Southern relies on six vets to rebound

For Southern men’s basketball coach Rob Spivery, the best news from an otherwise terrible 2009-10 season came more than a month after the Jaguars played their last game. That’s when Rivals.com named Spivery its Southwestern Athletic Conference coach of the decade. The website was serious.

To be sure, Spivery had earned the honor, having won three conference titles since 2001: two at Alabama State and another in 2005-06, his first season at SU. Since then however, the SU program has crumbled, managing 13 wins in the past two years. The Jaguars finished 5-25 overall last spring — the worst record in school history — and they finished ninth in the league standings, missing the SWAC tournament for the first time.

Southern coach urges patience

First-year Southern head football coach Stump Mitchell said he's not surprised by his team's struggles this season, but he urged patience with better days ahead. "This (2-6 overall, 1-5 SWAC record) was coming," Mitchell said on Monday. "The last two years we finished 6-5 and 6-5. We had some problems with guys that we're still paying for.

"It was my option as a coach and they're not on this football team. We're talking about guys who are academically ineligible, guys who would have been starters. I was hoping they would do what needed to be done...

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