Jaguar Men’s Basketball Begin Season Against Tough Competition
South Alabama has started this young season with a 2-3 record. But they have had a rough two game stretch with games against UAB and LSU.
The Jags opened the season with a win over Spring Hill College 81-53 in the Mitchell Center. But then they followed that up with a big loss in Hattiesburg against Southern Miss 93-58. Then the Jags regrouped and won against Central Michigan in overtime 82-76.
South Alabama started the game with some poor shooting but overcame it late in the first half with a 12-3 run to put the Jags down by only three at halftime.
However, the second half saw the Blazers take over the game. They started the second half with a 10-0 run with back to back 3’s. The Jags Augustine Rubit then make two foul shots followed by another run by the Blazers going 15-0 this time. This huge run by the Blazers, 25-2 in fact, put the Jags up 61-35. After that, the Blazers coasted to an 82-58 victory.
South Alabama then took on LSU in the Coors Classic at the Mitchell Center on Sunday. The first half saw LSU drain 12 of 17 from outside the 3 point line in the first half on the way to their 25 point halftime lead against the Jaguars. In the first half, the Tigers shot 66.7% from the floor and 76.9% from 3-point range in route to the 48-23 halftime lead.
LSU would stretch their lead out to 28 points with 15:10 remaining in the second half. But the Tigers could not keep the hot hand and their shots cooled off while the Jaguars fought hard to make a game of it.
While the Jags were not threatening to take the lead, the Jaguars did cut the lead to 13 with 2:50 left in the game and capped off a 15-5 run. However the Jags would only make one field goal the rest of the way and would not get closer than 12 points to the Tigers lead. Martino Brock lead the team with 15 points in the game.
With these two losses combined with the USM loss and with a trip to Tuscaloosa on Wednesday, some fans have asked the question if Coach Ronnie Arrow needs to go. I think it’s too early in the season to be calling for a coaches head in this scenerio. These first five games hardly make the season.
But some players that he has recruited have not turned out for the best. The teams APR has brought the NCAA ire upon the program. With two players leaving the team while they were ineligible, the NCAA has penalized the team by taking away 2 scholarships and restricting the teams practice hours over the course of a week to 16 instead of 20. Then combine that with the team appearing to be completely unprepared at times in the USM, UAB and LSU games and one can understand how some fans could be irate.
Coach Arrow seems to have some impressive recruits ready to come into his program. The Jags have lots of basketball left to be played this season. So lets get out to the Mitchell Center and cheer on those kids, both the Men and the Women, and show them that Jaguar Nation is behind them just as much as we were behind the football team this season.
Go Jags!