Lady Jags Push Record To 3-0 With Win Over Southern Miss
The Lady Jags score four points in the final eight seconds to cap off a 10 point deficit to earn a hard fought 66-64 victory. The Jags shot a miserable 30% in the second half.
The Jags were down by six points when Shakira Nettles was fouled while hitting a layup. She missed the foul-shot but the rebound was grabbed by teammate Shaniece Brunner who hit Nettles for another layup to shrink the lead to two points. Jessica Starling tied the game with eight seconds left in the game on another layup after USM missed two foul-shots. After a USM time-out, Nettles stole an inbounds attempt and was fouled on a drive to the hoop. With 4.5 seconds left, she sunk both shots to win the game.
Only two Jags scored in double digits, Starling with 24 and Nettles with 16.
The win pushes the Jags to 3-0 (0-0) on the season, while USM falls to 2-1. The Jags round out their four game home season opening schedule when they host Mercer on Monday at the Mitchell Center. That game has a 7:05pm tip.
Lady Jags Stay Undefeated Against UAB
On Monday night the lady jags held off a second half rally to topple the Lady Blazers of UAB 77-64. The trio of Jessica Starling, Shakira Nettles and Karina Sproal combined for 48 points for the Jags. Nettles had the game high of 17, Starling had 16 and Sproal had 15 (a career best and all in the first half).
The Lady Blazers jumped out with two quick scores early then the Lady Jags went on a 14-2 run using three turnovers to help them do so. The run started with a trey from Sproal which was one of only three on the night for the Lady Jags.
After a 12 point lead at halftime, the Blazers scored two quick baskets in the second half to cut the lead to single digits which they had not seen since about the half-way mark of the first half. The Jags quickly pushed the lead by to 13.
With about nine minutes to go in the game the blazers cut the lead down to four points and the Jags would not let them get any closer during the rest of the game.
The Lady Jags have a 7:05pm tipoff set at the Mitchell Center when they take on the Golden Eagles of Southern Miss.
Men Come Up Short On The Road Against Ole Miss
A strong start by the Ole Miss Rebels en route to a 19 point halftime lead on Tuesday. David Huertas of the Rebels connected on a career tying seven three-pointers, he went 7-13 falling just one short of the Rebels all time mark of three-pointers in a game. He still finished with 27 points on the night.
Overall the Rebels hit on 11 three-pointers and out shot the Jags 47% to 42% from the field and forced 11 of 15 Jags turnovers in the first half but only allowing four turnovers in the second half.
However they did lead most of the first three plus minutes before a 14-2 run helped Ole Miss take control. Brandon Davis, who was named the first Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week on Tuesday, scored 19 points on 7-11 shooting with 3 blocks. The loss drops the Jags to 1-1 (0-0) for the season, which is only two games old.
The Jags continue their three game road trip with a 7pm tip versus Florida A&M in the opening round of the Billy Minardi Classic hosted by Louisville.
Joey Jones Show Recap 2008-11-19
Some technical glitches plagued the beginning of the show but everything got fixed and the Joey Jones Show aired the rest of the way without any problems.
One of the first things brought up was uniforms that the team will be sporting come football season 2009. After a couple of helmet designs were shown and voted on by the players and coaches they settled on silver helmets with the new Jaguar logo on the side and red bars for the facemask. The jersey will be solid red with large numbers on the front and back as well as numbers on the sleeves and possibly “Jaguars” written across the top, front. I suspect the numbers will be white trimmed in blue but I think two paw prints would be good on the front on either side of the “Jaguars”. The pants will be silver with red white and blue stripes down the side.
This uniform will be reminiscent of Ohio State University’s uniform. Coach Jones also wants to have a reward system similar to OSU and FSU which could be paw print stickers that would be put on the helmet.
On the scheduling front, Coach Jones said that they were getting quite close to finalizing next years schedule but also have been in contact with several other schools for future scheduling such as LSU, Texas A&M and another school I was unable to hear due to the glitches mentioned at the beginning of this article.
Lee Shirvanian asked about practices, if they are open to the public and what their schedule is since many people who talk to him has been asking the same questions. Coach Jones said that the Spring practice sessions would probably be Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday with scrimmages held on Saturday and they would be open to the public. They will be held at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. They could be held on the intramural fields but they do not have a dressing facility and the administration at Ladd will allow them to have their sleds and other practice gear on the field there.
Lee’s questions about the number of student athletes who are still coming out for practice and Coach Jones most memorable Iron Bowl game were both cut off by the last of the technical glitches of the day.
But this led to a short talk about planning. Their plan was crumbling and so they had to improvise. That is paralleled from a coaching standpoint. Each week the coaches come up with a game plan to implement against an opponent. It is impossible to have both a fool proof plan and perfect execution in order to implement that plan without any improvisation on the part of the coaches. Its essential for coaches to be able to adapt a game plan on the fly and in the locker room at halftime. But great coaches have their players prepared to do the same. For example, the offensive line needs to know how to react in order to properly block a 3-4 or a 4-3 defense. But what about the other defenses that they may see? They could see a 4-4, a 5-2-4, a nickle or a dime defense (we’re not talking about money or nickle and diming a team to death). Good coaches have their players ready for improvisation.
This will be South Alabama’s first recruiting class. So starting on December 1st, the coaching staff can start to go out and meet with kids one time. All of the coaches will be involved in recruiting. Coach Jones talked with Athletic Director Joe Gottfried and they agreed that every coach needs to be out from day 1 until the last day they can be recruiting according to NCAA rules. Each coach will have an area they are recruiting and Coach Jones will be traveling to meet with and help each coach in their respective area.
Lee asked what is the mixture of home visits and school visits. Coach Jones answered that obviously both have advantages and disadvantages. With school visits you get to meet the principle and teachers to see how they are doing academically. Those people can be a big influence on their decision making and help them go where it will be best for them, which is hopefully USA. Other kids can see the presence of South Alabama and could start thinking about it as a place to go. But ultimately it good to visit in the home where the decisions are made with Mom and Dad.
Lee then asked Coach Jones if he knew how many verbal commitments are solid and how many are wavering. Coach Jones said that the assistant coaches are calling recruits weekly and they get to know the kids and can tell how they are feeling. They get a sense about their commitment levels based on talking with them. But you occasionally get a surprise and have to regroup.
The coaches have a list of positions to fill and then they have a list of kids for those position. Based on many factors the kids are rated and listed in order for those posisitons. Obviously they want to land the kid on the top of the list but it doesn’t alway happen. Larger schools are recruiting against other large schools and if they lose that recruit, then they can come in and get USA’s top recruit for a position. So they have the list of kids or positions and they are in contact with many of them at a time. If their top recruit is snatched up they continue working on the next in line. Its the food chain of college sports.
One thing that Lee Shirvanian pointed out was that we could participate in JV games. Coach Jones agreed but also said that he has talked to some schools about that many do not do that, they simply focus on the Varsity team and its games. It would be a good way for 3rd string or even lower kids to gain experience however.
The last bit on recruiting that I will talk about and was brought up in the radio show was how well Nick Saban recruits for Alabama. Part of it is how he stays up on the rules but how he can find legal ways around the rules. While a coach can not meet wtih recruits during certain parts of the season, he can video conference with them. This was talked about last year. He found an innovative way to talk to kids which is not explicitly forbidden in the scope of the NCAA rules.
For those Jaguar fans in Mobile area, keep your eyes and ears open. I would expect some event to show off the new uniform to the public in the near future. The timing will obviously depend on when all aspects of the uniform and finalized and when a complete uniform can be produced for public viewing. Until then get your season tickets for the 2009 season tickets now and come out to support the basketball teams.
Go Jags!
Season Opener Wins For Both Men and Women Jaguars
Both the Men’s and Women’s teams chalked up wins in their first games of the season tonight. The women won impressively 83-30 over Nicholls State at the Mitchell Center. They dominated from the very beginning with a 16-0 run and never looked back. Four lady Jags scored in double digits and they caused 36 turnovers which netted 32 points.
The Lady Jags will take the court again on Monday at the Mitchell Center when they host UAB at 7:05pm.
The Men took the lead from the beginning and never relinquished it, winning 87-79 over Alcorn State. Four starters scored in double digits led by Brandon Davis’ 21 points and a career high of 14 rebounds on the night. The Jags won the battle on the boards decisively with 51 to Alcorn State’s 29. Bryan Sherrer did a good job running the team, taking over for Daon Merritt who graduated.
The Jags looked good early but they were a bit suspect guarding the outside shot. The Braves hit on 12 of 26 attempts from outside the arc for the game. They shot better in the first half from outside the arc but halftime adjustments by Coach Arrow tightened their defense of the outside shot.
The Jags took a 57-44 lead into the locker room at halftime but were outscored in the second half 35-30. While this is a good start to the season, it did reveal some things that must improve for the Jags in order to win the SBC Championship.
The Jaguars plays again on Tuesday when they travel to Ole Miss for a 7pm tip-off against the rebels.
Congratulations to Caitlyn Collins who won the halftime sumo wrestling match to retain the SGA Presidents office against the President of the South Alabama Outlaws. Also congratulations is due to Ward Miller, band director at South Alabama, for the performance of the pep band (oh and thanks for my t-shirt). Previous pep bands were a small but enthusiastic group of musicians who came out to support the team. Now the pep band is larger and more organized with more instruments in the mix.
Go Jags!
Nov 13 SBC Conference Football Standings
With the college football season starting to wind down, now is a good time to look at what the SBC conference standings look like.
Louisiana-Lafayette is currently on top of the SBC with a 4-0 conference record 5-4 overall. Needing one more win to become bowl eligible this season. Second place is Troy who’s record is 6-3 (4-1 Conf) and have reached bowl eligible status. Then the rest of the conference: Florida International 4-5 (3-2), Arkansas State 4-5 (2-2), Floridat Atlantic 4-5 (2-2), Middle Tennessee State 3-6 (2-3). The final two are Louisiana-Monroe 3-7 (2-4) and North Texas 1-9 (0-5) and neither are eligible for a bowl appearance.
Western Kentucky, whos basketball team is part of the Sun Belt Conference, plays football as an independent. If WKU would join the Sun Belt when USA joins that would give the conference 10 teams. Plus if an additional two teams would join, then the Sun Belt would be eligible to have a conference championship game similar to the SEC. But in order for this to happen, a conference must have 12 teams. Which is why a couple seasons ago we had the shake-up between the ACC and the Big East where Miami and Virginia Tech jumped over to the ACC. That gave the ACC two more big programs and 12 teams so they could add a championship game.
That reshuffling really hurt the Big East. However the teams in the ACC are not fairing much better. When you hear the names of the top two teams in the Big East, Pittsburg and Cincinnati, it doesn’t really strike much fear into you. However when you hear the top two teams in the ACC, Florida State and North Carolina, they strike a bit more fear. All four teams have 2 losses but that championship game in the ACC sets that conference farther apart from the Big East.
Go Jags! Bleed it red!
Joey Jones Show Recap 2008-11-12
This week Matthew and I decided not to try to go to Wings for an in-person viewing of the show but rather I stayed home and listened on the radio. So come to find out why Coach Jones wasn’t on last week was because he and his staff was in Kentucky taking a chance to observe their staff go about their daily routine. I guess seeing how an SEC coaching staff goes about its day is something that could help a new program get started.
President Gordon Moulton was the special guest on the show this week and together they talked about several things which I will get into during the course of this article. The first thing mentioned was that less than a year ago (December will be one year) since the football program was approved at USA and look how far we have come. We have a little over 100 players and about 800 signed up online for the marching band. This has all been accomplished in the last 11 months. Currently, USA is on track to be the fastest program to go from inception to Division I play in NCAA history (at least since they started keeping track of this stat).
President Moulton made light that this could mean a few rough years to begin with but ultimately if so both he and coach Jones believe this is best for our program. But those tough years could be offset by the teams we play. Getting into matchups with teams like Tennessee, whom we have a date with in 2013, could help the program along both financially and personel wise.
Coach Jones made light that practice has been going well and the team and staff have been working hard to keep their competitive fire going even though they are not taking the field against opponents this year. Its easier to keep that fire going when you work all week implementing a game plan to pit against a team on Saturday. But it takes some special players and staff to keep up that kind of will all semester without any opponents.
The BCS was mentioned during the show by the host Lee Shirvanian. President Moulton said that up until now that his talks with other university presidents did not include football because we did not have that program. But university presidents take issue with a playoff system because it would be that much more time out of the classroom for the players. When you get eight teams playing a playoff you end up extending the already long season by another three games. Coach Jones supported the idea of the ‘plus one’ scenerio put forth not long ago but it could easily be extended to a four team playoff where #4 vs #1 and #3 vs #2 would then pit the winners against each other. But then again it would be easier to extend that playoff to add more teams like the fear by president Moulton.
Lee Shirvanian brought up an interesting point likening college football to NFL football if a playoff was instituted. The draw of college football is how meaningful each and every game is during the course of a season. Many teams cannot afford a single loss or else you are out of the running. If a playoff system was added then the passion around each and every game could lessen and you would result with the NFL where as long as you make the playoffs you can slack off some during the season. In three or four years down the road USA will have to work hard not to lose a game in the Sun Belt Conference because that one loss could be the difference between winning the conference championship or not.
It took South Florida nine years to go from program inception to being ranking in the top 25 last year. Their plan was a 6 year plan to go from inception to playing in Division I football which is currently the fastest program to begin Division I football. USA is currently on pace to beat that with an ambitious plan to be in Division I football in four years. Obviously it would be great to be ahead of their schedule in being ranked in the top 25 as well.
The talk then drifted to recruiting and facilities. The foundation is being set now for the new fieldhouse for the football team and it will look stellar. Over a thousand beds have been added on campus through the building of the student apartments in The Grove. Coupled with the new Student Rec Center currently under construction, our facilities will be on par or better than any in the conference which will pay dividends in recruiting.
In addition to the field house being under construction, the practice fields are under construction. The grass field is almost finished and the artificial turf field is well under way, coach Jones said.
As for our stadium, they are working or have already worked out a 5-year contract with Ladd-Peebles Stadium to be the home of the USA Jaguars. While eventually alumni and supporters will want an on campus stadium, it will have to be funded privately through the community and the school.
Coach Jones is working to finalize the football uniform colors and design. He told everyone listening that he carried a preliminary design to Moultons office this week. The marching band is also working to finalize their uniform and both will look excellent when they take to the field for the first time in 2009.
They then turned to the economy and how it may affect college sports in the near future. It is quite obvious that the economy is not as strong as it has been recently but it has not taken a toll on college sports yet. But the possible affect is not known yet. President Moulton said that the program with staff and all scholarships will cost about $5 Million per year. Which in the scheme of things, is not bad. As we get further into the program and into Division I football, those costs will rise. But “not a single nickle” has come from the academic side. All of the money thus far has come from supporters and from student fees. This was done so that the program could operate normally and not in a deficit during its first few years.
Another guest to make an appearance on the show was Travis Toth, who is the new marketing director at USA. He has been working with on campus organizations to help promote athletics more. Just for Monday nights exhibition match the Mitchell Center drew just under 3,000 people with 706 students in attendance. Basketball will have some concerts on the steps of the Mitchell Center this season. Baseball will also have concerts before or after a number of their games.
Mr. Toth then turned to tickets sales. Next season there is going to be a guaranteed 6 game home schedule with a possible 7th game in the works by coach Jones. Season tickets for the football games is only $75 and will go on sale to the general public next week. He also informed us that less than 150 season tickets are still available for the lower level of the Mitchell Center this season. Plus for a 16 games at home and the low price of $50 per season ticket (for upper level seating) the value is phenomenal.
Finally Coach Jones said he may miss an episode of the show in December due to a recruiting trip to Texas. But he is working on something special for national signing day so stay tuned for this and more.
Go Jags!
DeAndré Coleman Scores Double-Double In Win Over West Florida
DeAndré Coleman had 10 rebounds and 12 points in the Jaguars 67-58 win over West Florida last night at the Mitchell Center. Dominic Tilford lead the Jags in scoring with 16 and Brandon Davis scored 12 and 8 rebounds. The Jags outscored the Argonauts 12-5 in the final four minutes to finally put them away.
Two players led the Argonauts in scoring with 14 each. The Jags held them to 38% shooting overall but allowed them to shoot 50% from 3-point range. Both teams had 15 turnovers each and the Jags were just over 40% from the field and converted all 23 free throws.
Go Jags!
Lady Jags Top West Florida 82-52 In Exhibition Match
Senior Guard Jessica Starling scored 24 of her 27 points in the second half to lead the Lady Jags over West Florida Sunday evening. She was an outstaning 10 of 13 from the field and 6 of 8 from beyond the 3-point line.
USA dominated by forcing 27 turnovers with 12 of them being steals and recording 6 blocks.
The lady jags open the regular season on Friday, November 14th when Nicholls State visit the Mitchell Center for a 5pm tipoff.
Go Jags!
Coach Joey Jones Show Recap 2008-11-05
Its a little late but what we were hoping to be the ‘Extra Special Coach Joey Jones Show Recap’ failed to work out. Matthew and I decided to meet at Bob Baumhauers Wing’s Restaurant to see the show live, only to be denied when Coach Jones was not there for the show. In his place was Athletic Director Joe Gottfried.
But even then we were ready to give everyone a recap but the universe was conspiring against us yet again. We were three tables away from their desk but could not hear the show. About 20 minutes into the show they finally tuned the restaurant sound system to the radio show but it was too loud to hear still.
So instead of the normal review I will review my meal at Wings. As an appetizer, we got a plate of Triple Play Cheese Fries. Which was a large platter of curled fries with Monterrey Jack and Cheddar cheese then finished off with bacon and served with ranch dipping sauce. Obviously it was good because its cheese fries but the bacon makes anything better. Instead of going for what I am now calling ‘The Coach Jones Special’ which is Black and White Chicken, I opted for the Royal Rooster sandwich for my entree. It consists of a battered and fried chicken breast topped with applewood smoked bacon and Monterrey Jack cheese and also served with fries. So I ate too many fries.
Matthew ordered the Fried Wiggles which are thick sliced ‘sweet heat’ pickles that are battered and fried. First off, I do not like sweet pickles so they were not of my liking but if you like sweet pickles, by all means give them a try.
Also, today November 10th marks less than 300 days until the South Alabama Jaguars take the field for the first time in school history.
Go Jags!