Jags Fall To Denver 71-48
Jags lost for the fifth time in the last six games on Saturday, falling at Denver 71-48. What did in the Jags was 14 three pointers and only four turnovers by the Pioneers. This puts the Jaguars at 12-9 for the season and 4-5 in the Sun Belt.
The Jags entered the game ranked second in the Sun Belt and 32nd nationally in 3-point defense. While the Pioneers was ranked second in the league in both 3-point percentage and 3-pointers per game.
In a low scoring half, the Pioneers went into the locker room with a 29-20 lead.
For the game, the Jags show 37.5% with season lows in both field goals (15), field goal attempts (40) and assists (5).
Coach Arrow was very displeased with the Jags performance. “We didn’t show up tonight,” he said. “We don’t have the manpower to do the things we were doing early in the year, but they have a really good bunch and they’ll pick you apart. If you don’t come ready to play, they’ll pick you apart and shoot the heck out of it from the 3’s. The number one thing we put on the board (in the locker room) was ‘Guard the 3-point line.’ Fourteen out of 28 is not what I’d call guarding the 3-point line.”
He further commented, “Our continuity is just really bad right now. We have kids playing out of position because of injury. Our continuity isn’t anywhere close to what it was. We just have to get back home and start doing the things we were doing earlier in the year.”
The Jags will return home to face Florida Atlantic on Thursday night with a 7:05pm in the Mitchell Center.
Also it has been confirmed that Raymond Sims has been deemed ineligible for the rest of this season by the NCAA.
Top 5 Stories Of 2009
[EDIT] I had left out my original #2 that I had planned back at the beginning of December when I was mentally planning this article.
Its time for a quick look back as we let go of 2009 and start 2010. Also, since the Mobile Press-Register did not see fit to include South Alabama in their Top 10 stories in the area, here are my top 5 stories from the past year.
Leave comments if you think another story should have been included. Or if it were a top 10 list, what other stories would you include.
Top 5 of 2009
1) Kickoff of Jaguars football
South Alabama completed its first season in college football with an undefeated inaugural season. With games in coming season against Kent State, NC State, Mississippi State, Navy and Tennessee, it shows that the school is committed to this program.
A four game home-and-home series with Navy. Two-for-One series with NC State, Kent and Mississippi State where the Jags will visit the teams twice in return for a home game against each. Which mean some big time home games against NC State and Mississippi State in Mobile.
The Staff that Coach Joey Jones assembled and the players they have recruiting has this team much farther ahead than coaches, players and observers thought. With that, they had to retool the schedule for 2010 to include more competition as they march their way to Football Bowl Subdivision (Division I-A).
[EDIT] 2a) Announcement Of Joe Gottfried’s Retirement And Hiring Of Joel Erdmann As Athletic Director
On June 2, Joe Gottfried announced in the Mitchell Center that he was retiring effective August 1. Gottfried, who was the Athletic Director for South Alabama for 25 years said the time was right. He was instrumental in getting first class sports buildings on campus such as the $30 Million Mitchell Center, a $3.5 Million renovation to Stanky Field, a 4,000 clubhouse, intramural fields and the football field house among many others.
Then in July, South Alabama announced the hiring of Joel Erdmann as the new Athletic Director for the University of South Alabama. Erdmann held several positions at South Alabama previously and served as AD at the University of North Alabama and at his hiring he was AD at Southeastern Louisiana University.
2b) USA defeats two SEC Schools in basketball
Back in late November the Jags had two loses to good opponents in Rice and Tulsa and traveled to Fayetteville, Arkansas to take on the Jags former coach John Pelphrey and the SEC. Many people just wrote it off as a typical loss to a big program, but Coach Arrow and the Jags took a page from Lee Corso’s book and said “Not so fast!” They stunned the Razorbacks on their own court with an impressive victory by a large margin, 74-61.
Then after losses to Southern Miss and UAB, the Jags made a trip to yet another SEC school. But this time it was a Top 25 ranked team. The Jags were facing #18 Florida in Gainesville, Florida where the Gator had not lost a home game since December 2004.
Again the Jags were written off from the beginning but stunned the Gators and made a huge splash on ESPN, ESPN News and ESPN.com. Although it was won on a last second put back, it was a huge win. It is only the second time in school history USA has defeated two SEC teams in the same season and the first since 1983-84. Plus it was the first time to knock off a ranked opponent since 2005 when they defeated #25 Houston.
3) Loss of Dameyune Craig to FSU
Many people thought it was just a matter of time for this coach who has quite a rising status in college football. But nontheless, it was the second assistant in less than a year that was hired away from Coach Jones’ staff to a major Division-I program. This time it was Florida State.
Jimbo Fisher was beginning to prepare taking over the reigns to the Seminole program from Bobby Bowden and one of his first hires was Dameyune Craig. A very good recruiter in the Mobile area that the Jags will definitely be recruiting against to keep local talent.
4) All Jaguar Football Players Who Are Eligible Receive A Redshirt
Just before the final football game against Huntingdon College, Coach Jones announced that all of the eligible players on the team would get an extra year of eligibility.
Those players who had not already taken a redshirt year, will take the 2009 season as their redshirt year. Unfortunately some players had already used their redshirt year and will not be able to have an extra season with the Jaguars.
5) Hiring of Gregory (also leaving of Koenning)
In December 2008, before the Jags even took the field for their first game, Coach Joey Jones loss his first assistant to an SEC school. Dan Mullen, who was just hired to replace Sylvester Croom, tapped him to be his offensive coordinator for the Bulldogs program.
Coach Joey Jones then began a search for a replacement that fit Koennings’ profile and the players that they were recruiting. In came Greg Gregory from South Florida, another new program in recent years. South Florida rose through the ranks and has the NCAA record to achieve its first Top 25 ranking faster than other Division I-A school in the modern era and eventually rising to #2 in the polls in 2007.
Jags Dig Deep In Second Half To Beat FAU On The Road
The Jags came back from a 15 point deficit at one point in the second half to get a huge win over Florida Atlantic in overtime, 96-93. Three Jags scored at least 20 points in the game as well
Early in the second half the Owls took their largest lead of the game at 15. They had a double digit lead as late at the eight minute mark. But South Alabama would not give up. With about 50 seconds left, they were down by five 81-76. Bryan Sherrer would hit both of his free throw attempts with 43 seconds left to cut the lead to 81-78.
Redus would foul on the inbounds where the Owls would convert both of their attempts to extend their lead back to 5 points, 83-78, with 34 seconds left. Tim Williams would hit a layup to once again cut the lead to three with 32 seconds to go, 83-80. Lashun Watson would foul on the inbounds with 27 seconds remaining. Again the Owls would make both of their attempts, once again extending their lead to five, 85-80.
Then some Jaguar magic would happen. After an Owl timeout with 27 seconds remaining, Tim Williams would nail a three pointer with 24 seconds left to get within two points, 85-83. Gary Redus would foul to stop the clock with 19 seconds left. But Raymond Taylor would only make the first of his two shots to leave the Owls clinging to a three point lead, 86-83.
The missed free throw would be rebounded by LaShun Watson and on the other end Tim Williams would hit his second consecutive three to tie the game at 86 with 17 seconds remaining.
The Jags would force a turnover with 3 seconds remaining, but Allyn Cooks three point attempt missed and sent the game to overtime.
In overtime, the Jags would score first for their first lead of the entire game. Jags would go up by five with 27 seconds remaining but the Owls could only manage to score once more for the final score of 96-93.
This win marked Coach Ronnie Arrow’s 171st win at the helm at South Alabama in his 11 seasons. This ties Cliff Ellis for the most in school history. It also improves the Jags to 11-4 on the season and 3-0 in the Sun Belt. While FAU falls to 5-9 overall and 1-2 in the conference.
Tim Williams would lead all scorers with 23 points on 9 for 16 shooting and 2 for 4 from three point range, making the two when they counted the most. Bryan Sherrer added 21 while Allyn Cooks added 20. Gary Redus scored 11 and LaShun Watson scored 10 to round out the double digit scorers.
Coach Arrow spoke after the game on the Jags victory. “We didn’t show up ready to play, number one, for whatever reason,” he said. “Give FAU credit, they have a bunch of young guys that were hungry to play and came out and hit shots. I thought it showed a lot on our part to come back and win like that.”
Coach Arrow spoke to Lee Shirvanian about the play late to tie the game and send it into overtime. “Our guys executed and got him open and (Williams) hit the shots,” he said. “We called ‘knockoff throwback’ and he nailed the shot. It takes two to tango; Allyn did a great job of penetrating and pitching back to Tim. That’s what it’s all about – Allyn doing his job and Tim doing his job.”
The Jags will return to the Mitchell Center to host Western Kentucky on Thursday with a 5:05pm tip-off. The game will be aired on Fox College Sports.
Go Jags!
Jags Ring Out The New Year With Another Win
We hope everyone in Jaguar Nation had a fun and safe new years celebration. Ronnie Arrow and the Jaguars got to celebrate a little early on New Years Eve with a victory over Florida International to kick off their two game Sun Belt road swing through Florida, 71-59. This improves the Jags record to 10-4 overall and 2-0 in the Sun Belt. FIU under first year head coach Isiah Thomas drops to 4-12 overall and 1-2 in the Sun Belt.
Coming off the big win over 18th ranked Florida before Christmas, the Jags had some time to reflect and regain their emotions for the FIU game. And it showed. They held the Panthers to only 16 points in the first half on 25% shooting and only just over 35% for the game. The Jags also forced 19 turnovers in the game as well as a season high seven blocked shots.
Tim Williams led the trio of Jags in double figures with 18 points. Freshman Martino Brock added 15 points and a game high eight rebounds while Senior Bryan Sherrer scored 10 points.
After letting the Panthers get close, the Jags held held them without a score for the final 6:23 of the game to go on a 13-0 run into the locker room up 31-16.
The Jags would push their lead to 18 with just over 14:00 to go, but FIU would try to rally going on an 8-0 run all scored by Marvin Roberts. However, the Jags would not let them cut the lead into single digits. The Jags would go on a 6-1 run to put the game away in the end.
Coach Arrow was quite happy with the teams performance to end the new year. “It’s great to win the final game of the old year and go into the new year on a good note,” he said. “Our defense played well – we held them to 35 percent and they hit some big shots at the end or it would have been even lower. We got some key steals at the end of the first half that ignited our offense. I think our guys are finally understanding what it’s all about defensively.”
The Jags return to action Saturday night when the travel to Florida Atlantic for a 7pm tip-off.
Go Jags!
Jags Defeat #18 Florida in Gainesville
The Jags got what might be their biggest victory in a long time when they defeated the #18 ranked Florida Gators on Tuesday, 67-66. It’s probably the biggest win since defeating Alabama in the NCAA Tournament in 1989.
The Jags lead the game most of the first half but never pulled out to much of a lead. At halftime the score was tied at 43. Then early in the second half it looked like the Jags were going to be a one half team again but the Jags came back to life and fought their way back into the lead. They would even push that lead out to seven points at 61-54 with 7:42 left in the game. But Florida wasn’t about to give up just yet.
The Gators went on a 7-0 run, the final two to tie were free throws. Then two more free throws gave the Gators the lead with 2:04 left to play. They would hold the lead until the final shot by DeAndre Hersey with 1.8 seconds left.
The Jags got the ball back with with seconds left in the game. They in-bounded the ball and carried it down the court to around the time line when the Jags used their final timeout of the game with 12.7 seconds left. The play was drawn up for Tim Williams, the games leading scorer, to drive the lane. But when Williams’ missed, Hersey was there for the follow up tip-in.
A desperation three point attempt from beyond half court bounced off the rim and the Jags celebrated on the floor in front of stunned Florida fans.
Williams, as stated earlier, lead all players in scoring with 21 on 8 of 19 shooting, 3 of 4 from outside the arc. Martino Brock was next with nine points and Sherrer with eight. Five other Jags scored in the game as well.
The Jags won despite shooting a mere 28.1% in the second half. But Florida shot even worse only making 23.1% of their shots. Also the gators could only muster a 3 for 22 night from behind the arc. The Jags were unusually good from outside shooting 7 of 11 from 3 point range.
Coach Arrow was ecstatic after the game. “That was a great game,” he said. “The people here got to see two really good teams go at it. I told our guys to play for 40 minutes which would allow us to get a really nice Christmas present. I thought that both teams played hard. We had different people make big plays and that’s what a good team does.”
And what a Christmas present they gave to themselves and all of the Jaguar fans watching on television, listening to the radio, streaming on espn360 and watching the scoring updates from their phone. It was even featured as the lead in to ESPN SportsCenter and ESPN News.
Here is the video from ESPN:
Jags Hold On To Win Conference Opener Against UALR On ESPN2
Jags overcome a rough first half to hold of the Trojans of Arkansas-Little Rock to win their conference opener in front of a nationally televised audience.
Jags had a small lead early in the first half but a 12-0 run by the Trojans gave them the lead. The Trojans would stretch out their lead to as many as 10 in the first half before the Jags cut it to within six at halftime 34-28.
The Jags would come out a different team in the second half starting with an 11-3 run to regain the lead. After that, the Jags never gave up the lead but they did allow them within one point. But the Trojans chance to tie was squandered when their leading scorer of the game went to the line and missed the first of two free-throws with 13 seconds to go.
Redus would be fouled on the ensuing possession by the Jags. His two free-throws would fall giving the Jags a three point lead, 74-71 with seconds to play. The Trojans got a fairly decent look at the goal on a last ditch three-point attempt but was off the mark.
Bryan Sherrer would score a career high 21 points in the game to lead all scorers. Gary Redus would add 16 and Martino Brock would add 11 rounding out the double digit scorers for the Jags. As a team, the Jags out rebounded UALR 47-29 and held them to under 40% shooting.
The Jags will next play in the Coors Classic on Saturday at the Mitchell Center where they will host the UAB Blazers with the University of Alabama vs Kansas State following them. Tip-off of the Jags game will be 5:30pm and Alabama vs Kansas State 30 minutes after the conclusion of the Jags game.
Also on Thursday, the Jags announced the addition of two televised games to the schedule as well as a tiem change. The Jags game on December 22 against Florida in Gainsville will be televised by CSS and streamed online at espn360.com. The January 7 game against Western Kentucky in Mobile will be aired on Fox College Sports and well as the Hilltopper Satellite Sports Network. The tip-off of this game was moved up to 5:05pm.
Go Jags! Bleed it Red!!
Jags Four Game Winning Streak Snapped By Southern Miss
The Jags had their four game winning streak snapped by Southern Miss on Saturday, 66-54. The Jaguars record is now 7-3 on the season while Southern Miss rebounds from their first loss of the season to go to 6-1.
The Jags led 18-11 with 11:44 left in the first half before the Golden Eagles went on a 15-0 run. The Jags would answer with a 7-0 run themselves to cut the lead down to one. The Golden Eagles would take a two point lead into the locker room for halftime.
The first ten minutes of the second half saw Southern Miss hold the lead by as few as one and as many as seven. But an old fashioned three point play coupled with back-to-back layups would put them up by 11 with 6:41 to play in the game.
The Golden Eagles would push their lead out to 61-47 with under five minutes to play and the Jags could not get within 10 points of them the rest of the way.
The Jags shot a season low of 29.1% from the floor and a mere 24% in the second half.
Coach Arrow spoke after the game. “The bottom line is they did a really good job tonight,” he said. “We couldn’t stop Gary Flowers. He hurt us on the boards and shooting. He backed us down and he shot over us. We didn’t shoot the ball at all, but they had a lot to do with that. They took it right to us. We played immaturely tonight, and that’s just the way that it is. Hopefully, we’ll grow from it.”
“It seemed like we always had the wrong guy shooting the ball,” continued Coach Arrow. “We didn’t attack the zone very well, and that’s my fault. We just didn’t get our guys ready for a zone. We worked on it, but evidently I did a poor job of getting them to understand exactly what had to be done.”
Allyn Cooks lead the Jags with 13 points, followed by Bryan Sherrer with 11 and Tim Williams with 10 to round out the double digit scoring for the Jags.
The Jags will host UALR on Wednesday with an 8:05pm tipoff on ESPN2.
Jags Get A Big Win Over Arkansas For Coach Arrow’s 300th Div-I Victory
Head basketball coach Ronnie Arrow won his 300th Division I game as the Jags defeated Arkansas 74-61 on Sunday in Fayetteville. This win was the Jags third straight win to improve to 6-2 on the season while the Razorbacks and John Pelphrey dropped their third straight to fall to 2-4 on the season.
The game was a series of runs with the Jags jumping out 15-2 to begin the game but then the Razorbacks had a run of their own going 17-1 to take the lead at halftime with the score of 34-30.
Trading scores early in the second half, the Hogs tied it up at 40 each with a three pointer. But it would be the last time Arkansas would tie the game because South Alabama would make a run of 17 points over a stretch of 5:17 to hold Arkansas without a score for six minutes and without a field goal for 8:42.
The Hogs would only get to within 11 points on twice but each time the Jags would put an end to their attempted rallies.
Arkansas only shot 30% (6-for-30) in the second half and had only three field goals through the 5:20 mark. While the SEC’s leading scorer with 28.2 points per game, Rotnei Clark, was held to 19 points with only six scored after halftime.
Martino Brock lead the Jags and all players with 21 points while Bryan Sherrer and Tim Williams were the only other Jags in double figures with 11 points each.
This marked the first win at an SEC school since December 1, 2000 at Auburn and makes their record against Arkansas 1-5 all time.
South Alabama will take some time off for final exams, they will return to the hardwood on December 9 when they host University of Mobile.
Jags Win The Second Annual Thanksgiving Tournament
The Jags won the second annual USA Thanksgiving Tournament held at the Mitchell Center on Wednesday and Thursday.
The Jags shot over 58% in the second half in order to overcome a slow start to win easily over Alcorn State in the first game, 83-67. This win was Ronnie Arrow’s 600th win as a head coach at both the Junior College and Division I levels. However, Coach Arrow was not at the game since he was ejected on Saturday at Tulsa, he had to sit out due to suspension.
Alcorn State controlled play in the first half and lead for most of the period and converted four of nine 3-pointers. The Braves had not lead in a game all season, took a 41-39 lead into halftime over the Jags.
However the second half was a different story. They scored the first seven points and did not allow a Braves bucket in the first 3:19 of the second half. South Alabama really pulled away with an 18-2 run midway through the second half and stretched a three point lead into a 74-55 advantage.
In the championship game of the USA Thanksgiving Tournament the Jags hosted Georgia State. Late in the game Gary Redus came through for the Jags when he nailed a 3-pointer with 1:03 left in the game to give the Jags the lead for the final time as they held on for a 70-66 win.
The Jags have been out rebounded in their last two games. The first of which was at Tulsa when the Jags had their season-worst showing on the boards when the Golden Hurricane out rebounded the Jags 53-29. But against Georgia State the Jags won the battle of the boards 37-26. Georgia State is the second best rebounding team in the Colonial Athletic Association.
With these two wins the Jags improve to 5-2 on the season.
The Jags will travel to Arkansas on Sunday to take on the Razorbacks and the Jags former coach John Pelphrey who are 4-3 on the season so far.
Jaguar Men Fall At Tulsa
On Saturday the Jags basketball team traveled to Tulsa, Oklahoma to face the Golden Hurricane. Tulsa won 84-62 over the Jags to stay undefeated at 4-0 while the Jags fell to 3-2 for the season.
Tulsa put on a showcase of rebounding by pulling down 53 boards en route to their victory. The Jags kept it close in the first half until a late 12-0 run by Tulsa (10 of which came from the free throw line) put them ahead for good. The Jags could only get within 12 points twice in the second half.
The Jags did not match-up well against the Golden Hurricane. With a 7′ center and a pair of 6’10” forwards, the Jags were just outsized and out reached on the boards.
Tulsa made 38 of 50 free throw attempts which accounted for 45% of their scoring offense while the Jags defense held them to 38.9% shooting from the floor for the game. However the Jags were called for 29 fouls which lead to the 50 trips to the line.
Coach Arrow said after the game, “We held them to 38 percent shooting and did what we wanted to there and put 62 points up on the board,” said Arrow. “But when you shoot 50 free throws you’re going to score a lot of points.”
Tim Williams lead the Jags with 17 points, five rebounds and four assists. While Gary Redus II scored 11 off the bench.
Coach Arrow also commented about the Jags rebounding after the game. “We’re still not rebounding like we should,” said Arrow. “We have guys standing around. Our ‘3s’, ‘4s’ and ‘5s’ have got to rebound better than what we’re doing.”
The Jags will host the Second Annual USA Thanksgiving Classic on Wednesday and Thursday. The first game has Georgia State facing Utah Valley at 5pm then the Jags will face Alcorn State at 7:05pm.
Also announced on Friday, Coach Ronnie Arrow signed Labree Sledge of Tyler Junior College in Tyler, Texas to a National Letter of Intent to play for the Jags.
Tyler went 24-6 last season and tied for the North Zone championship with a 14-5 league record. Tyler lost in the semis to Paris JC who was led by current Jag Raymond Sims.
Sledge ranked fourth on his team in scoring with 9.8 average per game while hitting 63 3-pointers. He averages 42.9 percent from 3 point range and had 67 steals.
Coach Arrow had this to say about the signee. “Sledge is one of the best shooters in that conference,” said Coach Arrow. “You always have room for a shooter of his caliber. Not only that, but his high school coach said he was the best defender on the ball they had. So he brings shooting ability plus defensive ability, which is good.”
Go Jags!