Lumberjacks Set To Open Season
11/13/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 13, 2008
NACOGDOCHES, Texas -
Essentials
SFA vs. Howard Payne • Friday, November 14, 2008 • 7:00 p.m.
William R. Johnson Coliseum (7,200) • Nacogdoches, Texas
Radio: None • Television: None • Internet: Yahoo! Sports
Game Notes
Season Opener: The Stephen F. Austin Lumberjack basketball team will begin a highly anticipated 2008-09 campaign Friday, when the 'Jacks host Howard Payne. SFA is 5-3 in eight season-openers under head coach Danny Kaspar. The Lumberjacks are a perfect 8-0 in their home openers during that same time span. The last time an SFA team failed to win its home opener was a 67-55 loss to Texas A&M in 1998. The Lumberjacks bring back four of five starters from last year's Southland Conference championship team and are picked to win the SLC East Division this season.
Last Season: SFA went 26-6 in 2007-08, posting the program's best record since becoming an NCAA Division I member. The Lumberjacks put up a 13-3 mark in Southland Conference action, winning a share of the program's first-ever SLC title and the first conference championship of any sort since winning the Gulf Star Conference crown in 1986-87. That year, SFA also earned a berth in the National Invitation Tournament, a feat the Lumberjacks repeated in 2008. SFA was defeated by U-Mass, 80-60, in the first round of the NIT.
vs. Howard Payne: SFA leads the all-time series with the Yellow Jackets, 45-30. The series began in 1938 with a 68-35 Lumberjack win. The bulk of the 75 meetings between the two teams occurred when both squads were members of the Lone Star Conference. SFA is 2-0 against Howard Payne under head coach Danny Kaspar, with the last meeting coming in the 2006-07 season, when the 'Jacks took an 89-63 win.
The Yellow Jackets: Howard Payne is coming off a 14-12 campaign in 2007-08. The Yellow Jackets went 11-10 in the American Southwest Conference, finishing fourth in the league's west division.
The Coaches: SFA is led by head coach Danny Kaspar. Kaspar is in his ninth season at the helm for the Lumberjacks. He holds a record of 134-96 (.583) at SFA and has a 353-148 (.705) overall record in 17 seasons as a collegiate head coach. Howard Payne head coach Charles Pattillo is 180-200 (.474) in 15 seasons as the Yellow Jackets' head coach.
Up Next: The Lumberjacks travel to College Station, Texas, for a Nov. 18 game against Texas A&M. The Aggies are coming off a 25-11 season in 2007-08. The contest is set to begin at 7 p.m. The following Tusday, Nov. 25, SFA will travel to take on former Southland Conference foe Louisiana-Monroe.
News and Notes
SPECIAL SEASON: SFA's 26-6 mark in 2007-08 is the best record for a Lumberjack team since the program joined the NCAA Division I ranks in the 1986-87 season. The Southland Conference title is the first for the Lumberjack program since joining the league for the 1987-88 season. It marks the third 20-win season in head coach Danny Kaspar's tenure and is the highest win total for a Kaspar-coached Lumberjack team to date. SFA finished the regular season with a 25-4 (.862) mark. The last time an SFA team finished the regular season with a better winning percentage was 1972-73, when the Lumberjacks went 25-3 but failed to qualify for postseason play. Only four times in the 84-year history of Lumberjack basketball has a team won 25 or more games in a single season, with the 25-win total having been eclipsed in the regular season only twice -- 1969-70 and 1972-73.
RANK AND FILE: SFA was ranked 14th in the season's final CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll. SFA had spent the previous two weeks at No. 9, after climbing to a record-high No. 6 ranking that included the program's first-ever first-place vote on Feb. 25. The 'Jacks spent a program-best 15 consecutive weeks in the Mid-Major Top 25 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 for the first time in school history.
VOTE OF CONFIDENCE: The Lumberjacks received at least one vote in one of the two major national basketball polls -- Associated Press and USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll -- five times last season. SFA picked up one vote in the March 10 AP Top 25 Poll. The `Jacks got a school-record seven votes in the previous week's AP poll and landed two votes in the Feb. 25 balloting. 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 2002-03 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.
TOPS IN TEXAS: Only one NCAA Division I basketball program in the state of Texas posted a better win total than Stephen F. Austin, through the end of the regular season. The University of Texas posted a 26-5 record, while SFA finished at 25-4. At .862, SFA's regular-season winning percentage was slightly better than the Longhorns' .839 regular-season percentage. Of the 18 other D-I programs in the Lone Star State, only five had posted 20 or more wins through the end of SFA's regular season. That list includes Sam Houston State (22), the University of Houston (22), Texas A&M (22), Baylor (21) and North Texas (20).
PLAYING THE PERCENTAGES: SFA finished the regular season with the 10th-best record in the nation. The Lumberjacks' .862 winning percentage was tied for 10th in the country through games of March 9.
TOURNEY TRENDS: SFA is now 1-2 all-time in the National Invitation Tournament. The Lumberjacks have made two appearances in the NIT. SFA made the field in 2007-08 but was defeated on the road by eventual championship game participant U-Mass. SFA earned a bid and hosted a first-round game in 1987. SFA defeated James Madison, 70-63, in the William R. Johnson Coliseum in the tournament's first round, then suffered a 54-48 loss at Arkansas-Little Rock in the second round. The Lumberjacks went 22-8 overall that season with a perfect 10-0 run to the Gulf Star Conference championship. SFA moved to the Southland Conference the following season.
DEFENSE FIRST: SFA's defense was dominant in 2007-08. The Lumberjacks held opponents to an average of 56.4 points per game, which ranked second in the nation. While good defense has long been a mark of Danny Kaspar-coached teams, the Lumberjacks had never finished better than 12th in the national rankings in terms of scoring defense. During the season, the Lumberjacks held 21 opponents to 60 points or fewer and only allowed four teams to break 70. SFA held opponents to 39.6 percent shooting from the field, which finished the season ranked 17th in the nation.
EARLY BIRDS: SFA did a good job of getting the jump on the competition in the first half of games during the 2007-08 season. The Lumberjacks held the lead at halftime in every game but three -- their 60-44 loss at Texas Tech, their 71-60 win over UTSA in the first round of the Southland Conference Tournament and their 80-60 defeat at U-Mass in the opening round of the National Invitation Tournament. SFA was 25-4 on the season when going to the locker room with the lead.
DOUBLE-UP: SFA posted just three double-doubles all of the 2006-07 season -- Josh Alexander had two, and Matt Kingsley recorded one. SFA more than doubled that mark in 2007-08 with seven 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. Kingsley scored 13 points with 10 rebounds against Texas State on Feb. 27, then recorded his fifth career double-double with 26 points and 11 rebounds -- including nine offensive boards -- in SFA's SLC Tournament win over UTSA on March 13.
FOUR OF A KIND: The Lumberjacks had at least four players hit double digits in scoring in a single game six times last season -- against Jackson State, Louisiana-Monroe, Southern, at Oklahoma, versus Paul Quinn and against Sam Houston State. The quadruple-double against Jackson State marked the first time four SFA players hit double digits in a single game since Jan. 11, 2007, when SFA took a 73-72 overtime victory at Lamar. In the Lumberjacks' 79-57 win over Sam Houston State, five players reached double digits -- the first time since SFA's Dec. 30, 2006, win over Howard Payne for SFA to put a quintet in double figures scoring.
DIAL "1" FOR ASSISTANCE: Sophomore point guard Eric Bell (jersey number 1) averaged 5.7 assists per game and finished the 2007-08 season ranked 30th in the nation in assists per contest. 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 finished the season ranked 19th in the country in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.46.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT: Junior forward Josh Alexander enjoyed a record year in 2007-08. The Shreveport, La., native scored 15 or more points on 20 different occasions last season, including eight performances with at least 20 points, and had three double-digit rebound efforts. He finished the year with 1,290 career points, moving him into 12th place on the list of SFA's career scoring leaders. During the season, Alexander became the school's all-time leader in career 3-point field goals. He hit 94 3-pointers -- a new career-high for triples in a season -- and has 239 for his career.
KING FOR A DAY: Two days, actually. That's how long Matt Kingsley's dominant performance in the Southland Conference Tournament lasted. His two big games were overshadowed somewhat by the team's elimination in the semifinals, but King certainly made his mark. Kingsley averaged 24 points and 9.5 rebounds in a win over UTSA and SFA's loss against Northwestern State. He scored 26 points with 11 rebounds against the Roadrunners, then came back for 22 points and eight boards against the Demons the following night. Kingsley was named to the All-SLC Tournament team for his effort. Kingsley reached double figures scoring in 11 of his final 12 appearances last season with eight showings of 15 or more points.
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 picking up their second loss of the season in the 16th game. SFA's 10-game winning streak during its 12-1 start was the program's first double-digit run since the `Jacks won 13 in a row during the 2002-03 season.
NO MISTAKING: SFA was one of the more careful teams in the nation in 2007-08. The Lumberjacks committed just 12.3 turnovers per game, which ranked 29th in the country. At the same time, SFA's 17.0 personal fouls per game was the 58th-lowest average in the NCAA Division I ranks. SFA led the Southland Conference by far in each category.
ROAD WARRIORS: SFA's 10-game winning streak early last season included five straight victories in non-conference road games and a neutral-site win. This marked the first time in program history for the Lumberjacks to win five straight road games against Division I, non-conference opponents. It was 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 went 13-5 in games outside of William R. Johnson Coliseum, including a five-game road winning streak against Southland Conference foes that they will carry into the 2008-09 season.
STINGY ON THE GLASS: The Lumberjacks gave up the fewest rebounds per game in the Southland Conference last season. SFA allowed just 31.2 rebounds per game.
HOME-COOKED: The Lumberjacks posted a 13-1 record in home games at the William R. Johnson Coliseum and began the season with a 12-game home winning streak. 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.
SAFE AT HOME: In eight seasons under head coach Danny Kaspar, the Lumberjacks have compiled an 88-27 (.765) record in the William R. Johnson Coliseum, including a 13-1 home mark last season. SFA is 284-118 (.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.
REMEMBERING A LUMBERJACK LEGEND: In memory of Marshall Brown, who passed away over the summer, the Lumberjacks will wear a black band on their game jerseys during the 2008-09 season. Brown coached men's basketball at SFA from 1959-1978 and is the school's all-time winningest coach with 345 career victories and a .672 winning percentage in 19 seasons.
• Click here for complete game notes in .pdf format.
-- SFA --
