'Jacks Set For Drake Tournament
12/11/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 10, 2008
NACOGDOCHES, Texas -
ESSENTIALS
SFA vs. North Dakota State in the Drake Hy-Vee Classic
Friday, December 12, 2008 • 5:00 p.m.
Drake Knapp Center (7,002) • Des Moines, Iowa
Radio: Q107.7 FM • Television: None • Internet: Yahoo! Sports
GAME INFORMATION
Road Trip: The Stephen F. Austin Lumberjack basketball team will open its longest road swing of the season this weekend with its longest road trip of the season, when the 'Jacks begin play in the Drake Hy-Vee Classic. SFA opens the two-day tournament with a game against North Dakota State on Friday. The other first-round game features host team Drake against Georgia Southern. The Lumberjacks are 4-2 on the season and bring a three-game win streak to the weekend's action.
Last Game: Josh Alexander recorded his first double-double of the season as he led all players with 20 points and 10 rebounds in a 92-42 win over Texas Wesleyan on Saturday. The Lumberjacks went to halftime with a 42-23 lead, then held the Rams to 19.2 percent shooting in the second period to post their first 50-point margin of victory since the 2005 season. Three other players joined Alexander in double figures, led by a career-high 16 from redshirt freshman center Jereal Scott. Scott also registered a career-best in rebounds with eight. Senior center Matt Kingsley scored 13 points, and sophomore guard Eddie Williams added 11 points with four assists.
vs. The Opponents: SFA has never met on the hardwood with any of the three other teams in this weekend's tournament.
The Field: North Dakota State comes into the weekend with a 4-2 mark and ranked No. 8 in the nation in scoring with 85.5 points per game. The Bison opened Summit League play last week with a pair of home wins. Georgia Southern is 3-3 with an impressive neutral-court win over Houston. The Eagles rebounded from consecutive losses to UTEP and Austin Peay by defeating Samford, 66-59, on Saturday. Drake is 7-2 after a come-from-behind win over Iowa State Tuesday night. The Bulldogs went on a 14-2 run to erase a 10-point Cyclone leade late in the game and held on for a 66-63 victory.
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 138-98 (.585) at SFA and has a 357-150 (.704) overall record in 17-plus seasons as a collegiate head coach. North Dakota State is coached by Saul Phillips, now in his second season with the program. Jeff Price is in his 10th year as head coach at Georgia Southern, and Mark Phelps is in his initial season at Drake.
Up Next: The Lumberjacks will play in their second tournament in as many weekends, when they head to Fayetteville, Ark., for the Arkansas Jim Thorpe Classic. SFA will take on Austin Peay on Friday then meet host team Arkansas on Saturday.
NEWS AND NOTES
DOUBLE-UP: Senior forward Josh Alexander led all players with 20 points and 10 rebounds against Texas Wesleyan. It marked the first double-double for a Lumberjack this season and was the eighth of Alexander's career. He has now scored 20 or more points 21 times in his career and led the team in scoring 40 times in the last four seasons.
3-D: The Lumberjacks defend the 3-point shot better than any team in the nation. SFA entered the week with the No. 1 3-point field goal percentage defense in the country at .195. Three opponents have been held below 20 percent from downtown, and only one team -- Texas A&M -- has shot better than 40 percent from 3-point range against the Lumberjacks.
DEFENSE FIRST: SFA was ranked second in the country in scoring defense in the most recent NCAA statistical summary. The 'Jacks currently lead the Southland Conference in that category, giving up 49.3 points per game. No other league team is allowing fewer than 63.8 points per contest.
KING FOR A DAY: With his career-high 33 points against Jackson State, senior Matt Kingsley briefly took over the team scoring lead from classmate Josh Alexander. Kingsley's jump to 17.0 points per game took him from 17th in the Southland Conference to fourth in one game. It was his second career 30-point game. Kingsley is currently fifth in the SLC with 16.3 points per game.
MOVIN' ON UP: Matt Kingsley's 33 points against Jackson State moved him into 20th place on the all-time career scoring list at SFA. His 1,095 points are 15 points shy of moving him to 19th on the list. Josh Alexander is already in the top 10. He jumped from 10th to ninth with his 20-point performance against Texas Wesleyan, and his 1,390 points are just 17 shy of a move to the No. 8 all-time slot.
ON THE MONEY: Kingsley did most of his damage in his career game against Jackson State with high-percentage shots in the paint. In fact, high-percentage may be an understatement. He posted a career-best 15-for-16 performance from the field. Kingsley was 12-for-12 with 25 points in the first half.
CAN'T-MISS: Kingsley's shooting performance overshadowed another impressive outing by junior point guard Girod Adams. Adams went 4-for-4 from the field against Jackson State, including a 2-for-2 showing on 3-point attempts, and was 4-of-4 at the foul stripe for a career-high 14 points. That performance gave Adams a run of six straight field goals over a two-game stretch, and, coming into the Texas Wesleyan game, he had not missed a 3-point attempt in seven tries, a run that spanned three complete games and the second half of a fourth. Adams missed his first attempt against Texas Wesleyan to break the streak.
BETTER HALF: SFA held Texas College to 11 points in the second half of the Lumberjacks' 83-42 win. This ties for the lowest one-half point total given up to an opponent in nine seasons under head coach Danny Kaspar and is the best second-half point total allowed in that time span. The 'Jacks have held opposing teams below 20 points in a single half 30 times under Kaspar and are 28-2 in such contests. SFA held eight opponents under 20 points in a half during the 2007-08 campaign and has done so three times this season.
NO SHOT: The Lumberjacks dominated Texas College in the second half of their 83-42 victory. The Steers were just 2-for-22 from the field -- both 3-pointers -- in the final 20 minutes for a second-half shooting percentage of .091. That's the lowest single-half average of the season, and it left Texas College with a .308 shooting percentage for the game, the third time in four contests an SFA opponent had shot worse than 35 percent.
THREE-FOR-ALL: Josh Alexander tied a career-high with seven 3-point field goals in SFA's loss at Texas A&M. Alexander was 7-for-10 from downtown and 7-for-12 overall to finish with 21 points. That marked the 11th time in Alexander's career for all his field goals in a game to come from 3-point range. Coming into that contest, the most 3-pointers he had ever hit in a game without scoring from inside the arc was six at Sam Houston Sate during the 2007-08 season. With no attempts at the free throw line, that effort marked just the fifth time in Alexander's career for all his points to come on threes. The previous best total in that scenario was the 12 points he scored on 4-of-7 shooting at Missouri in 2006-07.
OUTSTANDING ASSISTANCE: Through six games, the Lumberjacks have recorded 99 assists on 160 made field goals. That's a ratio of one dime for every 1.6 buckets. Junior point guard Eric Bell leads the team with 18 for the season, despite missing two-and-a-half games with injuries. Backup Girod Adams is second with 15, and freshman Jarrod McDaniel is tied with sophomore Eddie Williams for third with 14 dimes.
MISFIRE: SFA shot just 29.8 percent from the field in its 55-48 loss at Texas A&M. That marked the first time since Feb. 14, 2007 for a Lumberjack team to shoot worse than 30 percent from the field. That game, SFA shot 29.6 percent in a 63-51 loss at Sam Houston State. The only time the 'Jacks shot worse than 35 percent in 2007-08 was a 34.1-percent showing at Texas Tech, their only non-conference defeat of the year.
WET PAINT: In a weird statistical quirk, SFA's shooting woes in the loss at Texas A&M went from bad to worse the closer the Lumberjacks got to the basket. In the first half, SFA was 4-for-13 from inside the 3-point line and 5-for-12 from outside of it. After halftime, the 'Jacks were completely shut out from inside the arc, going 0-for-13 on 2-point attempts, while knocking down 5-of-9 shots from 3-point range. A&M outscored SFA, 22-6, in the paint.
BIG 12: In eight seasons under head coach Danny Kaspar, SFA is 2-6 against teams from the Big 12 Conference. The 'Jacks have played at least one Big 12 foe in all but two seasons of Kaspar's tenure -- 2001-02 and 2004-05. SFA's two wins were at Baylor (79-57) in 2003-04 and at Oklahoma (66-62) last season. Last week's game at Texas A&M marked the first of two contests against Big 12 opponents this season. SFA will also take on Texas Tech on New Year's Day.
RANK AND FILE: SFA was ranked No. 11 in the Preseason CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll. This marks the first time in the poll's 10-year history for SFA to enter the season as a ranked team. In addition, the No. 11 ranking is the highest entry to the poll for a Lumberjack team to date. The 'Jacks are currently ranked 11th in the mid-major poll after falling to 12th for one week. SFA spent a program-best 15 consecutive weeks ranked in last year's Mid-Major Top 25 after debuting at No. 25 on Dec. 10. The 'Jacks climbed as high as No. 6, including a first-place vote, on Feb. 25, and finished the season ranked 14th.
THREE OF A KIND: Seniors Josh Alexander and Matt Kingsley tied with sophomore Eddie Williams for the high-point total in SFA's opener against Howard Payne. Each of the three accounted for 16 points. Combined, they would have outscored the Yellow Jackets, 48-38, on their own.
SHOOTING STRAIGHT: SFA opened the 2008-09 season with a .518 shooting percentage against Howard Payne. That figure is the best in a season opener under head coach Danny Kaspar.
LOW POINT: While defense has always been emphasized by SFA head coach Danny Kaspar, recent history has seen an even stronger defensive performance by the 'Jacks. In eight-plus seasons under head coach Danny Kaspar, SFA has held 29 opponents to 50 points or fewer. SFA held the competition below that level nine times in 2007-08. The previous best under Kaspar was four games in a single season with fewer than 50 points. So far this season, the Lumberjacks have held three opponents to fewer than 50 points.
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.
SAFE AT HOME: In eight-plus seasons under head coach Danny Kaspar, the Lumberjacks have compiled a 92-27 (.786) record in the William R. Johnson Coliseum, including a 13-1 home mark last season. SFA is 288-118 (.709) all-time in the Coliseum. SFA defeated Howard Payne, 77-38, in the season opener. Kaspar's teams are 9-0 in home openers at SFA.
HOME NON-CONFERENCE: In eight-plus seasons under head coach Danny Kaspar, SFA has put together a 43-3 record in home games against non-conference opponents. The Lumberjacks have never lost more than one non-SLC home game in a single season under Kaspar. The 'Jacks had a run of 13 straight home, non-conference wins between losses to Centenary in the 2002-03 season and to Jackson State in the 2004-05 campaign. That run was part of a 31-game home winning streak that stood as the longest in the nation when Jackson State ended it on Dec. 11, 2004.
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.
SCOUTING THE BISON
• FOR THE RECORD: North Dakota State is 4-2 entering this weekend's tournament. The Bison opened the season by alternating wins with losses in their first four contests but are coming off a pair of strong home wins. NDSU sandwiched a pair of road losses to Idaho and Minnesota around an 89-82 victory at Northern Arizona on Nov. 25. Last week, the Bison opened Summit League play with an 83-75 win over Oral Roberts, then defeated Centenary, 68-53. Friday's game will be NDSU's first neutral-site contest.
• LAST GAME: NDSU beat up Centenary down low, outscoring the Gents, 34-14, in the paint, to collect a 68-53 verdict on Saturday. The Bison shot 46 percent from the field and held Centenary to 35 percent, including an 8-for-21 effort from 3-point range. NDSU out-rebounded the Gents, 46-27, and owned a 15-7 edge in second-chance points. Senior forward Brett Winkelman scored 26 points and pulled down 14 rebounds to lead all players in both categories. Classmate Ben Woodside added 18 points and six assists. There were five ties and six lead changes in the game, but Centenary never led by more than three.
• LAST MEETING: SFA and NDSU have never met on the hardwood. The two schools have played in football twice in the last three years, with the Bison winning both contests.
• KEY NUMBERS: The Bison lead the Summit League and rank eighth in the nation in scoring offense, averaging 85.5 points per game. NDSU has scored 75 or more points in four of its six games, the lone exceptions being a 69-point performance in the loss at Idaho and a 68-point output in the win over Centenary. The Bison lead the conference and rank fourth in the country in both field goal percentage (.514) and 3-point field goal percentage (.450). NDSU ranks near the bottom of the Summit in scoring defense and 276th in the country, allowing 73.7 points per game.
• LEADERS: NDSU is led by senior guard Ben Woodside's 20.7 points per game with senior forward Brett Winkelman a close second at 18.8 points per outing. The duo give the Bison two of the top three scorers in the Summit League and two players among the top 70 in the nation as Woodside is 32nd, and Winkelman ranks 68th. Winkelman also leads the Summit and ranks 79th in the country with 8.5 rebounds per game. Woodside's 7.2 assists per contest stand seventh in the nation. No other player in the conference averages more than 4.8 assists per game.
• Click here for complete game notes in .pdf format.
-- SFA --
