The measuring stick isn’t really wins and losses, but Southern Miss men’s basketball still has no plans of being the conference joke many projected this group could become.
Southern Miss (4-9) opens its Conference USA schedule Monday night with a 7 p.m. home matchup against the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs. The Golden Eagles defended home court twice to open the season but stood just 2-3 after dropping each of its first three road trips. Following a four-game losing streak, USM has split the last four games with wins over Southern Illinois and Tougaloo.
Even in defeat against some of the nation’s toughest competitors, these contests were filled with moments where the Golden Eagles looked like they deserved a chance on the stage. No surprise, as the dates were already circled on his calendar, but sophomore guard Gabe Watson epitomized poise on the national stage more so than most on this young roster.
Including Battle 4 Atlantis games (Gonzaga, Seton Hall and Alabama) as well as the Texas Tech road clash, the Jackson native shot 51.9 percent from the field on 52 field goal attempts. Watson also averaged 16.8 points per game, went 6-for-14 behind the arc and shot 7-for-8 from the charity stripe during that stretch. He’s put up double-digit scoring figures in 10 of the 13 games so far this season and says even more will start to show with conference play just ahead.
“We had the schedule come out, saw who we were playing and the toughest teams were the games we wanted to compete in,” Watson said. “I wanted to be one of the stars. I just love playing the game. It’s fun and it comes natural to me. I do feel like I belong in those type of situations.
“Everything is starting to click. The stiff competition we played made us realize we can play with anybody. I think it’ll all come together once conference play starts.
”With the holidays and a week between games entering conference competition, teams have to ensure they hit that opening stretch in stride. It starts for the Golden Eagles with back-to-back battles with the Bulldogs – the second of which is on the road Jan. 4 - before a two away, two home* four-game split featuring UTEP (Jan. 9), UTSA (Jan. 11), North Texas* (Jan. 16) and Rice* (Jan. 18).
“How you handle the holidays can either serve you a positive purpose or it can beat you,” head coach Jay Ladner said. “A lot of that is individual. If they don’t take care of themselves over the holidays, continue to stay sharp, it can hurt the team. But those are times where not very many teams are playing games, and we get an opportunity to catch up to with our opponents that might be a little bit ahead of us right now.”
