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LOCATION: Hattiesburg, MS
CONFERENCE: Conference USA (National)
LAST SEASON: 14-16
CONFERENCE RECORD: 6-10 (2nd)
STARTERS LOST/RETURNING: 4/1
NICKNAME: Golden Eagles
COLORS: Black & Gold
HOMECOURT: Reed Green Coliseum (8,095)
COACH: James Green (Mississippi '83)
record at school 48-42 (3 years)
career record 48-42 (3 years)
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ASSISTANTS: Jeff Norwood (Mississippi State '86)
Robbie Laing (Troy State '81)
Kyle Roane (Southern Mississippi '94)
TEAM WINS: (last 5 years) 17-12-12-22-14
RPI (last 5 years) 61-101-142-71-134
1998-99 FINISH: Lost in conference quarterfinal.
ESPN.com Clubhouse
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Things have not gone exactly as James Green would have planned when he became head coach at Southern Mississippi four years back, but he has always had one thing to fall back on: Falling back. The Golden Eagles haven't always run as fast or shot as straight as he wanted, but when all else failed, they could drop themselves into the lane and guard the basket as sternly as anyone. So that is the goal for this year, every year at Southern Miss: No retreat. If the Eagles can extend their defense and attack the ball and produce points, they won't need to be the sort of point-a-minute operation they've seemed to be through so much of Green's tenure. Last season, the entire offensive approach was to work through as much of the 35-second clock as necessary to spring loose shooting guard Neil Reed. It worked OK, and would have worked better had not Reed experienced some health problems, but it's not the sort of approach that is going to produce a conference contender and NCAA Tournament team. The problem with this team is it cannot even count on that much. Reed was one of the league's best players last year was absolutely hosed out of a spot on the first-team all-conference team and he will not be easy to replace. Green enters the year without much conviction about who'll play the role of the No. 1 shooting guard and primary offensive option.
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Blue Ribbon Analysis |
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BACKCOURT C+ BENCH/DEPTH C
FRONTCOURT B INTANGIBLES B-
OK, let's get this straight: No scorers, no shooters, nine guys who've never played in Conference USA. All correct. So how come Southern Miss is picked for second in the National Division? Well, the National Division might be more imposing if In Sync, Backstreet Boys and 98 Degrees populated it. South Florida is the only team in the entire lot that appears promising. Southern is the only other team that is equipped to at least be competitive each night out from the standpoint of physical strength, experience and the ability to punt and play defense if nothing else works. Coach James Green has always got enough athletes, and he is good enough at teaching them to defend that they're competitive, but without more offensive ability, they can't really make a major move forward. The one year they might have been able to take that step (1997-98), their schedule was so dismal no one took them seriously. This looks like it could be more of the same, because the two most experienced guards are non-scorers and so are the two most experienced big men. But with the depth that's here, there might be that opportunity to extend the defense and create scoring opportunities with steals and turnovers, and that would make the Golden Eagles one of the few teams in the league that's really in position to play uptempo. It never hurts to throw opponents a changeup from what they're used to seeing each week. "Even in my first year here, we experimented with being able to get up the court and do some things," Green said. "But as you start your practices and you start to play games, you realize what you can and cannot do. We've had to make the adjustment of coming back and having a good, sound halfcourt defense. "But in order to play some of the guys on our roster, we're going to have to look to get out. I think our roster's gotten a little better each year. It's just a matter of getting a couple guys that are really, really good like DePaul did. It totally changed their program." So USM could be more exciting, if not better, as well. At the least, the Golden Eagles should stack up well against the competition. Finishing on the high side of .500 would constitute a successful season. |
"There'll be some other guys. We don't know exactly who's going to come to the front," Green said. "In the first couple years, we scored different ways. I think what we've got to do is be creative enough to score points different ways, rather than give a guy like Neil a chance to get a look at it every trip down the court." USM averaged 62 points a game last season, and didn't even hit 60 in conference games. Reed led the team in scoring in 21 of the 28 games he played. It's hard to imagine how this team will be better with the ball, although it is more experienced and physically mature at nearly every position, and that could make a difference. What is missing once again is any variety of players who can make plays. From point guard Mel Cauthen to center Carlos Booker, offense is a problem for a majority of USM players. There is not a single player on the roster who averaged even seven points a game last season. "We've got to get the guys who are back from last year's team and get the ones, who even if it's eight or nine points a game, we've got to get them to where we can count on that eight or nine points," Green said. For a team with few genuine offensive weapons, the Golden Eagles sure look scary when the ball goes up. Booker, a 6-11, 210-pound senior, (5.5 ppg and 5.0 rpg) could possibly develop into an all-league level center in his final year. He is not overwhelmingly strong and can't catch or finish, but he is a defensive force. Booker blocked 58 shots last season, which is a lot because opponents only attempted 52 shots a game. He is likely to play considerably more than 21 minutes a game. There aren't as many options as a year ago, and it's not out of the question that Booker could gain a greater understanding of how to function on offense. As a junior, he did not move smoothly to spots, playing methodically and rarely opening himself to catch the ball. "He's made a lot of improvement effort-wise. He gave us a good effort, but he's got to make good decisions all the time," Green said. "He was a little unsure what he could and couldn't do, particularly at the offensive end. He's a guy who can make plays offensively, with the pass or the jump shot. We've got to have him on the court because of what he can do defensively." Booker and 6-9, 230-pound senior power forward Vandarel Jones would be the foundation of a powerful team if only there were more potent perimeter players surrounding them. Together, they are intimidating from the standpoint of strength (Jones) and elasticity (Booker). But Jones is not fluid or graceful and he, too, does not have a lot going on at the offensive end. He averaged 6.8 points and 7.0 rebounds. He shot .610 from the floor, mainly because he rarely attempts anything other than putbacks. In his first season, Jones shot .713. The slippage was mostly a matter of Jones' general decline and his trouble seeing eye-to-eye with Green, which led to a brief suspension late in the season. He returned and played well, though, including a 14-rebound game in the Eagles' buzzer-beating victory against Louisville. Jones is a bit far into his career to expect him to suddenly develop into a low-post scorer, although it's possible and would be a great boon to the Golden Eagles. "He's worked very hard in the spring and the summer, since the season ended," Green said. "That's why we did what we did, to make sure that we were on the same page. We wanted to get him to the point where he would be distraction-free. We need him to be very focused, like he was the year before." Along with Jones and Booker in the power positions, USM has added 6-8, 230-pound junior Carl Henderson (19.9 ppg, 9.9 rpg) from Pensacola (Fla.) J.C. Henderson is a lefty who was first-team all-conference in junior college. He may be the most important recruit for the Golden Eagles, making them even bigger and meaner inside and perhaps even providing the scoring touch that Jones and Booker lack. "I think he's got a chance to come in and do it right away," Green said. "He scores around the basket, rebounds. He's just a banger. He's got a chance to be our best inside scorer." Michael Palmer, a 6-9, 225-pound freshman out of Gibson County High in Dyer, Tenn., attended the adidas ABCD Camp and averaged 17 points and 12.2 rebounds as a high school senior. But to make a serious contribution, he will need to either wait a year or beat out Henderson, who will get the first look because his expiration date comes sooner. With such size and depth inside, the question will be whether Green wants to be more athletic with 6-7, 220-pound junior Kilavorus Thompson playing at power forward or whether Thompson can somehow improve his skills to the point that he can handle playing small forward. Green admits he doesn't see that happening now, which reinforces the notion that there's not much behind what's up front on this team. If Thompson plays inside, that means that it's possible four of the six best players on this team are limited to two positions. Thompson is a spectacular athlete whose sophomore season was basically wasted on a hangover from his year of freshman ineligibility plus a knee injury from which he was slow to recover. He never was completely comfortable in his first year. He averaged 2.7 points and 2.9 rebounds. Although he shot .491 from the floor, he didn't ever have a breakout game no more than nine points or nine rebounds in any outing. "Nobody's seen the real Kilavorus," Green said. "I don't know how realistic it was to expect him to come in on this level and be real consistent, night-in, night-out. He's got a chance to be a nice inside player that can step away from the basket and be a problem for some people." If Thompson does not play small forward, it's likely you'll see USM go with two small guards and one big wing. Senior Earl Flowers, 6-1, and Cauthen, a 6-0 junior, would make the Golden Eagles effective on the defensive end and difficult to press because of their quickness and ballhandling skill. The wing spot is harder to figure, with three unproven candidates to compete for the job. Marlon Carter is a 6-6, 215-pound sophomore who averaged 13.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists as a freshman at Marshalltown (Iowa) Community College. He is considered enough of a ballhandler to play the point, but what the Golden Eagles need most in this spot is a scorer. At Carl Albert CC in Oklahoma, 6-5, 225-pound junior David Wall averaged 21.0 points and 8.0 rebounds, but he was more of an in-the-lane scorer. He signed with USM in July and deepens the team on the front line, but it remains to be seen how he can address what this team is missing. The last of the three is 6-4 redshirt freshman Tobias Brinkley, who averaged 21 points and five rebounds as a senior at Lovejoy High in Jonesboro, Ga., but sat out last season trying to improve his skills. If those guys don't step forward quickly, they'll be pushed by freshmen Mario Myles and Clement Carter. Myles, 6-5, averaged 14.8 points, 6.2 rebounds and 4.1 assists in his senior season at Callaway High, Jackson, Miss. He is considered a slashing type and needs to add muscle to make better use of that style in C-USA. Carter is 6-5 and 220 pounds and averaged 18.3 points, 8.5 rebounds and 5.7 assists at East St. John's High in LaPlace, La. He may turn out to be the best three-point shooter in the program. It would be nice for USM if he turned out not to be the only three-point shooter. Cauthen (5.0 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 97 assists, 29 steals) has been a periodic starter in each of his two seasons. He has poor shooting range (six of 28 career threes) but is a solid-type point who, again, would be better on a team with more scoring weapons. Although physical strength has been a problem for Cauthen in the past, he has improved his body enough that he squatted more weight than Jones during one summer training session. He is the likely full-time starter at point this year because of his leadership capabilities on a team with so many new players. Flowers is one of Conference USA's quickest players and would be extremely dangerous if USM committed itself to more external defensive pressure. Flowers (5.8 ppg, 1.3 rpg) picked up 50 steals last season, pretty remarkable for somebody who played just 21 minutes per game. He did not shoot well last season (.234 from three-point range) but his experience in one season at Nicholls State (.333) indicates he might be capable of better. "Earl Flowers is better in an uptempo transition game," Green said. In addition to the abundance of new wings, USM added two smaller guards in 6-2 sophomore Andy Rice of Wallace State (Ala.) C.C. and 6-2 freshman Marcus Terrell of Provine High in Jackson, Miss. Rice is a shooter who could displace one of the two veterans if he demonstrates he can not only get off shots against high-major defenders, but also handle the other responsibilities of the position. It seems a stretch, for now. He averaged just 8.0 points in his only season of junior college, after scoring 24.2 ppg in high school at Sumilton Christian Academy in Alabama. At Provine, one of the state's top prep programs, Terrell scored 13.9 points per game and passed for 4.2 assists. Provine was state runner-up. He may play some backup minutes at the point but will probably wait until later in his career to become a factor.
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