This basketball season will be veryinteresting.
The Southern University men’s teamhas something to prove. They finished in fourth place in the SouthwesternAthletic Conference last year and now the people in the top offices at the SWACsay that they are capable of better. In the preseason they voted the Jaguars to finish in second place in theSWAC.
Not a bad piece of motivation atall. Now all the players need isfor the students to come out and watch them play the game they work so hard atall season and love.
Excuses for not coming to the gamewill not be accepted this time around (They were so sorry last time).
Through four games (including twoexhibitions) the Jaguar men have only lost one (at the University of CaliforniaBerkeley in Calif.) by a respectable 63-82. Southern has actually been able to hold off their opponentsto the end to capture a victory.
The team last season played with thefoes but faltered in the last two or three minutes left in regulation. Thisteam now is a far cry better than in the games it played last season. They don’t even have one of their bestplayers on the court, yet. Seniorsmall forward Deon Saunders is out nursing a knee injury. So the Jaguars nowhave figured out early on how to utilize the skills of other talentedplayers. When Saunders does makeit back, sometime soon, the team will be even more potent.
Also fromwatching and playing basketball since my early years, I know for a fact that ithas been fans to bring teams back into the game from huge deficits and pull offvictories. The F.G. Clark Activity Center is a nice facility with all of itsconcession stands working. I kidyou not. Since students alreadypaid for the games in tuition they could just walk into the game and enjoy theshow. Season ticket holders havebeen the only faces in the crowd so far. Everyone needs support, even if it’s a little. No one wants to work hard from dusk till dawn and not getnoticed.