GAME TIME
7 p.m. CST

THE COACHES
South Alabama
Ronnie Arrow (Southwest Texas State, 1969)
Record at USA: 175-125 (11th year)
Overall Record: 309-216 (19th year)
Record vs. WKU: 12-10

WKU
Ken McDonald (Providence, 1992)
Record at WKU: 40-21 (2nd year)
Overall Record: Same

LAST GAME
South Alabama rallied from 10 points down at half to defeat Louisiana at Lafayette 67-65. Western Kentucky won at UALR 67-46.

NEXT GAME
The Jaguars stay on the road and play at Middle Tennessee Saturday. The Hilltoppers travel to Arkansas State.

ON THE AIR
TV: Fox College Sports (DirecTV 617)
Radio: 105.5 FM WNSP in Mobile; Lee Shirvanian (pxp)
On the web: www.wnsp.com (audio), Jaguar Nation (video)

RANKINGS (through 2/15)
USA: #236 RPI, #221 Sagarin
WKU: #132 RPI, #154 Sagarin

THE SERIES
USA leads 30-26.

Current streak: WKU, Won 4
USA’s last win in series: 69-64 (2/21/08)
Last meeting: WKU 67, South Alabama 64 OT (1/7/10)
Last five games: WKU leads 4-1
USA’s last win at Diddle Arena: 69-64 (2/21/08)
WKU’s last win at Diddle Arena: 67-59 (2/7/09)
USA’s record at Diddle Arena: 10-14
USA’s road streak: Lost 1
USA’s longest winning / losing streak in series: 6 / 6
Notes: WKU swept all three games last year, winning in the Sun Belt Championship game... USA had won the previous three meetings prior to that... The last seven games have been decided by eight points or less, including a 67-64 overtime win by WKU earlier this season... Since South Alabama won six straight from 1996-98, WKU leads the series 13-9.

OPENING TIP
Martino Brock is this week’s Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week. He averaged 18.5 points and 12.5 rebounds in two victories and set a new career high with 13 boards vs. ULL.

Saturday, Brock (19 pts, 13 rebs) and Tim Williams (23 pts, 12 rebs) became the first USA teammates to each record a double-double in a game this season. It was Brock’s second consecutive and fifth overall while Williams has four to his credit this season.

Williams rebounded from a sub-par 10-point effort Thursday with 23 points against Louisiana at Lafayette. He has scored 20 or more in a game seven times.

South Alabama has a plus-12.3 rebounding margin in its last seven games. USA has outrebounded its opponent by at least eight in each game with a high of plus-23 vs. FIU.

The 10-point rally at halftime ties the largest second-half comeback all season (at Florida Atlantic). The Jags have trailed at the half 16 times this year and have won seven times. USA is 3-5 when behind at the break vs. Sun Belt schools.

Senior Bryan Sherrer will miss the next 2-4 weeks with a knee injury. He started the first 26 games and is averaging 10.2 points per game.

South Alabama is averaging 7.2 3-pointers in its last five games, well above its season average of 5.0 per outing. The Jags have hit a season-high nine in two of the last three games. Western Kentucky ranks second in the league in 3-point defense (32.1%).

WKU’s A.J. Slaughter is the second-leading scorer in the conference (17.2 ppg). He had 18 against the Jags on Jan. 7 and averaged 17.3 against USA last year.