By JOSEPH SCHIEFELBEIN, Advocate sportswriter
A Dec. 21 visit from Big 12 member Baylor highlights the Southern University men’s basketball schedule this season.
“Any time we can get a Big 12 school to play us on our home court, that’s a good thing for us,” Southern coach Rob Spivery said. “The only bad part is the timing. All the students will be gone. We’re going to have to rely on local people to come out and support the team.”
Southern won the Southwestern Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament titles in Spivery’s first season, but the team dipped to a 10-21 record last season.
The Jaguars, with eight players with experience returning, will have an exhibition game against Tougaloo College on Nov. 3 and begin their season at Southern Methodist in a two-day event on Nov. 10.
Starting with that game against SMU, SU will play nine home games — though the Jaguars will be at Southeastern Louisiana on Nov. 20 and at LSU on Dec. 1 — before playing Baylor, 15-16 last season, for the first home game.
Last season, SU played Georgia, Wisconsin, Oklahoma State and Florida in November and went to Missouri in December.
This season, LSU, Auburn (in Mobile, Ala.), Missouri and Baylor are teams from power conferences which Southern will face.
“I don’t think it’s as overbearing as last year’s schedule, although we’ve got some high-profile teams to play,” Spivery said.
“It’s more workable for us, in terms of being able to compete.”
Coming and going
n Southern has added 6-foot-5 shooting guard/small forward Brandon Byars from Northwest Mississippi Community College. He is originally from Coosa High in Rome, Ga.
Byars averaged 9.7 points and 5.1 rebounds per game last season at Northwest Mississippi Community College.
“He scores in a variety of ways,” Spivery said. Also, former Glen Oaks standout Brandon White, named one of District 6-4A’s top defenders in 2006 and a former Louisiana High School Coaches Association All-Star that summer, has walked on. White is listed as a freshman.
Junior guard Javaris Bradford is academically ineligible and has left school, Spivery said.
Bradford averaged 3.3 points, 1.6 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game last season. He was academically ineligible in the fall semester last season.
Shooting forward Jamar Flowers, who signed in late April and was transferring from Navarro College, did not qualify and will not be with the program, Spivery said. Flowers averaged 9.8 ppg and 5.3 rpg last season at Navarro. Flowers, who signed with Nicholls State in June 2004, was a Class 1A first-team All-State selection for White Castle High as a senior.
Notes
SU likely will start preseason practice with an open workout for fans on the night of Oct. 12. That date is the Friday before the home football game with Jackson State the next day. Desmond Griffin, a signee from Washington-Marion in Lake Charles, is a nonqualifier and will sit out this season. Griffin is a 6-5 shooting guard.
2007-08 Southern University Men's Basketball Schedule
November
3 Tougaloo College (exhibition) 7 p.m.
10 vs. SMU (at Dallas) 7:30 p.m.
11 vs. Paul Quinn (at Dallas) 5:30 p.m.
16 at Missouri 7 p.m.
20 at Southeastern Louisiana 7:45 p.m.
December
1 at LSU 1 p.m.
4 at Stephen F. Austin 7 p.m.
8 at Houston 7 p.m.
15 vs. Auburn (at Mobile, Ala.) TBA
17 at North Texas 7 p.m.
21 BAYLOR 7 p.m.
30 DILLARD 4 p.m.
January
5 at Prairie View 7:30 p.m.
7 at Texas Southern 7:30 p.m.
12 GRAMBLING 7:30 p.m.
14 JACKSON STATE 7:30 p.m.
19 at Arkansas-Pine Bluff 7:30 p.m.
21 at Mississippi Valley St. 7:30 p.m.
26 ALABAMA A&M 4 p.m.
28 ALABAMA STATE 7 p.m.
February
2 ALCORN STATE 4 p.m.
9 at Grambling 7:30 p.m.
11 at Jackson State 5:30 p.m.
16 ARKANSAS-PINE BLUFF 4 p.m.
18 MISSISSIPPI VALLEY ST. 7:30 p.m.
23 at Alabama A&M 7:30 p.m.
25 Alabama State 7:30 p.m.
March
1 at Alcorn State 7:30 p.m.
6 PRAIRIE VIEW 7 p.m.
8 TEXAS SOUTHERN 4 p.m.
12-15 SWAC Tournament
(at Birmingham, Ala.) TBA
Home games in caps
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