Conference USA Basketball: Preseason rankings for 2020-2021 season

13. Southern Miss Golden Eagles

The Screaming Eagles 2019 season was one of those seasons that would just like to forget and to move on from, as second-year head coach Jay Ladner’s first season had its up and downs, as they played with intensity and found themselves in plenty of games, but those just did not translate into wins.

Southern Miss (9-22 overall 5-13 in conference play) ranked mid-pack in most team CUSA statistical categories. They did excel in two categories as they were 2nd in assists (14.3), 4th in rebounding defense (33.9), and 5th in rebounding margin (+1.7). Although they were middle of the pack in most categories, it was their offensive production that proved to be the biggest challenge.

Coach Ladner was quoted in the Blue Ribbon 2020 – 2021 College Basketball Yearbook as saying “I’m not saying we’ve rediscovered a new element or something, but one thing we are very strict about in terms of recruiting is recruiting guys that can score and have the ability to score”. This year’s team will have a very different look than last year’s team.

The Screaming Eagles will have a much different look as they try to mix returning players, transfers, and freshmen together. Leading the way will be 6-4 senior LaDavius Draine, (12.8 ppg and 4.8 rpg) and hit 35% of his 3 point attempts.

For this career, he has a total of 178 3 pointers made, with 69 three-pointers last year places him 3rd on the all-time school list for 3-pointers made. 6-8  junior Tyler Stevenson (12.9 ppg, 6.5 rpg, and 55% field goal percentage) was one of the most improved players in CUSA.

Also returning is 6-0 redshirt junior guard Jay Malone (5.2 ppg, 1.9 rpg, 4.2 apg), who played in only 19 games last year before becoming academically ineligible, 6-5 redshirt freshman Angel Smith (2.5 ppg and 1.0 rpg) who is coming off a wrist injury in 2019, also returning is redshirt 6-0 freshman Jeffery Armstrong and 6-8 sophomore Artur Konotsuk (7.0 ppg and 3.7 rpg).

The Screaming Eagles also added a few solid freshmen to the mix as Coach Ladner has incoming freshman 6-10 Javarzia Belton, the top player from the New Orleans area in 6-5 Jaron Pierre and 6-8 Mark Jaakson, from Estonian. Coach Ladner also signed three of the top 40 junior college prospects in the country to join this year’s campaign.

Joining the 2020 roster is 6-3 junior Tae Hardy (16 ppg, 3.7 assists and 3.6 steals) and was first-team junior college All-American at Mississippi’s Pearl River Community College last year.  6-6 junior Justin Johnson (16.9 ppg) played last year at South Georgia Tech and 6-8  junior DeAndre Pinckney (16.8 ppg and 8.0 rpg) who played for Florida Broward Community College.

There are some solid pieces that are in place at Southern Miss for this upcoming 2020 – 2021 season. They have added some scoring power, as well as continuing the ability on the defensive end to rebound and to play with energy.

Coach was quoted as saying “I like that fact, but it’s just going to take a little time because we have so many new guys, junior college guys, high school guys and then obviously, mixing them in with some of our returning veterans is going to take just a little time before we get to our finished product. But I like – like I said – I like our ceiling.”

I think the key to this season will be chemistry. How quickly this team can gel, will be the key to how well the 2020 – 2021 season goes for Southern Miss.