Game Thread - @ South Alabama

X

_x_

M&G Gift Contributor
Texas State has a chance to clinch its 2nd straight Sun Belt regular season championship Wednesday night in a tough game in Mobile vs. South Alabama.

Wednesday Schedule
UTA @ Troy (-4.5) - 6pm
Louisiana @ Georgia Southern (pk) - 6pm
ULM @ Georgia State (-12.5) - 6pm
App State (-8) @ Little Rock - 6:30pm
Texas State @ South Alabama (-3) - 7pm
Coastal Carolina @ Arkansas State (-3) - 7pm
  • The other games that matter are the UTA/Troy game and the App State/Little Rock game. Both Troy and App are still chasing us for the regular season title. Easiest thing for us to do is just win then those games don't matter at all, but if we lose we can still clinch tonight if both Troy and App also lose. If we lose and either App or Troy win we'll have to wait till Friday for the title to be decided. If App loses tonight, the worst we can finish is 2nd regardless of what we do the next 2 games.
Conference Standings
1. Texas State 10-3
2. App State 11-5
3. Troy 9-5
4. Georgia State 7-5
5. South Alabama 8-6
6. Arkansas State 7-6
7. Louisiana/UTA 7-8
9. Coastal Carolina 6-8
10. ULM 5-11
11. Georgia Southern 4-10
12. Little Rock 3-9

NET Rankings
131. Texas State (+3)
133. South Alabama (-12)
158. Coastal Carolina (+9)
159. App State (+19)
167. Arkansas State (+7)
170. Troy (-5)
185. Georgia State (+6)
201. Louisiana (+1)
228. UTA (-2)
245. Georgia Southern (-8)
272. ULM (+2)
320. Little Rock (-1)

TXST News
  • Texas State is coming off a 68-50 win over Little Rock in their final home game of the regular season to put us 1 win away from a repeat conference championship. The Bobcats are 19-6 overall and 10-3 in the SBC. The overall win streak is up to 7 and for the month of February that's now 18 straight in the month of February.
  • Scenario for TXST is pretty easy: If Texas State goes 1-1 or better over the final 2 games the Bobcats will win the title. App and Troy both have to go 2-0 and need TXST to go 0-2 to win the championship.
  • Injury Update: Two players were out for the most recent game with Little Rock: Backup SG Dylan Dawson and reserve F Nate Lacewell. Unsure of what's keeping them out and when to expect them back.
  • Texas State has finally entered the Mid-Major Top 25 this week and is ranked #25. It was kind of blowing my mind how long it took for us to even start receiving votes to be honest:
  • Texas State's current 7-game winning streak over conference opponents is the longest in 28 years.
Scouting South Alabama
South Alabama is 18-9 overall and 8-6 in SBC play. They're 12-1 at home on the season. Their best win on the season was probably an early season win at Jacksonville State, who's currently 18-9 on the season and leading the A-Sun at 11-3. They also had a nice win last week at Coastal and beat Georgia State earlier in the year on their home floor. They were 17-11 overall last year and 10-7 in SBC play, finishing 3rd in the East. They were picked to finish 5th in the league in the preseason poll this year, which is exactly where they currently stand.

7 of the 14 players on the roster for the Jaguars are D1 transfers and they have two SEC transfers that are both top 5 in the SBC in scoring. 6'4" Texas A&M grad transfer G Jay Jay Chandler is 4th in the league in scoring at 16.4 PPG, 5th in the league in FG% at 46.5%, and 7th in FT% at 77.5%. Chandler played 4 seasons at A&M where he averaged better than 8 PPG in two seasons. Right behind him in scoring is 6'4" Sr. LSU transfer G Charles Manning, Jr. Manning is 5th in the league at 15.9 PPG, 6th in FG% at 44.2%, 7th in assists at 3.6 per game, and 8th in FT% at 77.5%.

6'7' Sr. Auburn transfer F Javon Franklin is the 5th leading rebounder in the Sun Belt at 7.5 RPG as well as the 5th leading shot blocker at 1.2 blocks per game. He's 3rd on the team in scoring at 11.0 PPG. The big 3-point threat on the team is Brazilian 6'8" Sr. grad transfer from Southwestern Oklahoma State Kayo Goncalves. He's 4th in the league at 2.2 made 3s per game and is totaling 7.4 PPG. He was 4th in the country in D2 last year in 3-point percentage.

The Jags are the 2nd highest scoring team in the league at 72.4 PPG, their +9 scoring margin leads the league (just ahead of TXST at +8.5). This is also a matchup of the most efficient offenses in the league as TXST shoots 47.2% from the field while USA is at 46.2%. USA also boasts the 2nd best FG% defense, allowing opponents to shoot just 40.3% from the field. USA's 4.8 blocks per game is the best in the league and their +2.48 turnover margin is 2nd best. The only real negative on this team is they only average 11.5 assists per game. This is a really dangerous team and has the most raw talent of any team in the conference this year in my opinion. It's kind of a hodge podge of transfers that have taken all season to gel, but just from a raw talent perspective I'm not sure anyone else in the league comes close. This will be a tough game on the road and we're rightfully underdogs. This is a team (along with Georgia State) I really want no part of in the conference tournament in a couple weeks.

Last Meeting/Series History
Due to Covid its been almost two entire calendar years since these programs have met. USA beat TXST 58-54 in Mobile on March 3rd, 2020. The Bobcats lead the overall series 8-4 however.

Coverage/Betting Odds
This game will be shown on ESPN+. USA is currently a 3-point favorite at home, which is usually the amount added for home court advantage. Meaning these teams are probably a pickem on a neutral court.

South Alabama Message Board
Their game thread isn't posted yet, I'll try to update this post when it is:
247sports.com

South Alabama Jaguars Message Board Forum

The Jags Jungle
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S

stlwildcats

M&G Gift Contributor
M&G Collective Member
This game might last an hour and a half. I think we got shafted a couple times but we got away with things too.
 
X

_x_

M&G Gift Contributor
I hate how patient we are against the zone sometimes. Either need to drive into it, be on point with interior passing, or shoot your way out of it. We've done 2 of those 3 at times (haven't really tried driving into it), but I just hate how we pass it around the perimeter for 20 seconds before we finally decide to attack it in any way. Its why these teams press us up the court cause they know how slowly we run our offense and if they can get us to waste 7 or 8 seconds breaking the press we are that much more ineffective at getting a good scoring look.

25-25 at the half.

Only shooting 33% from the field and can't get to the FT line (partly cause these officials are really letting them play). Did hit 3/7 from 3 which is keeping us in it.
Harrell, Asberry, and Ceaser all have 6 apiece. Small has 4 points and 6 rebounds.
 
B

Bullcat

Active member
Neither team having a good shooting night. Fortunate, that USA is not efficient 3-point shooting team.

All you can ask for on the road is to be in the game - we are with the 2nd half to play.
 
LTK5H

LTK5H

M&G Gift Contributor
M&G Collective Member
bigred24 said:
Crazy how ineffective we are against a simple 3-2 zone. Penetrate and stop just going side to side
Click to expand...
Pretty sure it's a 2-3, not a 3-2, no?

I don't like the way we approach the zone either. Would like to see a high post w/ someone like Small or Caesar getting the ball and kicking out or down instead of the weak showing to the FT line, which is often too low/deep in the paint/zone to be effective even if they do get it, and then passing the perimeter.
 
C

codestar

M&G Gift Contributor
LTK5H said:
Pretty sure it's a 2-3, not a 3-2, no?

I don't like the way we approach the zone either. Would like to see a high post w/ someone like Small or Caesar getting the ball and kicking out or down instead of the weak showing to the FT line, which is often too low/deep in the paint/zone to be effective even if they do get it, and then passing the perimeter.
Click to expand...

getting the ball at the top of the paint to small and passed inside to Caesar to slam it down is a move that seems to work.
 
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