MOBILE, Ala. – The defending Sun Belt Conference Champions announced the 2006-07 men’s basketball schedule on Friday. The schedule features 13 home dates forSouth Alabama, including nine conference home dates from the revamped Sun Belt Conference slate and the eighth annual Coors Classic.
Fresh off a 24-7 record, the Jaguars and fifth year head coach John Pelphrey are slated to battle two postseason teams from a year ago. Pelphrey won Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year honors in 2006.
“We are very excited about the 2006-07 schedule,” Pelphrey said. “Our non-conference schedule consists of three teams from the SEC, including one on our home floor, Houston from Conference USA, Bowling Green from the Mid-American Conference, Fresno State from the WAC and UC-Irvine from the Big West Conference, to name a few…All in all, it is a very challenging schedule for us.”
The Jaguars kick off the season at the Fresno State Classic in Fresno, Calif., on Nov. 10-12. The Fresno State Classic is an exempt preseason tournament where the Jaguars will play three games, but only one game counts against the 28-game maximum regular season schedule.USA will face UC-Irvine, a team that went 16-13 and 10-4 in the Big West Conference last season; Winston-Salem State who is moving up to Division I this season; and Fresno State who was 15-13 and 8-8 in the Western Athletic Conference. Fresno State has been tabbed to win the WAC in 2006-07.
USA opens the home portion of the schedule on Nov. 17 against Morehead State, followed by a home game against West Florida on Nov. 22. The Jaguars then travel to Bowling Green on Nov. 25 to conclude the first month of the season. Bowling Green battled Florida State in the 2005 Coors Classic in Mobile.
The Jaguars open the month of December at home as they meet Samford on Dec. 2, followed by three consecutive games against teams from the SEC.USAAuburn on Dec. 6, followed by a game at Mississippi State on Dec. 9, before returning home to host the Coors Classic. begins the stretch at
The eighth annual Coors Classic is scheduled for Dec. 16, with USA slated to battle Ole Miss and Southern Miss slated to face Alabama. Game times are yet to be determined based on the television package. Tickets for the Coors Classic will go on sale Friday, Oct. 27 at the Mitchell Center Ticket Office.
“This possibly could be the most appealing Coors Classic that we have had with two SEC schools, South Alabama and Southern Miss all playing in theMitchellCenter,” Pelphrey said. “This will be a great showcase of basketball for fans along the gulf coast.”
USA begins the newly revamped 18-game Sun Belt Conference schedule with games at Western Kentucky on Dec. 22 and at Arkansas State on Dec. 28. USA moved to the East Division of the Sun Belt this season.
The Jaguars open 2007 at home with three games in the first week of January, starting with Middle Tennessee on Jan. 2, followed by Florida International on Jan. 4 and conference newcomer Florida Atlantic on Jan. 6.
“The Sun Belt is going to be different this year from years past as we have moved to the East Division with Middle Tennessee, Western Kentucky,Troy, FloridaAtlantic and Florida International who we will all play twice,” Pelphrey said. “It is going to be a very difficult slate with 10 games against those schools and one game against each school in the other division.”
USA will play Arkansas State, who is in the West Division, twice as its crossover opponent.
The Jaguars head to in-state rival Troy on Jan. 11, before retuning home to face Arkansas-Little Rock on Jan. 13. USA then travels to Louisiana-Lafayette and Denver, Jan. 16 and Jan. 20, respectively. The Jaguars complete the month of January with home dates against conference newcomer Louisiana-Monroe (Jan. 25) andNorth Texas (Jan. 28.)
South Alabama opens the final month of the regular season at New Orleans on Feb. 1, followed by a game at Middle Tennessee on Feb. 3. The Jaguars return home for games against Western Kentucky (Feb. 8) andArkansas State (Feb. 11) at the Mitchell Center.
With just three home dates in February, the Jags finish with three of the final four games on the road, beginning with a late non-conference trip toHouston on Feb. 14. The team then travels to Florida International (Feb. 18) and Florida Atlantic (Feb. 21), before finishing the season at home on Feb. 24 againstTroy.
With the newly expanded conference, the 2007 Sun Belt Conference Tournament will hav a new format and begin Feb. 28. The top three teams (winners of each division and one wild card) will receive a bye to the conference tournament in Lafayette, La., beginning Mar. 3. The other 10 teams will play a seeded brack format with the higher seeded team getting an extra home game on Feb. 28, for the five remaining slots in Lafayette.
