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South Alabama - Preview (Review added in thread)


JwgreDeux

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So far so good to start the season, not beautiful basketball, but plenty of room for growth and improvement as we continue to watch these Tigers figure things out. Of all of our first opponents, I think we know the least about South. Little video is available (and even our game with them will only be on espn+). That being said, I'm feeling pretty good about this one matchup-wise. 

South returns a lot of experience, but don't have anything that can overwhelm us. They are more like Ga Southern than Davidson style-wise. They want to the get to the bucket, cut backdoor, dribble hand off and get to the free throw line. Southern Miss ran some zone that gave them problems. I doubt we do a whole lot of zone, but expect us to switch everything and present similar problems as a zone. 

South doesnt have much size. The starters are from 6-2 to 6-6. So far this season, they are not shooting a high percentage from 2 or 3, and don't have a player who has made more than 2 3s on the season. They are not a good rebounding team, and got killed on the boards by Southern Miss. Their strength is the turnover battle. They have 19 on the season and have forced 35, not the best news for our turnover prone Tigers. 

The player that we have to defend is #33 Josh Ajayi. He s a 6-6 forward at 230lbs and a senior, coming off a 30pt effort vs South Alabama. Our post defenders will have their hands full with this guy, and will have to work to stay in front of him and out of foul trouble. He is also their best rebounder adding 10 per game and their assist leader at 5 per. They have three other guys averaging 10+ points per game from their two wings and their other post, but that is where the production pretty much drops off. Slow down Ajayi and we should have an excellent chance to get some separation in the game. 

Their success is tied to their defense. They limit their turnovers and create them on defense. They limit their opponents shooting percentages from 2 and from 3, giving up only 60pts per game. They want to keep the game in the 60's and play at a slower pace than we do. We have done a good job of getting to the free throw line in our games, but South does a great job of not fouling and not sending teams to the line. 

This is another game about how we play rather than how we handle South. So here are the keys to the game:

  • Limit turnovers. We need our best game as far as limiting turnovers. I'd like less than 15.
  • challenge them at the rim. They don't have any rim protectors that should deter our guys from attacking the basket. Drive, drive, and drive some more. 
  • rebound, rebound and rebound some more. We have a chance to dominate someone with our size and athleticism.
  • defend the basket from backdoors and dribble handoff drives. McLemore and Wiley could have big block numbers. 
  • get out in transition more than we have, push the pace and wear them down due to their small rotation.

 

Feel pretty good about this one, unless the true road environment gets our guys shook. Hard to predict that, but we do have quite a few vets to help in this dept. Go get it boys, War Eagle.  

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Will be interesting to see who CBP has Okoro defend. Wiley, McLemore or Purifoy may be the normal matchup for Ajayi, but CBP has said Okoro can guard every spot. Maybe we find out about his post defense tonight. 

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28 minutes ago, JwgreDeux said:

Will be interesting to see who CBP has Okoro defend. Wiley, McLemore or Purifoy may be the normal matchup for Ajayi, but CBP has said Okoro can guard every spot. Maybe we find out about his post defense tonight. 

This is going to be one of the things i'm looking at. My prediction is we'll match him up against our usual forwards and if they struggle we'll try and move Okoro down on him. But really we switch so much on defense i don't know that it really matters with the matchups. 

Thanks for the write up. This team seems very similar to GA So except they have not played together as much. They are starting 3 new transfer guards so they are learning to play together just like we are. The only way i see them staying in the game is if we just can not handle their pressure and have a repeat of the NC St game last year. It'll be a good test for our guards to see if they can handle the pressure. We also may have to weather a storm to start the game as i expect they will come into the game jacked kind of like GA So did. Hopefully they are over jacked and can't make any baskets. 

Sucks it is on espn+......i don't know what to think about these streaming services. No way i can afford cable and all these extras so something is gonna have to give. 

 

EDIT: I checked out espn+ and i was able to sign up for a monthly subscription for $5 dollars. I guess that isn't too bad for watching the game. I just have to remember to cancel it now. 

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Auburn heads to Mobile to face in-state opponent, 

Posted Nov 11, 2019

3-4 minutes

No. 22 Auburn will play its third game in seven days when it goes to Mobile to play South Alabama in Mitchell Center at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Both teams are 2-0 ahead of the match-up, with the Tigers’ wins coming over Davidson and Georgia Southern and the Jaguars’ wins over Pikeville and Southern Miss.

While the preseason SEC media poll picked Auburn to finish fourth in its league, the preseason Sun Belt coaches poll chose South Alabama to win its league. The Jaguars have not won the conference title since 2008, but they’re one of the most experienced teams in college basketball.

The Jaguars have just four freshmen on their roster. Everyone else is a junior or older, including a redshirt senior and a graduate student, and they added three Division I transfers, Chad Lott, Don Coleman and Andre Lott. All five of the Jaguars’ starters are seniors or older.

In comparison, Auburn has seven seniors and eight freshmen. Four of its starters are seniors and one is a freshman.

Auburn coach Bruce Pearl described South Alabama as an athletic, fast, talented team, coached by one of the “top young coaches in the country,” Richie Riley. In his first year coaching at South Alabama, Riley won 17 games, the most since the 2012-2013 season. The Jaguars also had two players, Josh Ajayi and Trhae Mitchell, named all-Sun Belt for the first time since 2008.

Ajayi and Mitchell will be two of the best players that Auburn has faced this season, Pearl said. Ajayi has scored 43 points in two games, and Mitchell has contributed 27. The two redshirt senior forwards account for 45 percent of the Jaguars’ points this season.

Pearl expects Auburn to have a harder time guarding South Alabama than Davidson or Georgia Southern.

“This is a very athletic team who also runs stuff that’s hard to guard,” Pearl said. “We’ll have a harder time staying in front of South Alabama.”

The Jaguars already played one SEC team close this season. In their exhibition game, they lost to Mississippi State by three points, 78-75. Mississippi State is predicted to finish seventh in the SEC and received votes in the AP Poll.

The Jaguars went on to beat Pikesville by 31 points in their next game and then overcame a solid Southern Miss team by six points.

The last time Auburn and South Alabama played, they opened their 2018-2019 seasons against each other. The Jaguars went to Auburn and lost 101-58. The last time the Tigers traveled to Mobile to play the Jaguars was in a 59-50 loss in December 1995. Auburn has not played in Mobile since 2007.

South Alabama looks like it has a much stronger team than its 2018 squad, but Pearl expects his team to come out fast against them Tuesday night.

“It won’t be any problem getting our guys ready and respecting our opponent,” Pearl said. “Last year, we played maybe our best game of the year, as far as our performance is concerned.”

The game, which will be played in Mitchell Center, is sold out. Pearl has been advocating for Auburn fans to buy tickets since the beginning of the season. He thinks enough will show up that it will be almost like a neutral-site game.

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South Alabama basketball hoping to ‘own the moment’ vs. Auburn Tuesday

Posted Nov 11, 2019

4-5 minutes

Sports

24

Pikeville at South Alabama basketball

South Alabama basketball coach Richie Riley is going to get his wish, as the tarps covering usually empty upper-level seats at the Mitchell Center will be removed the first time in recent memory on Tuesday night.

No. 22 Auburn, 2-0 and coming off a Final Four appearance, makes a highly anticipated visit to the South Alabama campus to take on the Jaguars (2-0) for a game that has already sold out. The Tigers have never played at the Mitchell Center, and have not played in Mobile at all since a 59-50 South Alabama victory on Dec. 12, 1995.

“The thing I would tell our people is, I hope we get more blue and red in there than we get orange,” Riley said. “There’s gonna be a lot of orange; I understand that. But I want our people to come out. This is an unbelievable opportunity, to play a team of their caliber in the Mitchell Center. And for us to have a team that can be in the fight. … Our team’s going to be in the fight if we show up and play. Auburn’s really, really good. … Even with the losses of some of their guys to the NBA. But I’m pumped up about that game. Now we can get to it. We’re excited about the challenge.”

Riley actually made his regular-season South Alabama coaching debut against Auburn last season, a 101-58 Tigers victory at Auburn Arena. The Jaguars are 4-6 all-time against the Tigers, with their last victory coming in 2000.

But this is a different South Alabama team than the one that went 17-17 in Riley’s first year. The Jaguars were the preseason favorite to win the Sun Belt Conference this year, and bolstered an already experience roster with a trio of Division I transfers: guards Don Coleman, Andre Fox and Chad Lott — all of whom have joined the starting lineup.

“We’re going to come into that game like we come into any game — we expect ourselves to win,” South Alabama senior forward Iféoluwa Ajayi said. “We’re going to play hard throughout the whole game, regardless of if it’s Auburn or an NAIA school. We’re going to come out with the same mentality and play as hard as we can. We’re definitely excited for that game.”

Auburn’s two previous visits to the Port City were to the Mobile Civic Center, where South Alabama played high-profile home games until the 10,000-seat Mitchell Center opened on campus in 1998. The largest recorded crowd to date for a Jaguars game at the Mitchell Center is 10,041 for an 82-72 loss to Ole Miss in the 2006 Coors Classic.

South Alabama also packed 8,262 into the Mitchell Center for a 2008 Sun Belt Conference game against Florida Atlantic (the Jaguars went 26-7 and reached the NCAA tournament that year), but typically draws around 1,500-2,000 for home games. The Jaguars’ 81-75 victory over Troy last February drew a crowd of 4,469, which made Riley realize what was possible if he put a good team on the floor.

“After the Troy game last year, I said ‘we’re gonna take them tarps off,’’’ Riley said. “Everybody was joking ‘hashtag: Remove the Tarps,’ but we made it a reality. Auburn’s helped a little bit. I’d like to do that one day without Auburn’s help, for us to sell out a game like Southern Miss. You’ve got to crawl before you can walk, but we’re getting there.”

South Alabama beat Southern Miss 75-69 on Saturday night behind Ajayi’s career-high 30 points. However, the Jaguars looked flat at times, and Riley wondered aloud if his team was looking ahead to the Auburn game.

Getting excited for Tuesday’s game shouldn’t be an issue, however. Riley said he’s just hoping his team doesn’t get too keyed-up.

“We don’t play in that environment all the time,” Riley said. “If we can control our emotions in the moment — I talk all the time about ‘owning the moment.’ That’s kind of a set thing in our program. … Owning the moment against Auburn is going to be very different. There’s gonna be 10,000 people in here. It’s gonna be loud. It’s different playing in front of that many people. We’ve got to embrace that. … We can match up with them, we just can’t get too caught up in the atmosphere.”

Tip-off Tuesday between South Alabama and Auburn is set for 7 p.m. at the Mitchell Center. The game will be streamed live via ESPN+.

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1 hour ago, gravejd said:

This is going to be one of the things i'm looking at. My prediction is we'll match him up against our usual forwards and if they struggle we'll try and move Okoro down on him. But really we switch so much on defense i don't know that it really matters with the matchups. 

Thanks for the write up. This team seems very similar to GA So except they have not played together as much. They are starting 3 new transfer guards so they are learning to play together just like we are. The only way i see them staying in the game is if we just can not handle their pressure and have a repeat of the NC St game last year. It'll be a good test for our guards to see if they can handle the pressure. We also may have to weather a storm to start the game as i expect they will come into the game jacked kind of like GA So did. Hopefully they are over jacked and can't make any baskets. 

Sucks it is on espn+......i don't know what to think about these streaming services. No way i can afford cable and all these extras so something is gonna have to give. 

 

EDIT: I checked out espn+ and i was able to sign up for a monthly subscription for $5 dollars. I guess that isn't too bad for watching the game. I just have to remember to cancel it now. 

Thanks for the edit... I was about to look into it, but I’ve got to teach tonight. Do you know if you can save games or rewatch/stream  it later with your subscription?

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1 hour ago, toddc said:

Thanks for the edit... I was about to look into it, but I’ve got to teach tonight. Do you know if you can save games or rewatch/stream  it later with your subscription?

I think the subscription allows you to watch past events, similar to watchESPN, but again I don't have it (yet).

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ESPN+ should have a 7-day trial offer so if you haven’t tried it, you can get the trial and cancel before you are charged. I have it and it’s good for hockey. I get to see the Avs every so often. 

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1 hour ago, jared52 said:

ESPN+ should have a 7-day trial offer so if you haven’t tried it, you can get the trial and cancel before you are charged. I have it and it’s good for hockey. I get to see the Avs every so often. 

If you don't have a free trial available it's only $4.99 a month. I think that's a small price to pay to see our team play tonight. I've already used my free trial so will be getting the monthly sub for at least this month

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On 11/11/2019 at 9:01 PM, JwgreDeux said:

So far so good to start the season, not beautiful basketball, but plenty of room for growth and improvement as we continue to watch these Tigers figure things out. Of all of our first opponents, I think we know the least about South. Little video is available (and even our game with them will only be on espn+). That being said, I'm feeling pretty good about this one matchup-wise. 

South returns a lot of experience, but don't have anything that can overwhelm us. They are more like Ga Southern than Davidson style-wise. They want to the get to the bucket, cut backdoor, dribble hand off and get to the free throw line. Southern Miss ran some zone that gave them problems. I doubt we do a whole lot of zone, but expect us to switch everything and present similar problems as a zone. 

South doesnt have much size. The starters are from 6-2 to 6-6. So far this season, they are not shooting a high percentage from 2 or 3, and don't have a player who has made more than 2 3s on the season. They are not a good rebounding team, and got killed on the boards by Southern Miss. Their strength is the turnover battle. They have 19 on the season and have forced 35, not the best news for our turnover prone Tigers. 

The player that we have to defend is #33 Josh Ajayi. He s a 6-6 forward at 230lbs and a senior, coming off a 30pt effort vs South Alabama. Our post defenders will have their hands full with this guy, and will have to work to stay in front of him and out of foul trouble. He is also their best rebounder adding 10 per game and their assist leader at 5 per. They have three other guys averaging 10+ points per game from their two wings and their other post, but that is where the production pretty much drops off. Slow down Ajayi and we should have an excellent chance to get some separation in the game. 

Their success is tied to their defense. They limit their turnovers and create them on defense. They limit their opponents shooting percentages from 2 and from 3, giving up only 60pts per game. They want to keep the game in the 60's and play at a slower pace than we do. We have done a good job of getting to the free throw line in our games, but South does a great job of not fouling and not sending teams to the line. 

This is another game about how we play rather than how we handle South. So here are the keys to the game:

  • Limit turnovers. We need our best game as far as limiting turnovers. I'd like less than 15.
  • challenge them at the rim. They don't have any rim protectors that should deter our guys from attacking the basket. Drive, drive, and drive some more. 
  • rebound, rebound and rebound some more. We have a chance to dominate someone with our size and athleticism.
  • defend the basket from backdoors and dribble handoff drives. McLemore and Wiley could have big block numbers. 
  • get out in transition more than we have, push the pace and wear them down due to their small rotation.

 

Feel pretty good about this one, unless the true road environment gets our guys shook. Hard to predict that, but we do have quite a few vets to help in this dept. Go get it boys, War Eagle.  

The true road environment seemed to creep in at times. They really came out energetic and were able to feed off the crowd in the last 5 minutes. Overall, I think we handled the test ok. We were a few made shots by Puriofy and a handful or free throws from putting the game out of reach mid-way through the second half, but we were unable to do so. I was very disappointed with the last 5 minutes, but we were able to find a way to win and that W will help our resume later this season. Some thoughts:

  • Wiley had his worst game of the year, and contributed very little even when he wasn't on the bench with foul trouble. Some bigs play better against other bigs and struggle agains smaller quicker guys, maybe that is an issue for Wiley. I still think he can and will really help us this year, but I don't think he has or will grow into a guy we run through. 
  • McCormick had a serviceable game, overall I thought he was fine. However, in the last 5 minutes we needed him to get us into a play after running some clock, and he failed to do so a handful of times, and had some of his few turnovers late in crunch time. 
  • Samir didn't play the cleanest or prettiest game, but he gutted this one out and had a nice stat line at the end of the night, and got two offensive rebounds on that last possession and the assist that allowed Okoro to get the game winner.
  • Purifoy wasn't quite as good as we need him to be tonight. I think he has progressed some this year and will be fine, but his 1-6 shooting jumps off the stat sheet, and he didn't contribute much anywhere else (2 pts and 4 boards in 25 minutes).
  • McLemore had a nice game offensively and his jump shot looked improved in its fluidity. Could have used more from him on the boards though.
  • Jamal Johnson came up huge, we don't win this game without his shot making. They really congested the lane and made it tough, and his shots were a big boost for us. Happy to see that out of him when he hadn't shown much so far this season. 
  • Akingbola had a nice stretch of minutes off the bench, with some immediate production. Nice luxury to have if/when our bigs get in foul trouble. 
  • Flanigan and Cambridge both showed they are going to keep getting minutes and I would look for their roles to expand some as they get more comfortable. 
  • Okoro was flat out fantastic. He is the best player on this team right now. He can shoot the ball, play in the midrange and attack the bucket. I don't remember Auburn having a freshman at this level this early on both ends of the floor. I have been advocating for him playing from the high post, and when he got the ball their last night good things happened. He is a better passer than I expected and just has a great basketball IQ. From this point forward we need to run more through him.
  • I was very disappointed in our rebounding performance. Samir had 10, Okoro 6 and McCormick 4, but everyone else needs to take a look in the mirror. 3 combined rebounds from our starting 4 and 5 won't get it done, period. 
  • Our free throw shoot was also pretty poor. Not only did we shoot a bad percentage, but we missed front ends of several 1-1s, including in the last minutes of the game. Missing the first is really missing two, and is basically a turnover. Okoro and McCormick both missed front ends in the last two minutes when we got what we wanted on offense, but got fouled. 
  • Hats off to Fox for South, who played his guts out and hit big shot after big shot at the end. 
  • Our final possessions:
    • Okoro at high post, drive and fouled (missed front end of 1-1)
    • McCormick drive to basket from wing off ball screen, fouled on a nice kick to an open Puriofy who was ready for a 3 (missed front end of 1-1)
    • Nice ball movement resulting in Okoro with a wide open look for 3 in the corner, miss (no offensive rebound)
    • (on South's next possession Fox hits a three to tie the game).
    • Nice ball movement again to Okoro on the wing, who attacks the basket for a dunk.
    • (Fox hits another 3 to take the lead for South)
    • Final possession, we ran a ball screen on the wing, looking for a skip to Samir, but he had cut under the basket. So McCormick outlets to McLemore and looked like he was going to reset, but McLemore puts up the 3. Now one thing I would like to point out is CBP had McCormick initiate the offense with 20+ seconds on the clock. If we don't go early, we never get the opportunity for the game winning scramble. Ok, so McLemore misses, but Purifoy, Okoro and Samir all crash and Purifoy gets hands on the ball with Samir coming away with it. McCormick found an open spot and spotted up and Samir hit him beautifully, but McCormick missed as well. Again, everyone crashed the boards and a long rebound in the corner was grabbed by Samir. He drove baseline and was able to find Okoro and the rest is history. But that group didn't panic and was able to get the W. 

Good early learning lessons and good to come away with a W. War Eagle. 

 

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