Southern Utah's men's basketball team returns to the Centrum to begin a critical three-game homestand this week, beginning with a Thursday match-up against IUPUI, followed by games against Western Illinois Saturday and UMKC next week.
As the teams head into the second half of the league's round robin competition, SUU is one game ahead of IUPUI and WIU in the Summit League standings and two up on UMKC. UMKC hosts both WIU and IUPUI this week as well, so all four teams could take big strides toward locking up Summit League tournament berths, or jeopardizing them, over the next two weeks.
The Thunderbirds (6-14, 4-5 Summit) will be looking to bounce back from a pair of road losses last week. SUU lost 81-56 at Centenary on Thursday night, then suffered a 67-51 defeat at the hands of Oral Roberts on Saturday but won their last home game, an 85-80 win over South Dakota State on Jan. 17.
IUPUI (10-10, 3-6 Summit) snapped a five-game skid Saturday night with the Jaguars' first Summit League road win of the year, an 84-57 triumph at IPFW. Prior to that game IUPUI's last win was a 59-54 home victory over SUU back on Jan. 2.
The Game: IUPUI (10-10, 3-6) at Southern Utah (6-14, 4-5) Thursday at 7:00 p.m. (MST) in the Centrum Arena (5,300).
Radio: All of Southern Utah men's basketball games are broadcast live by KSUU (91.1 FM) and KSUB AM (590) as well as on the internet at
www.suu.edu/ksuu. Art Challis is in his 35th season as the Thunderbirds' basketball play-by-play voice.
TV: There will be no live TV of Thursday's game. Video highlight packages of all Thunderbird home Summit League games are be available to legitimate media outlets via the SUU ftp site, however. For more information on obtaining the highlight packages contact SUU director of athletic media relations Neil Gardner at 435-586-7753 or at gardner@suu.edu.
Webstreaming: All of SUU's regular-season home games and road Summit League games will be available over the internet through the SUU website site. Complete packages, including SUU men's and women's games, are available for just $29.95. For more information, go to
www.suutbirds.com.
The Series: IUPUI holds a 15-9 edge in the series between the two schools, including five straight wins. The Jaguars swept the season series last year but the previous two go-arounds the teams split the regular-season series, with each winning on the others' home floor in 2007 and the two defending their home courts in 2006. IUPUI also claimed a neutral court win in the Summit League tournament in 2007. SUU is 5-4 against the Jaguars in games played in Cedar City.
Next Up: The Thunderbirds continue a three-game home stretch Saturday night when they host Western Illinois. Next week, SUU hosts UMKC on Saturday night in the only contest of the week.
Practice Schedule: When at home the Thunderbirds work out daily from 2:00-4:30 p.m. in the Centrum, with occasional adjustments for class schedules and other considerations. Practice sessions are generally open to the public but media personnel wishing to attend practice should contact SUU Sports Information Director Neil Gardner at (435) 586-7753 prior to practice.
The Coaches: Head Coach
Roger Reid (Weber State ?68) is 17-33 in his second season on the Thunderbird bench. He takes a career Division I mark of 167-109 into Thursday's game.
Coach Reid's career has spanned virtually every level of the coaching strata, including the high school, junior college, and NCAA Division I levels as well as in the NBA and international ranks. He is probably best known for his success at Brigham Young University, where he led the Cougars to five NCAA tournament berths and three Western Athletic Conference championships. He has also coached the Phoenix Suns of the NBA and the Hangzhou Horses of the Chinese Basketball Association. Reid coached Snow College to a conference title and a No. 18 national ranking in his final season on the bench there.
Reid is assisted by
Ron Carling (BYU ?70), a 37-year coaching veteran who is also in his second season with the program;
Johnny Brown (New Mexico ?86), a 15-year veteran of the coaching ranks who is also in his second year in Cedar City; and first-year assistant
Kenya Crandell (Nebraska-Kearney ?96) who is in his 12th season as a collegiate coach.
National Rankings: The Thunderbirds are fourth in this week's NCAA Division I rankings for free throw shooting at 78.8 percent (through games of Jan. 25) and also rank among the top-100 in overall field goal percentage, 84th at .457.
Individually, three Thunderbirds rank among the nation's top-100:
Davis Baker ranks 17th in free throw percentage, at (.890), while
Tyler Quinney is 67th at .839.
John Clifford ranks 91st in rebounding, with 7.8 boards per game.
Player of the Week Tyler Quinney was named Summit League player of the week after his performance in SUU's win at UMKC. Quinney co-led the team with 24 points and was second on the team with eight rebounds. He hit 9-of-14 shots and all six of his free throws, turned the ball over just once and didn't take a seat until the final 30 seconds when the game was well in hand. He also scored 10 points in a second half run that turned a 32-32 tie into a 16-point Thunderbird lead and effectively put the game away. Quinney is SUU's only player of the week this season.
T-Bird Notes:? Slow starts have hurt the Thunderbirds in their last two games. SUU opened both games by hitting just two of its first 12 shots. The ?Birds connected on just 7-of-29 shots in the first half at Centenary, 24.1 percent, the team's worst shooting half of the season, and they hit just 6-of-24 at ORU (25 percent). The performance improved in the second half of both games, however, to 43.5 percent (10-of-23) at Centenary and 38.5 (10-of-26) at ORU and the team finished at 32.7 percent and 32 percent on the respective nights, their second- and third-worst efforts of the year.
? The Thunderbirds hit just one 3-pointer at Oral Roberts, a season-low, and attempted a season-low six threes.
? SUU gave up a season-high 81 points to Centenary.
? The win over South Dakota State is the Thunderbirds' only victory this season when trailing at halftime. It was also the team's first overtime game this season and the 85 points SUU scored was its highest total this year.
? John Clifford had a career-high and Summit League season-high-tying 15 rebounds vs. North Dakota State.
? Freshman center Jaren Jeffrey has posted career scoring and rebounding and minutes-played highs in back-to-back games. The previously seldom-used post player was pressed into duty at Centenary when Clifford got into foul trouble and responded with six points and five rebounds in 20 minutes. Saturday night at ORU Jeffrey had five more rebounds with 12 points and again saw 20 minutes of action.
? Oral Roberts hit just three 3-pointers, bringing to an end a three-game streak in which SUU's opponents had hit at least 10 per game. North Dakota State hit 10 threes, South Dakota State hit 12 and Centenary buried 13, the three highest opponent totals this season. NDSU hit 10-of-18 shots from long range, or 55.6 percent, at that time the best effort by an opponent this year, while SDSU attempted 33 threes, the most attempts by an opponent this year. Centenary bettered NDSU's accuracy rate, however, hitting 13-of-20 shots from downtown (.650).
Jaguar Notes: IUPUI won nine of its first 14 games before the five-game losing streak that ended last Saturday at IPFW. Among the Jaguar's non-conference losses were setbacks at Indiana (60-57), a 59-58 overtime defeat to then No. 18 Arizona State and a 64-57 loss at Massachusetts. Among the Jaguars' non-conference wins are a 67-65 triumph at Seton Hall. Their conference losses have come at home to Western Illinois (58-48), ORU (67-58) and Centenary (58-56) and on the road at North Dakota State (55-52), South Dakota State (83-63) and Oakland (75-57).
Three Jaguars carry double-figure scoring averages, led by freshman Alex Young's (F, 6-5, 195) 12.6 ppg. Robert Glenn (Jr, F, 6-7, 195) chips in 12.1 points and Gary Patterson (Sr, G, 5-10, 175) adds another 10.8 per game. Glenn has also blocked 35 shots this season. Jon Avery (Jr, F, 6-7, 205) and Billy Pettiford (Jr, F, 6-7, 220) are the team's top two rebounders, with respective averages of 6.1 and 6.2 caroms per game, and Pettiford also leads the team in assists, with 2.9 per game.
As a team, IUPUI averages 64.7 points on .467 shooting (.329 threes) while allowing opponents an average of 61.5 points on .425 shooting (.363 threes). The Jaguars have out-rebounded opponents by an average of 32.8-to-29.3 caroms per game and have knocked down 65.2 percent of their free throws.
