Lumberjacks Set To Host McNeese State
1/18/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 18, 2008
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - McNeese State Cowboys at SFA
January 19, 2008 • 6:00 p.m.
William R. Johnson Coliseum (7,200) • Nacogdoches, Texas
Radio: KTBQ (107.7 FM) • Television: None • Web: Yahoo! Sports
Game Information
New Streak?: Coming off its second straight Southland Conference victory, the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjack basketball team will try to build toward another strong winning streak Saturday when the Lumberjacks host McNeese State in a 6 p.m. contest. SFA enters the game with a 14-2 overall record and tied for first in the SLC West with a 2-1 league record. The Cowboys are 7-7 on the season and 1-1 in conference action.
Last Game: With guards Eric Bell and Gerald Fonzie sidelined by leg cramps late in the game, the Lumberjacks weathered a brutal Lamar defensive effort to hold on for an 81-75 home win Thursday. SFA enjoyed its best 3-point shooting night of the season, knocking down 53.3 percent of its treys. Junior forward Josh Alexander led the way with six 3-pointers and 26 points -- both season highs. Junior center Matt Kingsley joined Alexander in double digits with 17 points, and Fonzie contributed 10 points with a season-high five assists. Bell, SFA's starting point guard, dished out nine assists before his severely cramping legs forced him off the court midway through the second half. Fonzie and Bell were both treated by the training staff following Thursday's game and are expected to play Saturday against McNeese State.
vs. McNeese State: SFA is 35-34 all-time against McNeese State. The Lumberjacks are 6-4 in their last 10 regular-season games against the Cowboys with a 4-1 mark in the last five meetings. Under head coach Danny Kaspar, the Lumberjacks are 5-2 at home against McNeese with five straight victories against the Cowboys in the William R. Johnson Coliseum. Last time the two teams met in Nacogdoches was the 2005-06 post-season, when SFA took a 72-70 victory in the first round of the Southland Conference Tournament. Overall, the Lumberjacks are 7-7 against McNeese State under Kaspar. SFA defeated the Cowboys, 67-53, in last year's meeting in Lake Charles, La.
The Cowboys: McNeese State brings an even 7-7 mark into Saturday's contest. The Cowboys are 1-1 in Southland Conference play after suffering a home loss to Sam Houston State Thursday. McNeese State is tied for third in the SLC East standings and has won two of its last four contests.
The Coaches: SFA is led by head coach Danny Kaspar. Kaspar is in his eighth season at the helm for the Lumberjacks. He holds a record of 122-91 (.573) at SFA and has a 341-143 (.705) overall record in his 17th season as a collegiate head coach. McNeese State is coached by Dave Simmons. Simmons is 22-24 (.478) in his second year with the Cowboys and 49-54 (.476) in his career.
Up Next: Next week, the Lumberjacks will travel to Huntsville, Texas, for a much-anticipated showdown with Southland Conference preseason favorite Sam Houston State. The game against the Bearkats is set for a 7 p.m. start. SFA and the Bearkats enter their respective games Saturday tied for the top spot in the SLC West.
News and Notes
• FAST START: SFA opened the season with a 12-1 record, the best start to a season since the program joined the NCAA Division I ranks. The fantastic start was the best 13-game mark for the program since the 1981-82 season, when the Lumberjacks opened the season with seven straight wins and went on to post a 14-1 record before finally recording their second loss of the season in the 16th game. At 14-2, the Lumberjacks are now again tied with the 1981-82 team for the best record through 16 games. SFA's 10-game winning streak was the program's first double-digit run since the 'Jacks won 13 in a row during the 2002-03 season.
• RANK AND FILE: Following its first loss in 11 games, SFA was ranked No. 13 in Monday's CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll. Last week's poll found SFA at No. 10, marking the Lumberjacks' first-ever appearance in the Top 10. This is SFA's sixth straight week in the rankings after entering the poll at No. 25 on Dec. 10, following the Lumberjacks' upset win at Oklahoma. SFA then moved up in the poll each week, jumping to 22nd, 16th, then 11th, before cracking the Top 10 last Monday.
• VOTE OF CONFIDENCE: SFA received a vote in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll in each of the last two weeks of December. This marked the first time since the 2003-04 season for the Lumberjacks to earn a vote in a national Top 25 poll. That year, SFA earned one vote in the Associated Press poll.
• D-UP: SFA's defense has been dominant this season. The Lumberjacks have held opponents to an average of 54.6 points per game, which leads the Southland Conference. SFA entered the week ranked second in the nation with 53.3 points allowed per game. While good defense has long been a mark of Danny Kaspar-coached teams, the Lumberjacks have never finished higher than 12th in the national rankings in terms of scoring defense. This season, the Lumberjacks have held 10 opponents to fewer than 60 points and have only allowed one team to break 70. SFA ranks 17th in the country in field goal percentage defense, holding opponents to 38.5 percent shooting from the field. Perhaps most importantly, though, the Lumberjacks don't allow the opposition many second chances. SFA gives up just 29.6 rebounds per game, best in the conference, and the Lumberjacks rank 39th in the nation in rebounding margin, at plus-5.8 boards per game.
• STINGY ON THE GLASS: The Lumberjacks give up the fewest rebounds per game in the Southland Conference. SFA is currently allowing its opponents just 29.4 rebounds per game, the only team in the league to average fewer than 30. In addition, SFA has allowed just one player from an opposing team to record double-digit rebounds in a game. That happened for the first time last Saturday when Southeastern Louisiana's Patrick Sullivan pulled down 10.
• DOUBLE-UP: SFA posted just three double-doubles all of last season -- Josh Alexander had two, and Matt Kingsley recorded one. The Lumberjacks have already surpassed that mark this year with five double-doubles -- each of the first four coming from a different player. Kingsley posted the first with 22 points and 13 rebounds against Jackson State. Nick Shaw then scored 17 points and pulled down 16 rebounds against Louisiana-Monroe, and Eric Bell had 18 points with 11 assists at Northern Illinois three days later. Alexander finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds at Jackson State, then recorded his seventh career double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds at Nicholls State.
• DIAL "1" FOR ASSISTANCE: Sophomore point guard Eric Bell (jersey number 1) leads the Southland Conference in assists and ranks 14th in the nation with 6.06 assists per game. He posted a career-high 11 assists at Northern Illinois. That marked the first double-digit assist effort for a Lumberjack since Marcus Clark dished out 10 in a game during the 2005-06 season. Bell also leads the Southland and ranks 38th in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.98.
• ALEXANDER THE GREAT: Junior forward Josh Alexander has hit a hot streak that has the Shreveport, La., native on pace for a record year in 2007-08. Alexander is 48-for-94 (.511) including a 30-of-63 (.484) showing from 3-point range in the Lumberjacks' last eight games. He has scored 17 or more points six times in that span, including a season-high 26 against Lamar and two performances with 22 points. Alexander broke the 1,000-point barrier with his 14th point in last Thursday's game at Nicholls State, when he scored a game-high 18 points. If he continues his current scoring pace, he could rank as high as 11th on the school's all-time scoring list by the end of the season. Alexander is also just 13 3-point field goals away from setting a school record for career 3-point baskets.
• ON A ROLL ON THE ROAD: SFA's recent 10-game winning streak included five straight victories in non-conference road games and a neutral-site win. This marks the first time in program history for the Lumberjacks to win five straight road games against Division I, non-conference opponents. It's the first time since the 1981-82 season for SFA to win more than three straight out-of-conference road games against any level of competition. Overall, the Lumberjacks are 7-2 in games outside of William R. Johnson Coliseum this season.
• PERFECT IN THE WRJ: The Lumberjacks are out to a 7-0 start in home games at the William R. Johnson Coliseum. The last time a Lumberjack team won more than three in a row at home to start a season was in 2003-04, when SFA went 16-0 at home as part of a 31-game home winning streak that dated to the previous season and was the longest active streak in the nation by the time it was finally broken.
• BOARDOM: SFA has outrebounded its opponent in 10 of 16 games this season, winning all but one of those contests. The Lumberjacks pulled down 41 rebounds in the win over Louisiana-Monroe, two games after the Lumberjacks' 43-board effort against Jackson State. SFA posted a season-high 49 rebounds against Huston-Tillotson, besting the Rams by 22 boards, then put up 43 rebounds against Paul Quinn and finished with 42 against Wiley. The Lumberjacks pulled down 40-plus rebounds only four times in all last season and surpassed 43 boards only twice.
• SAFE AT HOME: In seven-plus seasons under head coach Danny Kaspar, the Lumberjacks have compiled an 82-25 (.766) record in the William R. Johnson Coliseum, including a 7-0 home mark this season. SFA is 278-116 (.706) all-time in the Coliseum. The 'Jacks went 10-5 (.667) at home in 2006-07. SFA defeated UT-Tyler, 63-47, in the 2007-08 season opener. Kaspar's teams are a perfect 8-0 in home openers at SFA.
• EARLY SIGNINGS: SFA signed three recruits during the fall's early signing period. The Lumberjacks added shooting guard Walt Harris, small forward Zach Williams and power forward Lu Griffin. Harris and Griffin are top-flight junior college players -- Harris from McLennan J.C. and Griffin from South Plains J.C. -- while Williams, a Dallas Skyline product, is a Top 15 prep recruit for his class in the state of Texas. The trio has been ranked tops in the Southland Conference among early signing classes by The Hoop Scoop, with a league-best average player rating of 3.0. Rivals.com rates Harris and Williams as the best shooting guard and small forward, respectively, signed in the Southland Conference in the fall.
Scouting the Cowboys
• FOR THE RECORD: McNeese State is 7-7 overall this season with a 1-1 mark in Southland Conference games. The Cowboys' longest winning streak of the year is a three-game run that included victories at Florida Atlantic and Louisiana-Lafayette with a home win over Dillard squeezed in between. McNeese State has won two of its last four games but has lost four of its last six contests. Three of the Cowboys' seven wins this season have come on the road, including a 63-57 verdict at Southern Mississippi on Dec. 23. McNeese State opened SLC play with a 67-59 home win against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi before dropping Thursday's game against Sam Houston State, 64-49.
• LAST GAME: Thursday night, McNeese State led Southland Conference preseason favorite Sam Houston State, 22-20, at halftime, before being outscored 44-27 in the second half of a 64-49 loss. The Cowboys shot just 27.1 percent for the game, which didn't pose a problem in the first half, when Sam Houston was 23.3 percent on field goals. But the Bearkats upped their average to 46.2 percent after halftime. John Ford paced the Cowboys with 16 points but was the only McNeese player to crack double figures. Kleon Penn pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds. Sam Houston outscored the Cowboys, 22-12, in the paint and poured in 22 points off 24 Cowboy turnovers.
• KEY NUMBERS: The Cowboys' 62.1 points per game rank second to last in the Southland Conference. Sixty-five seems to be McNeese State's magic number. The Cowboys have lost just twice when they've scored at least 65 points -- the first a 78-74 defeat at LSU and the second a 69-65 defeat against Lipscomb. McNeese is fourth in the conference in terms of scoring defense, allowing 63.3 points per game. Despite getting to the foul line just 221 times this season -- last in the conference -- the Cowboys' .706 free throw percentage is second in the league. McNeese leads the SLC in blocked shots with 5.71 rejections per game.
• LEADERS: Senior forward Jarvis Bradley leads the squad and ranks 11th in the Southland Conference with 13.0 points per game. Bradley also paces the Cowboys in rebounding with 6.6 boards per contest. No other McNeese State player scores in double figures. Senior point guard John Ford averages 9.9 points per game with 3.29 assists per contest. Ford is second in the conference in 3-point field goal percentage, knocking down .436 from behind the arc. Kleon Penn leads the Southland in blocked shots with 3.71 rejections per game.
• For the complete release, click on the "McNeese State Game Notes" link in the side bar of the Men's Basketball home page.
-- SFA --
