What ever happened to Don Ragsdale? Everyone was high on getting him to come to Southern Miss but now he seems to be a nonstarter.

Heath, have you heard anything on how the football players like the new coaches that have come in? Has the new strength coach started building a strong relationship with the players already? I think he is vital to us turning this ship completely around and the kids need to buy in 100%. In the past few years we've looked so much smaller than a lot of teams. I hope that is about to change.

Eagles look to complete the sweep today...

Couch Will Hall and staff really made recruiting the state of Mississippi a priority. The Eagles have only 1 maybe 2 scholarships left to offer in 2021. This is a team that can compete for the CUSA Championship next season.

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Stevenson:
We can't worry about officials, we have to do what we do and execute.
I took what the D gave me and my mid-range was working.
MTSU played hard, but the didn't do anything different. We turned the ball over too much.

Hardy:
They guarded me harder and it let me come off picks and make plays.
I picked up 2 quick fouls and that slowed me in the 1st half.
We have to play and not let officials bother us.

Ladner:
We played a very determined opponent. They are very athletic and lung and caused some problems for us. I was happy we won the game when we didn't have our A game. Our defense carried us again.
We turned the basketball over too much and were careless and it was after rebounds.
Last season we would have lost that game.
Pierre was huge at the end of the game. Sometimes it is how you finish.
a lot of these games will be tough because you play someone back to back.
If we don't turn the ball over, we are in much better shape.
Tae getting the quick fouls and sitting out in 1st half was a reason we were so off at the end of the 1st. As long as we were in the lead I wanted to save him for entire 2nd half.
Over the last 3 or 4 weeks we have shot much better from the charity stripe. We have been working on FT by knocking off number of sprints in practice. Seems to work pretty well.
They adjusted their defense to Pierre from Draine and it got Draine open more for some good looks and big shots.
Stevenson is the hardest working guy in college basketball. He is getting better every single day.
The games were called different. There were so many more calls with the way both teams played.
It is harder for young adjust to different officiating like that and we must continue to improve in that area.

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Eagles must have a win tonight!!!

Harris:
It all started with our defense tonight
We were able to get in a rhythm tonight and it showed on the court.
Pierre is a fun player to play with fun to watch score.

Pierre:
i just wanted to keep going my teammates were finding me and I didn't want to let them down.
The UAB loss was motivation
I am learning to play PG and it it getting comfortable with Hardy

Ladner:
I thought we prepared well this week.
I left the walk through this week feeling much better that our guys were locked in jand prepared.
Pierre bounced back from a bad 2nd half in 2nd UAB game.
Harris scoring gave us a boost.
Draine is getting defensive attention and that is opening up other guys.
Good to get everyone in the game.
Challenge moves to tomorrow and they will be in desperation mode.
Our emphasis at halftime was making sure everyone was doing what they were supposed to do.
Turnovers, we only had 5, they had 15. That gave us more basket attempts and we had 16 assists. Something we haven't done.
With a quick turnaround, we were able to get guys out of the game much earlier than expected. We also got some guys who deserved playing time.
We will stress not being satisfied. It will be difficult to bounce back tomorrow. We can, but we have tp prepare like tomorrow is a new opponent.
We played as well as we played all season.

It is pretty simple. Shoot better from the outside and get Draine going from outside. Draine is an excellent shooter, but has been off this season. Teams are playing a physical man-to-man against him and making him work extra hard on the defensive end. The Eagles are only giving up 63 points per game while averaging about 64 offensively. He is having to stress too hard on defense. A great way to get him going is to set him up on fast breaks or when the team is up tempo. Get him some easy looks in transition and kick the ball out to him on rebounds and get him easy shots. He can open things up for everyone else. Here are some stats to back what I am saying up:

*All of these stats are for 3 point shots

Catch and shoot shots are 54.7% of his overall shots for a percentage of 34%.

He's 32.4 % when he spots up for a jumper.

He shoots 30% off screens

He shoots 47.1% in transition

This adds up to quick shots and quick passes off rebounds being what Draine is having success at. This team will not win many games when he is only getting 2 to 4 3's off and only making 1 or 2 per game. He must score and that must start this weekend. The coaches must do a better job of getting him involved. If he is getting open shots and continuing to miss them, it may be time to consider another option and try him off the bench. His best season ever was when he was the 6th man coming off the bench.

What do you guys think?

They have a few at the ticket office and you can call and get them while supplies last

Which team in our conference will benefit more by having an extra year? I think it could be UAB.

Head Coach Jay Ladner knew that the 2021 Golden Eagles are a much more talented group than last season. He also knew there would be growing pains. What no one counted on was all of the roadblocks and hurdles they would have to overcome before the season even started.

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Draine is not a guy who can create, so we have to be creative to get him extra shots. We have to push the ball in transition and get some shots and get some shots on offensive rebounds. We have to kick the ball back out when we get offensive rebounds. We are not getting enough shots because we are not being patient and trying to force things.

We are having to be almost perfect on defense. That is almost impossible to do.

We have to and will be better offensively this week.

Pierre struggled against UAB in the 2nd game and that is why Malone played more in 2nd half. Pierre will be starting this week.

Happy to see Pinkney playing better and shooting better from the field. It has taken him time because of injuries and not getting to play 8 non-conference games.

Johnson has not been setting the standard at everyday practice habits. He and I had a "come to Jesus meting" and he has had a really good week at practice. He can be an X -Factor for us.

Recruiting: Hard to recruit because we can't see them in person. We will like to sign a PG, we need a big body big man inside (like a Jimmerson at UAB), we need another player who can create their own shot and create on the floor. PG is hard to find because they are so coveted in basketball. We need a QB on the floor.

He has been battling some health issues lately and needs your thoughts and prayers....

Nm

I am hearing that it looks as if CUSA will expand the baseball roster from 27-30 players on the bench this year. This is something the SEC is doing already.

Although not officially voted on, the format for all CUSA series this season will be a 9-7-7-9 inning format. I still believe with the depth at pitching for USM, that this is an advantage. The one question remining is if they will expand rosters, that is yet to be determined. They must make these decisions rater quick. Baseball is about a month away.

Good luck to Julian

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Hey all,

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They will be discussing if the number of active players goes above 27 because of the new rules. They will also be discussing the format for the 4 game series. Most if not all coaches want a 9-7-7-9 inning format for the 4 game series. It should be interesting to see where this ends up. Stay tuned as we fund out more.