Texas Southern men to face Southern in home opener

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Back home after 0-13 start, team opens SWAC play



Texas Southern is 0-13, but considering the Tigers have been navigating the nation's toughest schedule, coach Mike Davis can accept the record, though it doesn't tell the full story of his team's season.

The Tigers took leads into halftime against BYU, Toledo and Wyoming. They trailed by less than six points heading into the intermission against Clemson, Ohio State and Oregon. The Tigers lost to Washington State in overtime.



Rough by design

"We knew it was going to be really challenging but that's what I wanted," Davis said. "I didn't want my guys to feel comfortable; I didn't want my guys to feel good. I wanted them to work hard and get better and so I think we've gotten better. The key is going to be how do we carry over and still improve once we get into conference play."

Davis emphasized the strategy behind his scheduling: to test his team against the stiffest competition ahead of conference and tournament play as well as the home schedule, which begins Monday night when the Tigers host Southern, winners of the 2016 Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament, at HPE Arena.


The losses haven't discouraged most players, who are poised for SWAC competition to begin in January.

"(Records) definitely can be deceiving," said center Trayvon Reed, who leads the team in rebounding at nine per game. "I feel like people shouldn't sleep on us, we had the toughest schedule in the country. Every game we've been in except for two or three, it's been a dogfight."

Davis liked his team's depth heading into the season, but didn't anticipate losing two starters in forward Kevin Scott and guard Robert Lewis. The pair were averaging a combined 18.5 points per game when they were lost. Both will likely miss the rest of the season with knee injuries.

"That really hurts us but we have enough talent to still do what we want to do," Davis said. "We were very deep going into the season but losing those two guys means we have to play guys a lot longer than we've played."

He won't have to alter his plans much. His goal was to push his team, beyond the strength of schedule. Davis wanted his starters to push through weary legs against teams like Baylor, Gonzaga, and TCU - all ranked in the Top 25.

He wanted to play teams like Kansas and Toledo on the road so his players would know the meaning of home-field disadvantage. Wyoming, he felt, provided an opportunity to measure their conditioning.




Bonding on the road

"It prepared us mentally and brought us closer," said guard Demontrae Jefferson, who leads the team in scoring (23.4 point per game) and assists (3.7). "We didn't predict 0-13, but I feel like everyone is ready to compete in the SWAC."

Most SWAC teams have struggled through non-conference games. Grambling State is atop the standings at 4-8. It faces TSU on Jan. 15 and Feb. 12. Alcorn State (4-9) comes to HPE Arena on Jan. 3. TSU travels to Southern and Alcorn State on March 1 and 3, respectively, before the SWAC tourney March 6.

 

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Texas Southern and Southern, picked to finish No. 1 and No. 2 by the SWAC?s coaches and sports information directions in October?s preseason poll, begin 2018 with a New Year?s Day duel at 8 p.m. in Houston. The game, which will be televised on ESPNU, will begin a two-month stretch of SWAC-on-SWAC action until the league's tournament begins in early March.

Ahead of Southern in second, Texas Southern was picked to repeat as SWAC champion by the leagues following a 16-2 SWAC run in 2016-17 and a third conference tournament victory in the past four seasons.

Then there was Southern, picked to finish one team short of the best in the SWAC.

To Southern, months later, that still stings. And the incoming loaded SWAC schedule against a leveled playing field has Southern brewing with belief.

?We feel really confident,? Southern sophomore guard Jamar Sandifer said. ?Most of us feel insulted, because we feel like we should?ve been the No. 1. I mean, it?s not a bad place to start. We get to match up with the No. 1 team first game in conference play. We get to make our statement right there.?

Before league play, the non-conference slates of Southern and TSU have been nothing short of rocky. Texas Southern has lost 13 consecutive non-conference games, all on the road. The Tigers opened with losses to Gonzaga, Syracuse, Oregon and Baylor, to list a few, much like the Jaguars.

Southern (4-9) dropped all nine road non-conference contests, including losses to Duke, Illinois and Baylor, and won each of its four home games in Baton Rouge.

Has that prepared the Jaguars for the SWAC?s busy schedule?

You bet, they said.

?Yeah, most definitely,? Sandifer said. ?Those games early on prepared us for the strength of the SWAC conference. It?s a lot of good teams, but it?s kind of over-prepared us, basically. So we get to step up there and play at a higher level than what everybody else has been playing at.?

In his maiden season, Jaguars coach Morris Scott said the beginning of his first season went somewhat like Southern expected: Compete with the goliaths and win the winnable ones.

There were some losses ? even against those collegiate powerhouses (fourth-ranked Duke) ? in which the Jaguars competed well. The final results don't make the losses less promising for a Southern bunch with seven first-year players and nine returnees from the 2016-17 season.

?We held our own; we showed we can belong,? he added.

?Going into the SWAC, I think we?re going to be pretty solid,? said first-year forward Sidney Umude, who joined the Jaguars as an above-the-rim athletic forward Dec. 13 after resolving eligibility prerequisites.

As for the rest of the SWAC, only Grambling (4-9) has collected a win on the road. Five of the league?s 10 teams remain winless as of Dec. 30 and have running losing streaks of 10-plus games.

To Scott, who entered his seventh season on Southern?s coaching staff this year, he?s been around the SWAC long enough to know this truth: throw out the nonconference results when conference play begins.

?Every game is a challenge, especially in the SWAC,? the coach said. ?I?ve been in this league for a while ? going on the road in this league is really tough. It?ll be real challenging for us, because we haven?t had success on the road yet. So it?ll be good to see how our guys react to SWAC. Hopefully, we capture some road wins.?