Badgers with tip off set for 7:05pm.
The game will not be broadcast on 105.5 FM WNSP due to the New Orleans Saints Monday night football game, but it will be broadcast on their website www.wnsp.com. You can view the game if you are a subscriber to the Jaguars All-Access service on USAJaguars.com.
This will actually be the team’s fourth preseason game. They had a three game exhibition tour of Canada where the Jags went 2-1.
“The biggest thing is, we got the experience,” Arrow said of the Canadian trip. “Unfortunately when we got back and we got started, Aug went out for three weeks and Javier was out for two weeks, so that put them behind. We’re just now getting everybody back healthy. We have some catching up to do.”
This will be the 20th meeting between the Jags and the Badgers with South Alabama holding a 16-3 edge in the series. “We hope that our fans come out and watch,” Arrow said. “I know Spring Hill will bring a nice group and we hope to have all of our fans come see what we have for this year.”
The Jags won last season 88-64 with an 18 point night by Augustine Rubit and a double-double from Mychal Ammons.
Coach Ronnie Arrow was pleased to get the team extra practices for the trip through Canada, but he says that there is still work to be done. “We still need a lot of work on different things,” Arrow said. “We’re working on the defensive part of all five guys on the floor getting after it. Offensively, with the things we’ve put in, the personnel is catching on a lot more quickly than last year.”
Spring Hill enters the game 0-2 so far this season with an overtime loss to Fisk 74-70 and an 83-46 loss to #24 Southern-New Orleans. They return four starters including Todd Martin, a former Jaguar who is the team’s top returning scorer.
Magee To Miss Four To Six Weeks With Knee Injury
Head coach Ronnie Arrow announced on Saturday that Gregoryshon Magee will miss four to six weeks with a knee injury.
Magee sufferred a meniscus tear in practice and underwent surgery on Friday. “The MRI showed a minor tear that needed to be cleaned up,” said Arrow. “If everything works out, he should be back within four to six weeks.”
Magee is a 6’9″ junior Forward from New Orleans by way of Neosho County Community College.
South Alabama Basketball Fan Day On Wednesday
Come out and meet Head Basketball Coaches Ronnie Arrow and Rick Pietri and the rest of the Jaguar Basketball teams for Fan Day on Wednesday, October 24th from 5-7 p.m.
The event will take place on the main floor of the Mitchell Center. This event will feature an autograph session with the coaches and players so we encourage all fans to bring memorabilia to be signed and cameras for pictures of your favorite Jaguar players, SouthPaw and the Jaguar Cheerleaders. The USA Dance Team “the Prowlers” will also be performing.
This is a FREE event and open to the public. Parking is also free and available at the Mitchell Center in the south lot off of Old Shell Road. “Select your seats” for the 2012-13 Jaguar Basketball season as the Athletic Ticket Office will be on-site with information on Season Tickets, Flex Plans, Group Outings and Individual Game Tickets.
The 2012-13 Men’s and Women’s basketball teams will be introduced and they will participate in free throw, three point shooting and dunk contests versus our very own USA student organizations.
Immediately following Fan Day the South Alabama Volleyball team will be in action versus Jackson State at 7 p.m. in Jag Gym.
Go Jags!
Coach Arrow Elected To Chair SBC Coaches Committee
A Frustrated Coach Arrow sheds his coat during a Jaguar’s basketball game.
South Alabama Men’s head basketball coach Ronnie Arrow was elected to chair the Sun Belt Conference Men’s Basketball Coaches’ Committee in a vote of the league’s head coaches.
This is Arrow’s 14th overall season as the head coach of the South Alabama Men’s Basketball program. He will serve a two-year term as the chair.
As chair, he will advise and make recommendations to the Senior Woman Administrator’s Committee, Athletic Director’s Committee and Sun Belt Commissioner Karl Benson on topics related to student-athlete welfare, sporting behavior, competition, scheduling and other matters affecting the competitive status of men’s basketball.
“Anytime you’re elected to do a job, especially by your peers in your profession, it is an honor,” Arrow stated.
Coach Arrow and the men’s basketball team will open the 2012-2013 season on November 9 at Florida State.
Basketball Fan Day Announced
The University of South Alabama announced the schedule for Fan Day for the basketball programs.
On Wednesday, October 24 from 5-7pm the fans will be able to meet head coaches Ronnie Arrow, Rick Pietri and the student-athletes for the coming season.
Both teams will be introduced and coaches Arrow and Pietre will address the crowd. Afterwards the players will be available to meet fans and sign autographs.
Southpaw, cheerleaders and prowlers will be there as well. There will be a 3-point shooting contest, a game of “knockout” and a dunk contest by the players. The USA Bookstore will be there selling merchandise and representatives from the ticket office will be on hand to sell season tickets, flex plans and single-game tickets.
Additionally, USA Students will receive a free hot dog and pepsi and will have a chance to win an iPad and a big-screen television.
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.
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.
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.