Feb. 8, 2013

Memphis Notes  | Southern Miss Notes  | C-USA Notes 

Memphis (19-3, 8-0) at Southern Miss (18-5, 7-1) Reed GreenColiseum (Hattiesburg, Miss.) Sat., February 9, 2013 - 3 pm (CT)
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Television: CBS Sports Network/Comcast digital channel 222 (Dave Ryan, play-by-play; Pete Gillen, analyst)

Radio: WREC 600 AM (Dave Woloshin, play-by-play; Matt Dillon, color analyst; Forrest Goodman, studio host)

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SETTING THE SCENE

• Memphis (19-3, 8-0 C-USA) closes out a short two-game road trip Saturday, Feb. 9 when it travels to Hattiesburg, Miss., for a Conference USA encounter with longtime rival Southern Miss (18-5, 7-1 C-USA). The game, scheduled for a 3 p.m. (CT) start, is slated for a CBS Sports Network (Comcast digital channel 222) telecast.
• The Tigers appeared in the Also Receiving Votes category of this week's national polls. Memphis is No. 30 in the Associated Press poll and No. 32 in the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll. Southern Miss was also in the coaches poll Also Receiving Votes category at No. 34.
• The Tigers bounced back after their Dec. 15 setback to No. 6/6 Louisville with 13-consecutive wins over Lipscomb 62-56 Dec. 20, Oral Roberts 72-57 Dec. 28, Loyola, Md., 78-64 Dec. 30, Tennessee 85-80 Jan. 4, East Carolina 67-54 Jan. 9, UAB 69-53 Jan. 12, Rice 77-51 Jan. 16, Harvard 60-50 Jan. 19, Tulane 71-60 Jan. 22, Marshall 73-72 Jan. 26, East Carolina 75-68 Jan. 30, Tulsa 94-64 Feb. 2 and SMU 60-52 Feb. 6.
• Prior to the Dec. 15 loss, Memphis had won four straight with victories over Northern Iowa 52-47 Nov. 24, UT Martin 93-65 Nov. 29, Ohio 84-58 Dec. 5 and Austin Peay 83-65 Dec. 8.
• Southern Miss has won 10 of its last 11 outings, including four road victories at Rice, SMU, Tulsa and UAB.
• The Golden Eagles are 8-0 at Reed Green Coliseum this year.
• Southern Miss returns two starters and five letterwinners from last year's 25-9 squad. The Golden Eagles also welcome 12 newcomers to this season's squad.

WHAT'S UP NEXT

• The Tigers return home to the friendly confines of FedExForum Wednesday, Feb. 13 to host UCF in a C-USA encounter at 7 p.m. (CT). The contest is slated for a CBS Sports Network (CBS SN) telecast.
• The Golden Eagles continue their two-game homestand Wednesday, Feb. 13 when they host Tulane at Reed Green Coliseum. Game time is 7 p.m. (CT).

WHAT THE GOLDEN EAGLES DID A YEAR AGO

• Southern Miss posted a 25-9 overall record and an 11-5 Conference USA mark.
• The Golden Eagles finished second in the C-USA regular-season standings.
• Southern Miss advanced to the Conference USA Tournament semifinal round, before falling to Marshall 73-62.
• The Golden Eagles received an NCAA Tournament at-large bid and dropped a 70-64 second-round decision to Kansas State.

SCOUTING THE GOLDEN EAGLES

• Southern Miss enters Saturday's C-USA encounter with an 18-5 overall record and a 7-1 league mark.
• The Golden Eagles have won 10 of their last 11 outings, including four road wins over Rice, SMU, Tulsa and UAB. Southern Miss dropped a narrow 60-58 decision to UCF Feb. 6.
• Southern Miss is a perfect 8-0 at Reed Green Coliseum this season, including a 102-46 blowout win over Marshall Jan. 23.
• The tandem of Dwayne Davis (12.9 ppg) and Jerrold Brooks (10.7 ppg) paces the Golden Eagles offense.
• Jonathan Mills is Southern Miss' top rebounder at 6.7 boards per game. Michael Craig is second at 5.3 rpg.
• Neil Watson is the Golden Eagles' top playmaker with 111 total assists (5.0 apg; fourth in C-USA).
• Southern Miss has five players that shoot 35 percent or better from the three-point line, and they are Watson (46.3 percent), Davis (42.3), Rashard McGill (39.4), Brooks (36.5) and Deon Edwin (36.4).
• The Golden Eagles are shooting 48.6 percent from the floor, 39 percent from the three-point line and 69.8 percent from the charity stripe.
• Southern Miss is out-rebounding its opponents by an average margin of +6.5 boards per game (35.3-28.8).
• The Golden Eagles have 10 players that average double digits in minutes played.
• Head coach Donnie Tyndall is in his first season at Southern Miss. He came to Hattiesburg from Morehead State, where he spent six seasons. His 2010-11 team upset Louisville in the NCAA Tournament second round.

The Last Meeting Memphis 72 Southern Miss 75 February 1, 2012 Hattiesburg, Miss. Crawford Nets Career-High 23 Points in Memphis' Loss to Southern Miss, 75-72 Chris Crawford scored a career-high 23 points, but was unable to connect on a three-point shot at the buzzer and Southern Miss defeated Memphis, 75-72. Crawford connected on 9-of-15 (60.0 percent) field-goal attempts, including 5-of-7 (71.4 percent) from three-point range. Recap | Box Score | Notes

"MID-WAY" FIRST PLACE ON THE LINE

• The Tigers and Golden Eagles enter Saturday's game with Conference USA's "mid-way" first place on the line.
• Memphis is atop the Conference USA standings at 8-0, with Southern Miss in second at 7-1.
• With a Tigers win, Memphis would gain a two-game advantage in the league's regular-season title race. A Southern Miss victory would pull the Golden Eagles even with the Tigers. However, Southern Miss would own the tiebreaker.

DIDN'T WE DO THIS LAST YEAR?

• If fans from both sides remember, Memphis and Southern Miss played for Conference USA's "mid-way" first place around this same time a year ago.
• The game was played Feb. 1, 2012, in Hattiesburg, and both teams entered the contest with identical 6-1 C-USA marks.
• The Golden Eagles won the hard-fought encounter 75-72 to take the C-USA "mid-way" first-place lead. However, the Tigers made up ground the final month of the season to take the league's regular-season crown.

TIGERS DON'T LIKE THE "GREEN"

• As in playing at Reed Green Coliseum because, in its last 23 trips to Hattiesburg (since 1987-88), Memphis has been fortunate to come close to splitting those games (11-12 record; .478 winning percentage).
• Of those 11 wins, six were by single digits, and the average margin of victory in those six Tigers' single-digit victories was 5.8 points.
• To take it further, Southern Miss is the site of the most Tigers' C-USA road losses since 2000-01 (four setbacks).

"BLACK `N BLUE" CLOSE CALLS

• Many call the Memphis-Southern Miss football rivalry the "Black `n Blue" series.
• With the recent battles on the court, that monicker can also be applied to the basketball series between the two rivals.
• In their last seven encounters, all have been decided by seven or fewer points.
• The average margin of victory in those seven games was 3.4 points (Tigers 6-1 record).

PASTNER VERSUS C-USA COACHING NEWBIES

• It's hard to believe that anyone is any "newer" to Conference USA than Memphis head coach Josh Pastner, but the fact is Pastner is the third-longest tenured coach in the league.
• This season, Pastner meets four C-USA coaching newbies in SMU's Larry Brown, Southern Miss' Donnie Tyndall, Tulsa's Danny Manning and UAB's Jarod Haase.
• So far, Pastner is 3-0 against the 2012-13 C-USA coaching newbies with victories over UAB 69-53, Tulsa 94-64 and SMU 60-52.
• There were no first-year head coaches at C-USA schools in 2011-12.
• In 2010-11, Pastner faced five first-year C-USA head coaches -- East Carolina's Jeff Lebo (2-1), Marshall's Tom Herrion (1-1), Houston's James Dickey (1-0), Tulane's Ed Conroy (1-0) and UTEP's Tim Floyd (1-1) -- and posted a 6-3 record in those match-ups.
• Overall, Pastner has a 9-3 record (.750 winning percentage) against C-USA coaching newbies.

TIGERS, GOLDEN EAGLES TO ADD TO LONGEST SERIES SATURDAY

• Saturday's Memphis-Southern Miss game is the 89th meeting between the two longtime rivals, which is the longest series in Tigers hoops history.
• In the 2010-11 campaign, the Memphis-Southern Miss series became the longest in Tigers history when the two programs met for the 86th time in the 2011 Conference USA Tournament.
• Memphis' second-longest series is with Louisville, which stands at 87 games.

PROTECT THE BALL!

• Saturday's outcome may come down to which team protects the ball better, as both Memphis and Southern Miss are among C-USA's top-three teams in forcing turnovers.
• The Golden Eagles lead C-USA in forcing turnovers at 19.0 miscues per contest, while Memphis is third at 16.0.

STREAKING TIGERS

• Memphis brings a 13-game win streak into Saturday's Conference USA encounter versus Southern Miss.
• The 13-game win streak is the eighth-longest in school history.
• The following lists the longest win streaks in Tigers basketball history:

"CLOSE-CALL" PASTNER

• In 2012-13, Memphis has a 6-2 record in single-digit games and a 3-0 mark in games decided by five or fewer points.
• Last season, Memphis was 6-7 in single-digit outcome games and 4-5 in games decided by five or fewer points.
• Overall, Josh Pastner'steams have a 35-19 record (.648 winning percentage) in games decided by single digits.

FEBRUARY FRIENDLY FOR TIGERS

• The Tigers have enjoyed tremendous success in the month of January (93-21 record; .816 winning percentage) since 1999-2000, but February hasn't been too bad either.
• Since 1999-2000, Memphis has a 78-23 record (.772 winning percentage) in February.
• Last year, the Tigers posted a 7-2 record in February. One of those two February losses was a 75-72 setback to Southern Miss on Feb. 1, 2012.
• Memphis has won 49 of its last 57 games (.860 winning percentage) in the month of February.

TIGERS ON THE ROAD IN C-USA SINCE 2005-06

• Everyone knows how tough the Tigers are at home in Conference USA play since the league realigned in 2005-06.
• Memphis is 71-3 (.959 winning percentage) in C-USA games at FedExForum since 2005-06, and the record includes both regular season and tournament games.
• Well, the Tigers aren't too bad in their C-USA road games over that same period of time.
• Memphis has a 50-10 C-USA road record (.833 winning percentage; includes regular season and tournament games) since 2005-06.
• Of the 10 league road losses since 2005-06, four were single-digit setbacks.
• To take it further, the Tigers' 50 C-USA road wins since 2005-06 are more than 10 of the 11 other league schools' home wins in C-USA play, and the following shows that:

MORE ON TIGERS' ROAD SUCCESS

• Memphis enters Saturday's game at Southern Miss with the nation's longest road win streak at nine straight.
• In fact, the Tigers' last road loss came at Southern Miss on Feb. 1, 2012 (75-72 USM win).
• Memphis is 5-0 in road games in 2012-13 and is college basketball's lone unbeaten team in road games to date this season.
• However, this is not the first time that the Tigers were the nation's last team to remain undefeated in road games. In 2005-06, Memphis was college basketball's last unbeaten road team, going 10-0 until an early March loss at UAB.

LOOKING FOR THAT CENTURY DUNK

• He's wowed Tigers fans with his high-flying acrobatics during his career.
• His dunks have been in ESPN's SportsCenter Top-10 four times in 2012-13.
• And he was Intersport's Dunks of the Year winner in 2011-12.
• And senior D.J. Stephens is approaching another milestone for dunks. The 6-foot-5 forward currently has 96 career slams and needs four more to reach 100.
• The following is a year-by-year breakdown of Stephens' dunks: