Southern Utah's men's basketball team plays two home games this week, hosting Southern Virginia on Wednesday and Troy on Saturday. Both games are slated to begin at 7:00 p.m. in the Centrum Arena.

            The Thunderbirds (3-2/0-0 Summit League) are coming off a 65-62 loss at Utah State on Saturday night. SUU led through much of that game but went through a cold spell in the second half and came up just short against the Aggies. SUU is 1-0 at home this year after posting 63-60 win over Montana State-Billings last Thursday night. The Thunderbirds opened the season at San Diego State's Basketball Travelers Classic, where they posted wins over UC Davis (76-75) and Bryant (95-78) and fell to the host Aztecs, 70-37.

            Southern Virginia (3-3) opened the season with three straight wins but has lost three in a row since posting a 91-79 win at Virginia Intermont. The Knights topped Union and Virginia Lynchburg in the Southern Virginia Fall Classic, then got past Intermont but lost a 70-53 decision at Elizabeth City State (N.C.) on Nov. 11 before dropping two in a tournament at Carroll College last weekend, falling 87-83 to Carroll and 76-65 to Rocky Mountain.

            Troy takes a 1-2 record into a Tuesday game at Alabama-Birmingham. The Trojans lost an 81-71 decision at East Tennessee State on Saturday after blowing past LaGrange College, 116-63, on Nov. 13. Troy opened the season with a 90-85 loss at Texas Tech.

            The Games: Wednesday, Southern Virginia (3-3) at SUU (3-2), 7:00 p.m. (MST) in the Centrum (5,300). Saturday, Troy (1-2 pending the outcome of Tuesday's game at UAB) at SUU, 7:00 p.m. in the Centrum.

            Radio: All Southern Utah men's basketball games will be broadcast live by KSUU (91.1 FM) as well as on the internet at www.suu.edu/ksuu. Art Challis will be in his 39th season as the Thunderbirds' basketball play-by-play voice. Dr. Challis is joined on home and selected road broadcasts by former SUU standout Dean O'Driscoll. O'Driscoll will handle play-by-play on the USU broadcast, with his former teammate, Steve Hoagland, providing color commentary.

            The Series: SUU and Southern Virginia have met once, back in the 2000-01 season when the Thunderbirds took a 70-61 decision in Cedar City. The Thunderbirds and Trojans have met twice, during the 1993-94 season when Troy claimed an 87-85 win in overtime in Troy, Ala., and SUU prevailed in Cedar City, 95-69.

            Practice Schedule: The practice schedule calls for the team will work out at 3:00 p.m. daily. Contact SUU Director of Athletic Media Relations Neil Gardner for more information.

            Media Availability: Players and coaches are available for interviews on Tuesdays prior to practice, between 2:00-3:00 p.m., with occasional adjustments due to scheduling conflicts. To contact a player or coach on another day or time contact Neil Gardner at gardner@suu.edu or 435-586-7753.

            Video Highlights: Video highlights of SUU's Summit League games will be available to accredited media outlets via SUU's FTP site. For information on the schedule and obtaining those highlights contact SUU Director of Athletic Media Relations Neil Gardner.

            Affiliations: Southern Utah is in its 15th and final season in The Summit League. All but two of SUU's sports compete in The Summit, with football a member of the Great West Conference and gymnastics an affiliate member of the Western Athletic Conference. Most of SUU's programs will move into the Big Sky Conference in 2012. Southern Virginia is an NAIA independent which also competes in the U.S. Collegiate Athletic Association. Troy State is a member of the Sun Belt Conference.

            Videostreaming/Live Stats at www.suutbirds.com: All of Southern Utah's 2011-12 men's basketball home games will be video-streamed on the SUU athletic website at www.suutbirds.com. Live stats for all home games and most road games will also be available. Video streams are on a pay basis but there is no cost for live stats.

            Thunderbird Club Luncheons: The Thunderbird Club's weekly no-host luncheon is held Mondays at noon in the Tradition Room in the home of President Michael Benson. The public is invited to attend the luncheons where Southern Utah's in-season coaches talk about their upcoming contests and review the past week's action.

            Next Up: SUU has just one game next week. The T-Birds open their final season in The Summit League at Oral Roberts on Dec. 3.

The Coaches: 

Head Coach Roger Reid (Weber State '68) is entering his fifth season on the Southern Utah bench.

Reid brings a career Division I mark of 195-158, including a 43-82 record at SUU, into the season. His record includes six years as head coach at Brigham Young.

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 40-year coaching veteran who is also entering his fifth season with the program; Johnny Brown (New Mexico '86), an 18-year veteran of the coaching ranks who is in his fifth year in Cedar City; and assistant Kenya Crandell (Nebraska-Kearney '96) who is entering his 15th season as a collegiate coach and his fourth year at SUU.

Captains: This year's captains are the three seniors: Ray Jones, Jr., Matt Massey, and Ramell Taylor.

Thunderbird Notes:

• Jackson Stevenett scored a season-high 19 points at Utah State, and he hit his first two 3-pointers of the season against the Aggies as well. Stevenett also pulled down a team-high seven rebounds at USU, including four offensive boards. He leads the team with 12 offensive rebounds. Stevenett just missed a double-double vs. MSUB, with 11 points and a career-high nine rebounds.
• Matt Massey added 16 points at USU. He has scored in double figures in four of the team's five games.
• SUU committed just six turnovers at Utah State, a season-low. The previous low as 11 vs. Bryant.
• The Thunderbirds are 3-0 when winning the rebounding battle and 0-2 when losing it. SUU and USU each had 14 boards at halftime but the Aggies out-rebounded the Thunderbirds 22-14 in the second half.
• The Thunderbirds have four players with double-figure scoring averages. Ramell Taylor leads the way at 11.8 ppg, while Massey is at 11.2, Stevenett is at 10.8 and Damon Heuir averages an even 10.0 ppg. Ray Jones, Jr. is close, at 9.6 ppg. 
• Taylor notched the first double-double of his career against Montana State-Billings, with 18 points and 10 rebounds. The 10 rebounds were a career-high.
• SUU out-rebounded MSUB 41-31. It was the team's second-largest rebounding advantage of the season, behind the 43-23 edge vs. UC Davis.
• The T-BIrds attempted a season-high 36 free throws vs. MSUB but converted just 23 opportunities. The 63.9 conversion rate is the team's lowest this season.
• Jones posted career rebounding and assists highs at the Basketball Travelers Classic. The senior point guard from Little Rock, Ark., pulled down 10 rebounds vs. UC Davis and dished out 10 assists vs. Bryant. He leads the team in both assists (5.8 per game) and rebounds (5.8 per game).
•  Damon Heuir poured in a career-best 33 points vs. Bryant. He hit his first seven shots and finished 13-of-16, including 5-8 from 3-point range and 2-2 from the free throw line. His 33 points are the most by an individual in The Summit League this season and his .813 shooting percentage in the game is the best by a Summit League player as well. The 33 points were the most by a Thunderbird since Davis Baker scored 34 vs. North Dakota State on Jan. 7, 2010.
• Matt Massey had a career-high seven assists vs. Bryant.
• SUU's 3-2 start is the team's best since the 2006-07 season when the team also started 3-2 and went on to a 6-2 mark before suffering its third defeat, at the hands of then-No. 8 Washington.
• The 95 points SUU scored against Bryant are tied as the second-most during Roger Reid's tenure at SUU and are tied as the most against a Division I team. SUU scored 95 last year against South Dakota State and had an 111-point outburst against Division II University of the Southwest in 2009. The last time the Thunderbirds scored more than 95 points against a Division I opponent was back in the 1999-2000 season when the T-Birds scored 96 at home against UMKC.
• Wade Collie's first game as a Thunderbird was a memorable one as he posted the team's first double-double of the season with 11 points and 10 rebounds vs. UC Davis.
• SUU has 79 assists through five games, an average of 15.8 a game and 19 more than the five opponents combined.
• Through the first five games the Thunderbirds have out-rebounded their opponents by a 32.6-30.6 average.

Exhibition Game Notes:

• Five Thunderbirds had double-figure scoring averages through the two exhibitions. Ray Jones, Jr., led the way with a 16.0 point average, while Matt Massey checked in at 15.5, Ramell Taylor at 15.0, Jackson Stevenett at 14.5 and Wade Collie at 10.0.
• Stevenett averaged a team-leading 8.5 rebounds per game, while Massey and Taylor pulled down 4.5 and 4.0 caroms, respectively.
• Jones and Stevenett co-led the team with 4.5 assists apiece, while Jones and Collie averaged 2.5 steals.
• Stevenett led the team in minutes played during the exhibitions, averaging 38.5 per game. Jones was on the floor an average of 32.5 minutes and Massey 30.5, but no other player logged more than Taylor's 25.5 minutes per game.
• Stevenett blocked three shots against Saint Martin's. They were the team's only rejections in the two games.
• The Thunderbirds did a much better job taking care of the ball in this year's exhibitions than in last year's. After averaging 21.0 turnovers in the two exhibitions in 2010 team had just 25 combined this year, nine in the second half.
• SUU also shared the ball and stole the ball better in this year's exhibitions than in last year's. The team averaged 20 dimes per game in 2011 and 16 in 2010 and had 21 steals in the two games this year compared to 12 in two last season.

2011-12 SUU Trivia:

• SUU has seven lettermen returning from last year's squad as well as a redshirt freshman and another player who was on the squad in 2008-09 before serving an LDS Church mission. The eight total returning lettermen are the team's most during the Roger Reid era.
• Three seniors, six juniors, two sophomores, one redshirt freshmen and four true freshmen, including walk-ons, make up the 2011-12 Thunderbird squad.
• The Basketball Travelers Classic makes it three straight years that the Thunderbirds have participated in an in-season tournament. Last year the team competed at the Great Alaska Shootout and two years ago it traveled to Waikiki for Hawai'i's Rainbow Classic.
• Including the two exhibition games, SUU will play 15 contests at home in the Centrum this season. The regular-season home schedule includes nine conference games as well as non-conference match-ups with Troy and UC Davis as well as games against Division II foes Montana State-Billings and Southern Virginia.
• The SUU road schedule has the Thunderbirds playing at Utah State and Weber State, with a return visit to Troy as well as the nine conference road games. SUU will also play a road game against an opponent to be determined, in the Sears Bracket Buster tournament, in mid-February. This is the first season SUU has participated in the Bracket Buster.
• The Summit League tournament returns to Sioux Falls, S.D., for the fourth straight season this March. Eight men's and eight women's teams qualify for the tournament.
• The University of South Dakota joins The Summit League this season. The Coyotes replace Centenary College, which has moved its athletics program to the NCAA Division III level.
• As a result of the league shake-up, SUU will have a new travel partner in 2011-12: Oral Roberts. SUU had been travel partners with UMKC for the past five seasons.
• Oral Roberts announced on Oct. 25, that this will be its final season in The Summit League as well. ORU is moving to the Southland Conference next season.
• SUU qualified for The Summit League tournament as the number eight seed last year. The Thunderbirds finished the season strong, winning five of their final eight regular-season games, with a 2-point and a 3-point loss as well as a loss to regular-season and conference tournament champion Oakland among the three setbacks.
• SUU is in its 49th season as a 4-year institution, its 24th as an NCAA Division I qualifier and its 15th and final season in the Summit League. The Thunderbirds will join the Big Sky Conference next year.

Scouting the Knights:

            Southern Virginia is averaging 73.5 points per game on 44.0 percent shooting (.259 threes) while allowing opponents an average of 65.8 points on .433 shooting (.220 threes). The Knights have converted 74.8 percent of their free throw attempts and have out-rebounded opponents by an average of 35.8-to-33.2 per game.

            Guard Anders Jacobson (6-1, 185, So) leads three players with double-figure scoring averages at 16.8 ppg. Spencer Briggs (G, 6-2, 215, Sr), averages 14.0 points and a team-high 7.8 rebounds per game, while Casey Nye (G, 6-2, 175, Jr), who prepped at Utah's Davis High, averages 10.5 ppg.

SVU has four players who hail from Utah on the roster. In addition to Nye, guards Ed Greenhalgh (Roy HS) and Jaden Welsh (Bonneville HS) and center Justin Wolf (Payson HS) call Utah home.

Scouting the Trojans

            Heading into Tuesday's game Troy was averaging 90.7 points per game on .426 shooting (.398 threes), while allowing opponents an average of 78.0 ppg on .471 shooting (.413 threes). The Trojans have converted 67.2 percent of their free throws and have averaged 48.7 rebounds per game, with opponents pulling down 35.3.

            Three Trojans carry double-figure scoring averages, guards Will Weathers (6-1, 171, Jr) and Alan Jones (6-0, 180, Jr) and swingman RJ Scott (6-4, 200, So). Weathers averages 14.5 ppg, while Jones and Scott check in at 13.7 and 11.3 ppg, respectively. Scott is also the team's second-leading rebounder, at 6.0 per game, behind G/F Emil Jones (6-3, 185, Jr), who has come off the bench to average 7.3 caroms per game.

            Troy has an abundance of transfers on the squad, with nine junior college and two four-year transfers on the roster. Just three players came to the Trojans directly from high school and all three are freshmen this season.