ap doesn't provide link. I'll try to copy entire article. As mentioned, found the article to be informative. Appears several solid players are waiting in the wings which was nice to learn.

'Losing stinks': Frustrated USM aiming for turnaround

Jason Munz | Southern Miss Sports Writer
Updated 4 hours ago
Doc Sadler is at a loss.

“We can’t score,” the third-year Southern Miss men’s basketball coach said this week. “I told the guys I’m not for sure our practices shouldn’t consist of just four hours of shooting. We’re just miserable offensively.”

He’s right. The Golden Eagles, with 60.2 points per game, rank 340th (or eighth-worst) in the country in that statistical category. Making matters worse, the Black and Gold are committing 16.8 turnovers per game so far this season, which is the 12th-worst clip in the nation.

Those two glaring deficiencies have Southern Miss sitting at 3-9 this season, losers of eight in a row. Which is what has an already frustrated Sadler that much closer to his boiling point. After all, this was supposed to be the season things finally started looking up for Southern Miss.

In April 2014, Sadler inherited a program on the brink of a meltdown. Due to the actions of former Golden Eagles coach Donnie Tyndall and his staff, Southern Miss found itself mired in an NCAA investigation that spanned more than a year-and-a-half and began only months after Sadler was brought in to replace Tyndall.

Southern Miss self-imposed back-to-back postseason bans in an effort to show the NCAA how seriously it was addressing the issue. Several players left the program during the course of the probe — some on their own, while others were encouraged to depart. A couple weren’t given a choice and were dismissed. The coaching staff was also affected. Jareem Dowling, who had also been an assistant under Tyndall at Southern Miss, departed after one season under Sadler. The NCAA later cleared Dowling of any wrongdoing during his tenure while Tyndall was at the helm.

But in April, the sun began to peek around the dark clouds. The NCAA, after concluding its investigation, put Southern Miss on three years’ probation and handed down a number of other punishments, none of which included the death penalty for the program nor any further postseason bans.

This season was supposed to mark the beginning of the Golden Eagles’ emergence from the abyss. But heretofore, Sadler’s squad has not shown many signs of life.

“It’s been tough. The preparation you put in and the hard work each and every day, you go out and you keep getting the same results,” said senior guard Quinton Campbell, who leads the team in scoring at 10.2 points per game. “You’re just trying to figure out what you can change to change the results.”

Southern Miss is shooting just 39.5 percent from the field and 29.9 percent from behind the 3-point line (both 325th in the country). The team’s 64.1 percent success rate at the free throw line doesn’t rank much better, coming in at 297th in the nation.

But all is not lost, according to Sadler. The Golden Eagles are 239th in turnovers forced (more than 12 per game) and 232nd in rebounding margin (34.9 to 34.1 per game).

“I can keep hanging my hat on the effort and the effort stats which are still really good,” he said. “You’re holding teams to (44.3 percent from the field, 234th in the country) — you’ve got to win those games.”

Sadler can also rest assured his players’ frame of mind is still strong despite the troublesome outcomes since Nov. 21 (the last time Southern Miss won a game). The Golden Eagles open Conference USA play at 2 p.m. Sunday against Louisiana Tech (8-5) at Reed Green Coliseum. Senior forward Raheem Watts said the team views the start of league play as a clean slate.

“We’re zero and zero starting now,” he said. “We’ve got to put everything else behind us. We’ve had some bumps in the road, but now we’ve got to get ready for this turnaround.”

Sadler, who has three years left on the contract he signed after taking over, believes no matter how the rest of this season plays out, the future is bright at Southern Miss. And he intends to see it through.

Guards Tyree Griffin and Dominic Magee are sitting out this season due to NCAA transfer rules. Griffin came to Southern Miss from Oklahoma State, while Magee spent a year at Memphis and one season at Grand Canyon before joining the Golden Eagles. In addition, youngsters Tim Rowe, Cortez Edwards and Kevin Holland have shown promise and are slated to be back next season.

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“I’m going to ride it out and hopefully get it turned around,” Sadler said. “The two guys we’ve got sitting out, they’re all-league players. We’ve got to sign a couple more this spring and then we’ve got enough coming back that if we can pick up a really good wing and one really athletic inside player, we’ll be back in the hunt.

“Don’t get me wrong, losing stinks. But when I made the decision after my first year here to stick it out and not leave to go to a couple of places, it was to try to get this thing going in the right direction. I understand the frustrations of a lot of people. I’m frustrated as heck. But what do you do? No need to complain about it. Just keep working hard and hope at some point shots start falling.”

If you go

What: Louisiana Tech at Southern Miss (Conference USA opener)

When: 2 p.m. Sunday

Where: Reed Green Coliseum



Originally published 05:00 pm CST Dec. 30, 2016
Updated 4 hours ago
Jason Munz
Southern Miss Sports Reporter
Hattiesburg American
Email
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