Game Notes
MOBILE, Ala. – Winners of three of its last four games, the University of South Alabama men’s basketball team will face preseason Sun Belt Conference East Division favorite Middle Tennessee Saturday night at the Mitchell Center.
The Jaguars and Blue Raiders will tip off at 7:05 p.m. The game can be seen online by subscribers of Jaguars All-Access, heard on 105.5 FM WNSP and WNSP.com, and followed via live stats on USAJaguars.com or Twitter @SouthAlaMBK.
USA (7-6, 4-1 SBC) in currently in the midst of its best four-game run of the season and is coming off a 77-72 victory against Louisiana at Monroe Thursday. MTSU (11-4, 3-1) had won four in a row prior to its 66-60 overtime defeat at Arkansas State Thursday.
“Obviously we’re in good shape right now being 4-1 in the league,” interim head coach
Jeff Price said. “We did a really nice job of showing an improvement from the Arkansas State game. There were some things we did wrong, particularly on the offensive end. We watched every offensive possession and saw we were shooting from deep too quick, and I thought we made an excellent adjustment last game against Monroe. We started the game by going inside and being more patient. We just have to build on that and keep getting better at other parts of the game.”
The Blue Raiders, the unanimous pick to win the division in the preseason poll, boasts wins over Central Florida, UAB, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt.
South Alabama, the Sun Belt’s leader in scoring offense (71.3 ppg) will be going up against one of the toughest defenses in the league in Middle Tennessee. The Blue Raiders top the conference in scoring defense (59.5 ppg) and 3-point percentage defense (27.1%), while ranking third in field goal percentage defense (41.0%).
USA was held to an average of 49.5 points in two games vs. MTSU last season and hasn’t scored more than 70 in the series since March 2008, a span of nine games.
“They just get after you,” Price said. “They’re a physical team, particularly on the perimeter. Their guards are extremely physical, they take you out of your offense, they pressure and they deny. You just have to do your best to stay in your offense and not allow them to take you over like that.
“We have to match their physical play. We can’t allow them to take us out of the game. I thought last year they did that to us and hopefully we’ll learn from that. We can’t allow them to push us off our spots or take us out of the game.”
The Jags will rely on junior
Augustine Rubit (Houston, Texas) who continued his stellar play Thursday by setting a new career high with 32 points, shooting 11-for-12 from the floor and 10-for-12 from the free throw line. He has scored 20 or more in four of his last five games, but in four career outings against Middle Tennessee, has been held to single digits twice and converted just 26.1 percent from the floor in two games last season.
MTSU is fourth in the conference in points per game despite its leading scorer,
Marcos Knight, averaging just 12.9 per contest, 14th-best in the league. The team uses a balanced attack that leads the conference in assists per game (14.0) and is second in field goal percentage (43.4%).
“They’re very balanced,” Price said. “They have all-conference guys who aren’t averaging all that much because they’re all about winning and doing it for the team. That’s probably their most valuable thing; they play 10 people, and even more at times, and different guys can step up. They have so many guys you have to worry about and that’s what makes them so good.
“They do all the physical things that you want your team to be. They’re good screeners, they’re strong with the ball, they go get it off the glass and they have really good discipline on the offensive end. They’re not concerned with who gets the shot and that’s what makes them so dangerous.”
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).
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