‘Winning every game on the schedule is the expectation’
An appetizer for the final three weeks of the regular season for Georgia Southern basketball
STATESBORO — With the way the Sun Belt has structured its’ teams schedules this season, playing two games a weekend against the same divisional opponent, it means that a weekend split does little to nothing in the standings.
Georgia Southern women’s basketball assistant coach Chris Straker joked earlier in conference play that if every team split each weekend, everyone would remain at .500. It was a joke, but statistically that is exactly what would happen.
Fortunately, teams have been able to sweep other teams, causing a season-long shuffle that is nearing completion with just three weeks until the Sun Belt tournaments in Pensacola, Florida beginning March 5.
So where are the GS teams now, what needs to happen for them to be best suited for the conference tournament and what are some possible scenarios?
Let’s dive in.
Extending the in-state streak
The women’s basketball team has won the last five games against teams from Georgia, sweeping rival Georgia State last season and picking up wins against Augusta, Coastal Georgia and Georgia Southwestern earlier this year.
Head coach Anita Howard went 2-0 against the rival Panthers her first year at the helm of the Eagles, winning first 81-56 in Statesboro and then 77-74 via a Tatum Barber three to win in Atlanta at the end of the regular season.
Thursday, the opportunity to extend her reign over GSU comes for the first time. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. in Statesboro.
GS enters the weekend off probably its most impressive weekend of the Howard era. Last Friday, the Eagles defeated defending Sun Belt champion Troy and then on Saturday fell to the Trojans by nine. Though not being able to take the weekend sweep, Howard saw things to build upon.
“It’s a good thing because you’re able to see you can compete with the Sun Belt’s best team right now,” Howard said Saturday. “Although we lost, we were able to put up 83 points today and 96 points yesterday. It shows us what we can be capable of doing and not just against Troy, but us as a team. You look at their double digit scorers and you see four seniors, one junior. If you look at our double digit scorers, you see two freshmen and a sophomore. They’ve had more game experience at this level than we’ve had and that showed tonight in the second game.”
As has been the case all year, this team is very youth-led with guidance from the few upperclassmen. Senior Arkansas-transfer A’Tyanna Gaulden still leads the team in scoring, assists and steals, but freshmen like Daeja Holmes, Eden Johnson and Terren Ward and sophomore Shondell Vickers have been making names for themselves.
Johnson led the team in scoring in the win over Troy with 20 points and shooting 4-for-5 from beyond the arc. Holmes has spurts of electricity in different games, Ward nearly had back-to-back double-doubles this weekend and Vickers averages eight points, seven rebounds a game.
Not too bad for having played less than 50 college basketball games.
GSU comes into Thursday night having just won two games in Boone against Appalachian State. They’ve had several postponed games, but Taylor Hosendove still averages more than 11 points and eight rebounds a game.
Finishing the weekend
The past three weekends, the GS men have played the same card — win a close game and lose the other game by double digits. It’s a formula that has cost them games against South Alabama, Coastal Carolina and most recently Troy.
Actually, all but two weekends have resulted in splits for the Eagles. They swept Troy at home one weekend and were swept by App State in Boone, still finishing with a .500 conference record.
Like the women though, the men face in-state rival GSU this week. The Eagles have won the last two against the Panthers.
The last time GS won three-straight against GSU came in the 1992 season. Coincidentally, that was the last season the Eagles hoisted a conference championship trophy, defeating the Panthers 95-82 to win the Trans America Athletic Conference.
This GS team has that same goal: win a conference title.
“Winning every game on the schedule is the expectation,” GS head coach Brian Burg said back in August, when this weekend's series against GSU wasn’t even on the first-year head coach’s radar. “That’s the standard and that’s how we approach every day. We don’t talk about winning games or winning championships. We talk about winning the day.”
If the team plays like they have at times this season, that championship is certainly in the conversation. Like in a January 2 game against South Alabama, where they held the Jaguars to less than 50 points and had three different players in double figures.
If the team plays like they have in other games, the Eagles might be lucky to make the second round of the Sun Belt tournament. Like two weeks ago at home against Coastal Carolina, where the Chanticleers shot 51% and allowed 15 turnovers.
The “championship mindset” Burg alluded to in preseason has to begin in Atlanta Thursday night. The Panthers have lost three straight and have won just two conference games. They’re led by Corey Allen who is averaging 15 points per game.
Outlook for the home stretch
The GS women’s team has a very winnable remainder of the season. After the two games against GSU, the Eagles will play three games versus Coastal Carolina, two of which are in Hanner. The Chanticleers are 0-9 in Sun Belt play.
GS then heads to Boone for two games against the Mountaineers before setting sights on Pensacola.
Currently, the Eagles are in fifth place in the East at 4-6. If they can sweep CCU and GSU and get at worst a split in Boone, that should be good enough to get a top-3 seed in the East. A top-3 seed would guarantee a first-round game against one of the three Sun Belt West teams who has a losing record in conference play.
On the men’s side, things are currently a lot closer and less clear cut. Four teams in the East division have six wins. GS sits in fourth right now at 6-6, but part of that is due to having played the most games in the division.
Best case scenario for the men is to win the remaining six games and win the regular season title, clinching a game against Louisiana-Monroe in the first round. Worst case is losing all six games and facing a Texas State team who is projected to make the NCAA tournament by ESPN.
Weekend schedule against Georgia State
MBB: Thursday in Atlanta at 6 p.m.; Saturday in Statesboro at 3 p.m.
WBB: Thursday in Statesboro at 6 p.m.; Saturday in Atlanta at 2 p.m.
All four games are being broadcast on ESPN+.
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