The University of South Alabama has just concluded a disappointing regular season in where they finished 8-10 in the Sun Belt and an overall record of 16-14. They were given a ninth seed in the Sun Belt tournament where they will play the eighth seeded team Florida Atlantic. The winner of that plays the number one overall seed in Troy.
South Alabama came into the season as a very young team and did the inexperience show as the season was like a roller coaster and went up and down. The highlight of the season was beating Florida in Gainesville and the week before came back to beat Arkansas Little-Rock on ESPN2. It looked as if they were ready for conference play and play a major factor in the Sun Belt.
They started Sun Belt play off with three wins and zero losses but they would end up losing seven of their next eight Sun Belt games, that would give them a record of four wins and seven losses. South Alabama would finish the season with a 4-3 record including an improbable comeback against Denver. That would run their record to 8-10 in the conference.
Who is to blame for such a setback this season? Ronnie Arrow? The inexperience of players? The lack of leadership on the team? A combination of these three things played a part in the way the season went. Since Ronnie Arrow came back as South Alabama's coach three years ago he has only produced one winning team that was not just two games over 500 in the Sun Belt and that was his first season back with the Jaguars where he had a great core of players in Demetric Bennett, Doan Merritt and Ronald Douglas. Coach Arrow still managed to get beat out of the Sun Belt tournament that was held on the home court of the Jaguars. He was fortunate that the NCAA committee looked over the fact that they were a Sun Belt team and in a league not known for getting multiple bids to the NCAA tournament.
The Jaguars knew coming into the season that experience was not on their side. They had to depend on freshman and junior college transfers to come in and play right away. They found a couple of good players in Junior college transfer Tim Williams and true freshman Martino Brock. They led the team in scoring and rebounding this past season and Tim Williams was on All-Sun Belt 2nd team. Its hard for a team though to count on a freshman and a junior college transfer to come in and led a team night in and night out and expect to win. While Tim Williams played JUCO ball before coming to the Jags, the competition is not a tough as it is in Div. 1.
When you have to play mostly freshman and JUCO transfer the leadership for the team will be lacking a little bit. A coach usually depends on his seniors/juniors for leadership and help guide the team. South Alabama had four seniors at the start of the season but LaShaun Watson was let go during the season leaving them with three. and out of the remaining seniors only Bryan Sherrer played a significant role in the teams rotation and beat the Arkansas Little-Rock by himself. Its hard to get a team to come together when you have a distraction like Watson and that could ultimately tear a team apart. Granted Watson was not the teams best player but still played an important role on the team.
But when you have a season like this and your roster is filled with freshmen and sophomores and they played one season all this means is that next year you will have a veteran team and should be able to compete for the Sun Belt championship and be a top team in the league. This year Allyn Cooks looked to take the point guard reins for the next couple of years. Martino Brock could become a two guard next year while Tim Williams becomes the Small Forward. Javier Carter could become the Power Forward next season and Augustine Rubit would be the Center. Also take note that there is Kentari Nettles who could be plugged into the starting line-up next year as he is one of the highest rated recruits to come to South Alabama out of high school in quite sometime. Next year looks promising for the Jaguars and could quite possibly become Sun Belt champions and have an invitation into the big dance. GO JAGS!!!!!!
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