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Posted: Thursday October 31, 2002 4:51 PM Updated: Monday November 04, 2002 1:37 PM Southern Miss Golden Eagles
The following preview is provided by Blue Ribbon. For the most thorough preview available of the upcoming season, order the 2002-03 Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, on sale now at 1-800-775-2518. Team Preview | Blue Ribbon Analysis
James Green has fared remarkably well in making Southern Mississippi competitive in the tough Conference USA, but he knows how tough his job can be. "The problem for us has been that we’re not at a point, in terms of resources, where we can stay at the top," Green said. "We’re in a tough league. It’s a fight for us in Conference USA." Given that situation, it wasn’t too surprising that Southern Miss fell to 10-17 last season after putting together a 22-9 record the season before. Green faced 2001-02 without five starters from the previous year, including 6-foot-7, 220-pound senior Kilavorous Thompson, who tore an ACL in the summer of 2001. Because he sat out his freshman year as a non-qualifer, Thompson’s career is in jeopardy as the NCAA refused to grant an appeal for another season of eligibility. But with six newcomers added to a nucleus of three returning starters, Green thinks he has a team that can put the Golden Eagles back above the .500 mark.
"I think we’ll have more depth, be more athletic and will have better perimeter shooters than we’ve had the past couple of years," he said. "I think our returning players gained some valuable experience last season. Winning 10 games is something they, like the coaching staff, are not satisfied with. With the new players we have coming in, combined with the older players who have been in our system for awhile, we expect to be very competitive. "How many games we’ll win we never know, but we will have more guys who we can use in more combinations. I think we’ll have the size inside that will allow us to do more things there than we did last season." The three returning starters are 6-foot-5 junior Clement Carter (10.0 ppg, 5.3 rpg), 6-foot-9, 230-pound senior Ben Lambert 96.4 ppg, 5.1 rpg) and 6-foot-2 sophomore guard Dante Stiggers (4.1 ppg, 2.7 rpg). Carter is the Golden Eagles’ leading returning scorer and rebounder. He has the ability to score inside and out. "He’s pretty much an all-around player," Green said. "He’s not a great ball handler/passer, but he’s a guy that will rebound it, guard and give great effort. And he can shoot it." Last season, Carter started 20 of the 23 games in which he played. He missed games against Marquette, East Carolina and Cincinnati in February after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery. Carter, who finished second on the team to the departed Elvin Mims in scoring and rebounding, put together 11 double-figure scoring games, with a season high of 24 points against Millsaps. He grabbed a season-best 10 boards against UAB. Lambert started all 27 games last season -- the only Golden Eagle to do so -- after transferring from junior college and averaged a little more than 25 minutes. His stats weren’t astounding, but Green is looking for more out of Lambert this season. "He’ll be better than last year," Green said. "Last year he was a [junior college] guy making the transition to Division I. I think this year, he could turn into a heck of a rebounder for us." Lambert is also a defensive presence. Last season, he led the team and was fourth in C-USA in blocked shots with 48, almost half the team’s total. Lambert can score, too; he opened the season with a pair of double-figure scoring games (10 against Jackson State and 13 against West Virginia), and finished with a string of six straight games with 10 or more points. Lambert’s season high of 16 came against Alcorn State. He also had two double-figure rebounding games, including a season-high 14 against TCU. Stiggers needed just four games to move into the starting point guard job in 2001-02, and he had a solid rookie season. Green liked what he saw. "Stiggers has got a chance to be awfully good," Green said. "He’s made out of the right stuff. He’s the type of guard who’s going to make some mistakes, but you have to let him go because he’ll make some plays. The thing we have to caution him about is that people are a lot more familiar with him. Things may not come as easy as they did last year. He’ll have to be a little bit better focused." Stiggers led the Golden Eagles with 88 assists. He finished the season strong, scoring eight or more points in each of the final six games and handing out 38 assists in that span, an average of more than six per game. Another player with starting experience is 6-foot-4 senior Mario Myles (6.1 ppg, 3.2 rpg), who started 16 games a year ago. Most of Myles’ starts came late in the season, and he averaged more than 24 minutes a game. Other players who could step up their contributions this season are 6-foot-4 sophomore David Haywood (2.1 ppg, 1.3 rpg), 6-foot-9 senior Carey Rigsby (1.0 ppg, 1.3 rpg), 6-foot-1 sophomore James Pattman (0.6 ppg, 0.5 rpg) and 6-foot-1 sophomore Ryan Powell (1.1 ppg, 0.0 rpg). Pattman played a lot of point guard last season, seeing action in 17 games and earning a start against Alcorn State. Rigsby played in 23 games, averaging about 10 minutes. His best game, an eight-point, three-rebound effort, came against UAB in late February. He grabbed five rebounds in a game late in the season against league champion Cincinnati. Six new faces will quickly work their way into Green’s rotation. The Golden Eagles got a great late pickup in 6-foot-7 swingman Greg Johnson of Southern Union Community College in Wadley, Ala. Johnson originally committed to Auburn, then changed his mind and signed with Ole Miss. But he got caught up in a little-known SEC rule that prevents its schools from signing a junior college player who did not spend three consecutive semesters at the school from which he graduated. Unable to attend Ole Miss, Johnson -- who averaged 16 points, seven rebounds and four assists as a sophomore at Southern Union -- went looking for another school. Green was only too happy to give Johnson a place to play, signing him in mid-June. "We had recruited Greg and knew about his situation," Green said. "He gives us some versatility. He’s got long arms and is a wiry kid who can slash and shoot the 3 and handle it. I think he can also defend inside and outside. He’s a threat anywhere you put him." Southern Miss added another junior college frontcourt player in 6-foot-11, 230-pound Geoffrey Brown, who comes from Colby (Kansas) Community College, where he averaged 19 points, 10 rebounds, three blocked shots and two assists last season. Brown, who played high school basketball at Highland Park in Shreveport, La., returns to the Deep South with the reputation of a shot-blocker. "He’s not a big physical guy, but he’s athletic and can run," Green said. "Hopefully, he can give us blocked shots around the basket and give us a guy we can throw it to some. He’ll help us. At 6-foot-11, he’s going to get in your way." Southern Miss signed two freshman guards who bring size and scoring ability. Jason Forte is a 6-foot-5 shooting guard from Bay Springs (Miss.) High School who was considered by many publications to be the top prospect in the state in 2001-02. As a senior, he averaged 28 points, 9.6 rebounds and 6.0 assists a game and was the Mississippi Association of Coaches 2A State MVP. Forte was chosen to the Jackson Clarion-Ledger's Dandy Dozen and played in the Mississippi-Alabama All-Star game in June. "He’s got a good body and can shoot it," Green said. "He can guard. I think he’s a guy who will play a few minutes." Sam Richardson, 6-foot-4, played at Hinds (Miss.) AHS, where he averaged 27.0 points, 11.0 rebounds and 9.0 as a senior. Richardson was an all-state player and district MVP four straight years. He originally committed to Mississippi State. "He’s very athletic and can handle it," Green said. "He’s not as tall as Jason [Forte], but he’s similar in what he can bring." Two other newcomers sat out last season. Charles Gaines, a 6-foot-7, 220-pound junior from Houston, will bring speed, rebounding ability and scoring to the Golden Eagles. He red-shirted in 2001-02 after transferring from Southwest Missouri State. "He’s a high-energy guy," Green said. "His motor runs all the time, and he’s a strong kid. I think he can really help us." Red-shirt freshman Jasper Johnson, a 6-foot-7, 230-pound swingman, sat out last season while recovering from shoulder surgery. Johnson is from Simmons High School in Hollandale, Miss., where he averaged 27.2 points, 12.4 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 2.3 steals as a senior. Johnson can do damage inside or outside. "He’s got an awfully nice touch around the basket," Green said. James Green doesn’t have the luxury of a huge recruiting budget, as some of his fellow coaches in Conference USA do. His team doesn’t play in a major metropolitan area, as do several C-USA schools. The basketball tradition at Southern Miss, though solid, doesn’t match that of a Cincinnati, Louisville, Marquette or Memphis. But rather than worry about what he doesn’t have to work with, Green tries to concern himself with matters he can control. More specifically, he recruits players he thinks can stay in his program four years and improve year by year. This season, with a team dominated by newcomers, Green will try to find the right combination of players so the Golden Eagles can get back on the winning track after a poor 2001-02 season. Without a doubt, Green has more size, depth and talent at his disposal than a year ago. If he can integrate the new players with a nucleus of three returning starters, Green probably has enough talent to push his team over the .500 mark. Postseason play depends on the continued development of point guard Stiggers and the contributions of several newcomers on the perimeter.
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