USA Football Previewed How ‘Alabama Lite’ Could Work

February 21, 2013 · By · Filed Under Football, News · Comments Off on USA Football Previewed How ‘Alabama Lite’ Could Work 

The University of South Alabama received more good press on Wednesday. This time it was the football program being covered by Billy Connelly of SBNation. He posted an article titled “2013 South Alabama football’s 10 things to know: Alabama Lite could work”.

Connelly wrote about the Jaguar’s surprisingly stout defense last season for a first-year FBS trasitionary program and Coach Joey Jones’ decision to hire former Alabama director of player development Kevin Sherrer as the new defensive coordinator and former Alabama linebacker Freddie Roach as an assistant coach.

He covered the experience returning in 2013, the need for more playmakers on offense, more punch at running back, the size of the offensive line, how the Jaguar defense was disruptive but allowed big plays, how exciting the front seven is and how that excitement could continue in 2013, the hole left from Chapuseaux’s graduation and how the Jags could get a couple of wins this season.

Connelly had plenty of statistics so go give it a read here.

Rubit Garners Some National Attention

February 20, 2013 · By · Filed Under Basketball, Men's, News · Comments Off on Rubit Garners Some National Attention 
Augustine Rubit set a new career-high with 34 points with 12 rebounds for his 14th double-double of the season against ULL. Photo by John Adams | usajaguars.com

Augustine Rubit set a new career-high with 34 points with 12 rebounds for his 14th double-double of the season against ULL. Photo by John Adams | usajaguars.com

Augustine Rubit was mentioned by Pat Forde of Yahoo! Sports (sports.yahoo.com) in a section of his post called “Under-The-Radar Love”.

Forde points out that Rubit is the only player to rank among the top 20 nationally in scoring and rebounding. Rubit currently ranks 16th nationally in scoring with an average of 19.5 points per game and 9th in nationally in rebounding with an average of 10.6 rebounds per game.

Rubit is coming off of a career record 34-point game against Louisiana-Lafayette where he also pulled down 12 rebounds for his 14th double-double of the season. He also shot a career high 16 free throws and is averaging almost 10 foul shots per game.

Rubit may be flying under the radar nationally, but he is not so under the radar in the Sun Belt Conference.

He ranks first in the conference in rebounding with an average of 10.7 per game while also ranking second in the conference with an average of 19.6 points per game. Additionally, Rubit ranks first in offensive rebounds with 4.5 per game, third in defensive rebounds with 6.2 per game, fifth in blocked shots with 1.3 per game, sixth in free throw percentage at 77.9%, seventh in minutes played with an average of 33.8 minutes per game and eighth in field goal percentage with 49.4%.

If you want to read Forde’s post, you can find it here.

Jags Add JuCo Receiver To 2013 Class

February 19, 2013 · By · Filed Under Football, Recruiting · Comments Off on Jags Add JuCo Receiver To 2013 Class 

newjagsmall

South Alabama’s 2013 recruiting class is not quite over yet.

Head coach Joey Jones and the school announced 25 players who signed with the Jaguars on February 6th. But some of those were signed in December or January and the scholarships were able to be back-dated to 2012. Leaving five or six scholarships.

Tyrell Vinson, a wide receiver from Merced, California signed with the Jaguars on Monday. He is listed as being 6’1″ 190-pounds and is also listed as having two seasons of eligibility left to play for the Jaguars.

Last season Vinson caught 50 passes for 887 yards and six touchdowns. He also returned kicks for Merced College with an average of about 26 yards per return. He was also listed as being on the Basketball team for his freshman season.

The Jags are not done recruiting the junior college ranks for receivers as they hope to possibly add one more to their signing class this year.

USA Softball’s Moss Named SBC Player Of The Week

February 19, 2013 · By · Filed Under Softball · Comments Off on USA Softball’s Moss Named SBC Player Of The Week 

SunBeltLogo

South Alabama Softball outfielder Julie Moss was named Sun Belt Player of the Week for her performance at the Mardi Gras Invitational last weekend hosted in Mobile, AL.

This is Moss’s first time being honored as SBC Player of the Week and the first Jaguar to be named PotW since Brittany Fowler in February of last year.

Moss is from Birmingham, Alabama and led the team with a batting average of .538 over the weekend by going 7-of-13 with four RBI, two doubles and her first homerun of the season. The Jags went a perfect 5-0 over the weekend with her help from the plate.

Moss started 20 games last season and has started eight of the Jaguars nine games this season. She has already tied her mark for runs scored from last season with nine, seven of them coming over the weekend in the Mardi Gras Invitational. She also had 11 hits last season and already has nine this season.

Jags Softball Go 5-0 Over Weekend To Sweep Mardi Gras Invitational

February 18, 2013 · By · Filed Under Softball · Comments Off on Jags Softball Go 5-0 Over Weekend To Sweep Mardi Gras Invitational 

newjagsmall

The Jaguar Softball team completed a big weekend in the Mardi Gras Invitational hosted by South Alabama over the weekend. They won all five games over the weekend.

They opened on Friday when they hosted Central Arkansas and defeated them 11-2 in six innings in their second run-rule victory of the week. Seven Jaguars had hits in the game with Hannah Campbell retiring 13 straight Central Arkansas batters.

Then they came back for two games on Saturday. The first against Ole Miss which the Jags won 4-2. The Jags would strike first with two runs in the second inning, then again in the fourth inning to take a 4-0 lead into the top of the fifth. The Rebels would manage to get onto the board with two runs of their own in the top of the fifth, but would not be able to get any more runs across the plate.

Blair Johnson would double to right center to drive in the Jaguars first two runs. Then Julie Moss would hit a solo home run over the center field wall for the first run in the fourth inning, then freshman Sephanie Pilkington would also hit a solo home run for their fourth run of the game.

The Lady Jaguars then turned around and played Lamar later in the day to an 8-0 win in five innings for their third run-rule victory of the season.

Jessica Dobson and Kaleigh Floore would combine to hold the Cardinals scoreless with only two hits and no walks. While the Jags would score in each of the five innings of play in the game.

On Sunday, The Jags would defeat Central Arkansas again in a 7-4 game. THey would score four runs in the fifth inning to break a 2-2 tie and take a 6-2 lead. Britany Campbell would score the final run of the game for the Jags on an inside-the-park home run for a 7-3 lead.

In the final game of the tournament, the Jaguars would defeat Jackson State 10-2 in five innings for their fourth run-rule game of the season.

Jessica Dobson would pitch four innings of hitless ball while her teammates would build up a 3-0 lead. JSU would finally get on the board with two runs in the fifth. Two runners would get on base with walks and would then be advanced a base by a sacrifice bunt. Both scored on a single to center.

The Jags would answer with seven runs in the bottom of the fifth to trigger the run-rule.

The Jags finished a perfect 5-0 on the weekend and improved their record to 8-1 early this season. It’s the best start for the program since it’s inception in 2007.

Hannah Campbell was named the tournament MVP with a tournament record of 1-0 and ERA of 2.03 while striking out eight batters and only allowing eight hits in 10.1 innings pitched.

South Alabama Baseball Sweep Stephen F. Austin

February 18, 2013 · By · Filed Under Baseball · Comments Off on South Alabama Baseball Sweep Stephen F. Austin 

USABaseball

The South Alabama Baseball team completed a three-game sweep to open the season against Stephen F. Austin State University over the weekend.

In the season opener, the Jags rallied in the ninth inning to squeak out a 7-6 win. Then back-to-back double-digit run games with a 10-0 shutout on Saturday and a nine-run eighth inning for a 13-4 win on Saturday.

In the bottom of the ninth inning on Friday night Brent Mitchell hit a two-run single down the left field line to tie the game. Then one batter later, Robby Campbell would hit a sacrifice fly to score the winning run for the 7-6 decision.

On Saturday, Jacob Noble struck out seven batters and only allowed two hits in 5 2/3rds shutout innings during this Jaguar debut. Brandon Boyle would strike out three more and only allow one hit to help lead the Jags to the 10-0 shutout on Saturday.

South Alabama broke a 4-4 tie in the bottom of the eighth with a nine-run explosion to earn the weekend sweep.

The Jags will face Alabama State at Eddie Stanky Field on Wednesday evening at 6:30pm. They will then host former Sun Belt Conference foe University of New Orleans for a three game series next weekend.

South Alabama Run Away With 88-64 Win Over Louisiana-Lafayette

February 15, 2013 · By · Filed Under Basketball, Men's · Comments Off on South Alabama Run Away With 88-64 Win Over Louisiana-Lafayette 
Augustine Rubit set a new career-high with 34 points with 12 rebounds for his 14th double-double of the season against ULL. Photo by John Adams | usajaguars.com

Augustine Rubit set a new career-high with 34 points with 12 rebounds for his 14th double-double of the season against ULL. Photo by John Adams | usajaguars.com

The South Alabama Jaguar Men’s Basketball team defeated Louisiana-Lafayette 88-64 Thursday night at the Mitchell Center. The Jags cruised to their fourth win of the season behind a 34 point performance by junior Augustine Rubit.

This four-game win streak is the longest of the season and marks their seventh win in their last eight games as they improved their overall record to 15-9 and 12-4 in Sun Belt play. The Cajuns record fell to 9-17 on the season and 5-10 in Sun Belt Play.

Earlier in the season, Rubit had tied his career high of 32 points when the Jags played at Louisiana-Monroe. But he broke that career high on 11-of-16 shooting from the floor and 12-of-16 from the foul line while grabbing 12 rebounds for this 14th double-double of the season.

Mychal Ammons also earned a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds on 7-of-11 shooting from the floor and 2-of-4 from outside the three-point arc. He scored 13 of his 18 points in the second half.

The first half was close until the final four minutes before halftime when the Jags began to pull away. A 9-0 run with a three-pointer by Antoine Allen moments before halftime really put the momentum in the Jaguars favor with a 39-28 lead at intermission.

The Cajuns never really mustered a challenge in the second half as South Alabama’s lead swelled to 17 points in the first five minutes of the half. Then an 11-1 run would grow the lead to 24 points with a score of 72-48 with 8:04 left in the game.

While Rubit and Ammons were the only Jaguars in double digits, Dre Conner had a team-high of five assists with nine points and Javier Carter added eight points. Antoine Allen had eight points while four other Jaguars scored points as well.

ULL’s Elfrid Payton scored 17 points and a game-high seven assists while Kasey Shepherd added 16 points off the bench and the Conference’s leading scorer Shawn Long added 11 points for the game. Bryant Mbamalu, the conference’s seventh-leading scorer was held to four points on 1-of-6 shooting.

“It was good to see us put together what I thought was a total game for two halves,” interim head coach Jeff Price said in his post-game press conference. “The first half, I thought we played really well and the second half we built the lead some. We’ve had these leads before and allowed them to go down so it was good to see our team be able to step up a little bit and build this thing up instead of let it go down. It happened in a lot of ways. I thought we turned it up defensively in the second half.”

“We felt like this was a game where we could have some success inside with him (Augustine Rubit),” Price said. “Our game plan will be consistent. We don’t have a lot of secrets here. We need to get the ball inside.”

“I haven’t even looked at the stats, but I could tell he (Mychal Ammons) was active,” Price said noted after the game. “I talked to Mike a lot this week about how he wasn’t rebounding like he was earlier. He just wasn’t rebounding the ball and tonight, before the game, he needed to get me 10 and he got 11. It’s more of a focus with Mike and if he really puts his mind to it. I mean, he’s as athletic as anyone on the floor and as strong as anybody in the league and when he wants to he goes and gets it.”

“They shot the ball well,” Cajun head coach Bob Marlin said in his post-game conference. “I thought Rubit shot it well from the perimeter as well as from the post. (Javier) Carter had a really nice game and made some jump shots. Mychal Ammons had a nice game outside. That might be the best front line in our league from the 3, 4, and 5 positions.”

“Mychal Ammons and Antoine Allen are very good defensively,” Marlin continued. “They’re strong, they’re quick, and they’re aggressive. And when they can lean on you like they did tonight, it’s hard to get it over them. Bryant worked hard, but credit South Alabama.”

The Jags will have a week off to prepare for a trip to Murfreesboro, Tennessee to take on the Sun Belt Eastern Division and overall Conference leader Middle Tennessee State (22-4 overall, 14-1 SBC) on Thursday with tip-off scheduled for 7:00pm.

“We know that’s going to be a really tough game on Thursday and we didn’t want to talk about it until we got this one out of the way,” Price said. “We’ll talk about it a lot this week and see if our guys can answer the challenge on the road. We’ve played well on the road, 5-2 on the road against some really good teams.”

Jags Host ULL Tonight Looking For Fourth Consecutive Win

February 14, 2013 · By · Filed Under Basketball, Men's · Comments Off on Jags Host ULL Tonight Looking For Fourth Consecutive Win 

Jags_bball

The South Alabama men’s basketball team will try to get their fourth consecutive win Thursday night when they host Louisiana-Lafayette at the Mitchell Center for a 7:05pm tip-off.

The Jags have equaled their season-high three-game win streak and have won six of their last seven games. The Jags enter the game with a 14-9 record overall and an 11-4 record in Sun Belt play, which is good for second place in the Conference and the most by the school since the 2007-08 season.

Louisiana-Lafayette will enter the game with a record of 9-15 (5-9 SBC) and leads the conference in scoring with 71.3 points per game and three-point field goals with 7.1 per game. Also in their last two games they are averaged 97.5 points per game.

The Jaguars defense, currently ranked second in the conference in field goal percentage and 3-point percentage in conference games will definitely be tested tonight.

The Ragin’ Cajuns has three players in the top seven in scoring in the conference. Shawn Long is third with an average of 15.8 points per game, Elfrid Payton is sixth with an average of 15.2 points per game and Bryant Mbamalu is seventh with an average of 14.8 points per game. Long also leads the conference in double-doubles with 15. Payton put up 26 points against the Jags in Lafayette earlier this season in a double-overtime thriller win by the Jags.

In the game back on January 10, Augustine Rubit also scored 26 points, Dre Conner and Antoine Allen both had 19 points and Mychal Ammons came off the bench to earn a double-double.

Jaguar interim head coach Jeff Price has the team playing well despite having a player dismissed from the program and another out due to a broken collarbone. In the last few games they have become quite adept at grinding out wins the largest margin of victory being four points in the last four wins.

Go Jags!

USA Baseball Chosen To Finish 3rd In Conference, Put Three On All-SBC Team

February 13, 2013 · By · Filed Under Baseball, News, Sun Belt Conference · Comments Off on USA Baseball Chosen To Finish 3rd In Conference, Put Three On All-SBC Team 

USABaseball

In a vote by the Conference head baseball coaches, South Alabama was selected to finish third in the 2013 Sun Belt Conference preseason poll. USA finished one spot ahead of in-state rival Troy.

The Jags and the Trojans were the only schools with three players each selected to the preseason All-Conference team. Logan Kirkland, Whitt Dorsey and Jordan Patterson represent South Alabama on the preseason All-Conference team.

Florida Atlantic was voted to finish first with five first-place votes and 89 total points, while their in-state rival Florida International was voted to finish second in the conference with one first-place vote and 85 points overall. South Alabama finished with 67 points.

Florida Atlantic won the conference regular season title last season with a 32-22 record overall and a 19-8 record in Sun Belt play. They return six starters, four of them pitchers, from last year’s team.

Kirkland is a redshirt sophomore from Grand Bay, Alabama. This is his second consecutive preseason All-Confernece honor. He was also named a Freshman All-American after the 2011 season while playing in six games and hitting .333 with a double and two RBI last season before an injury ended his season early.

Dorsey, an Auburn, Alabama native, was named to the team as a designated hitter after batting .337 with 12 doubles, two home runs and 31 RBI’s last season as a Junior. He was selected first-team All-SBC honor as a designated hitter after last season.

Patterson was named to the preseason All-Conference team as a utility player. He also earned a selection to the second-team All-SBC as an outfielder, but will move to first base this season as well as contributing as a pitcher. He batted .323 with 15 doubles, a team-leading eight home runs and tied for a team-leading 44 RBI.

All Sun Belt Conference teams will open up the season on Friday with all 10 schools in action. The Jags will open up at 6:30pm when they host Stephen F. Austin at Stanky Field for a three game series.

Rubit Earns Third SBC Player Of The Week Honor

February 12, 2013 · By · Filed Under Basketball, Men's, Sun Belt Conference · Comments Off on Rubit Earns Third SBC Player Of The Week Honor 
Augustine Rubit scored 18 points to move into the Top 10 career scorers in South Alabama history. Photo by John Adams | usajaguars.com

Augustine Rubit scored 18 points to move into the Top 10 career scorers in South Alabama history. Photo by John Adams | usajaguars.com

Augustine Rubit was honored as the Sun Belt Men’s Basketball Player of the Week for the third time this season as announced by the Conference on Monday.

Rubit averaged 17.5 points and 8.5 rebounds per game while leading the Jaguars to their two wins this past week. In the two games he shot over 46 percent from the floor, 75 percent from the foul line, blocked two shots and had the game-winning put-back against Florida Atlantic on Saturday.

On Thursday against Troy, Rubit earned his 13th double-double of the season with 21 points and 12 rebounds while making his last 10 shots from the foul line to help the Jags down the Trojans 65-62.

He then followed up that performance with 18 points against Florida Atlantic, including the game-winning put-back with 35.2 seconds left in the game for a 72-71 victory. He did that on a sore ankle as well.

His five rebounds against the Owls put Rubit into 14th place in Sun Belt History for career rebounding with 820. Also his 18 points moved him into the Top 10 of career scorers for South Alabama with 1,245.

South Alabama will host Louisiana-Lafayette for the third and final game of a three-game home-stand on Thursday evening. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:05pm at the Mitchell Center.

« Previous PageNext Page »