Game Notes

MOBILE, Ala. – One of just three home games in the month of February, the University of South Alabama men's basketball team will break up a run of four games on the road by hosting Arkansas State on Thursday night in the Mitchell Center.

The Jaguars have had a week to get over a tough stretch of three games in six days that culminated in a 79-74 loss at Troy on Feb. 6.

Tip-off Thursday is at 7:05 p.m. Fans can listen to the game on 105.5 FM and WNSP.com or watch a live videostream on USA's South Alabama All-Access subscription service. Updates will also be provided via twitter at @SouthAlaMBK and live stats on USAJaguars.com.

"I'm excited about being back at home in front of our home fans; hopefully we get a big student crowd out here," said USA head coach Matthew Graves. "I know the guys are getting ready to compete on Thursday night in a very tough game against Arkansas State.

"We've shifted our focus back to the defensive end of the floor. We've done some good things offensively lately—we've scored the ball better and we've taken better shots. We need to get to the free-throw line more but we've really allowed our defense to slip. Early in the year we were one of the top two or three defensive teams in the league and now we're trending near the bottom. As our offense got better, our defense got worse, so we have started to reestablish our system defensively and put our focus there, and hopefully by doing that our offense doesn't suffer on Thursday."

South Alabama will be attempting to snap a three-game losing streak to Arkansas State that has seen the Jags average just 58.7 points over that span. USA scored 60 points in a loss in Jonesboro on Jan. 11. The Red Wolves are seventh in the league in scoring defense (72.7 ppg) but first in field goal percentage defense (.426) and second in 3-point percentage defense (.321).

"Part of it is a credit to Arkansas State—they do a good job of being physical and tough defensively," Graves noted. "They do a good job of guarding; they're an older, more experienced team and understand things a little bit better. A couple of things that we've worked on is our spacing is a lot better and our ability to throw the ball into the post—they're going to double the post on us—and our ability to pass out of the doubleteam, to rotate and get into the right spots a little bit quicker; those things I look for great improvement on from the last time we played Arkansas State."

"They're one of the more physical teams in the league and I don't know if that's because they have an older team—they have four transfers that are fifth-year guys and play five or six seniors in their top rotation of eight or nine guys—so they have a lot of experience. They're the most physical team in the league that we play, maybe outside of Western Kentucky."

An increased emphasis for the Jaguars on offense has led to an improved showing in field goal percentage and assist-to-field goal ratio in the last three games. The Jags have assisted on better than 50 percent of their makes in each of the last three games and have put up three of their top six assist totals on the year.

Senior Augustine Rubit (Houston, Texas) has benefitted from the focus on the offensive end by averaging 18.3 points and shooting 63.9 percent from the floor in his last three outings. He has converted better than 60 percent in each of the last three games—including 66.7 percent (8-12) at Georgia State—his longest streak since the end of his sophomore season.

Rubit had nine points on 4 of 12 shooting vs. Arkansas State earlier in the year, the lowest output vs. ASU in his career.

"We don't need to do anything different than what we've done the last few games," Graves said. "He needs to go out and play and be productive, and by our spacing and ball movement he's playing with more confidence right now. He had a nice game on the offensive end of the floor against Troy so I think confidence is a big factor in that. He has to understand that it's going to be a physical game on Thursday and he has to be ready to meet that. For me, I think a big game will be, how many times does he get to the free-throw line? If it's five or six times, he's probably not being assertive and aggressive like he should be. In a game like we'll see Thursday, he should get to the free-throw line 10-plus times."

Battling Rubit inside will be the Red Wolves' Kirk Van Slyke. The senior transfer from the University of Houston had game-high totals of 21 points and 14 rebounds against the Jags in Jonesboro and ranks ninth in the league in scoring—one spot behind Rubit—at 16.7 per game and tied for ninth in rebounding (6.3).

"We have to have to give him some different looks; we'll have a couple of different guys guarding him to break his rhythm," Graves said. "We need to look at doubling more in the post when he bounces the ball on the floor, we need to get in there and dig it out and be more assertive. I want to have a better physicality with our posts—we let them duck us in and get way too many good looks for what they should."

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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