Coach Gomes ready to lead Cinderalla back to the dance... - Jukeman's Blog

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Jukeman's Blog

Coach Gomes ready to lead Cinderalla back to the dance...

Posted on January 13, 2011 at 11:27 PM.

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Southern Jaguars are looking forward to starting the 3th full season under Gomes.

Gomes and the Jags finished over .500 (17-16) in his first year taking over the head coaching duties left behind by the current Athletic Director. After changing up the style and going with the "40 minutes of hell" inspired uptempo play style learned from area playgrounds, Gomes immediately shifted the morale of Southern who were previously bottom feeders in the SWAC.

With fan support, exciting play and happy players, Gomes and the Jags won the conference tournament unexpectedly and also put up a great fight against the 16 seeded Syracuse Orange in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

In year 2 under Gomes, expectations was high and with the core of the team coming back as Sophomores, The Jags finished the year with a 24-14 record while finishing 14-4 in conference play and successfully defending their conference tournament championship.

Awarded as a 14th seed, the Jags defeated 3rd seeded Marshall with a last minute buzzer beater by SR F Ivan Jefferies. Days later, de ja vu struck when the Jags was able to pull off another game winning buzzer beater this time against Northeastern, which launch the Jags into the Sweet Sixteen.

Midnight struck against overly matched Georgia Tech as they would go on to destroy the Mighty Jaguars.

Now this year, with 4 returning starters coming back and 3 SR's graduating, the Jags are heavy favorites to easily run away with the SWAC Title for the first time in 20 years and also have the goal of winning their 3rd straight SWAC Tournament Championship.

5'11 SR G Brandon Odugbela returns after leading the SWAC in assist with 5 per. 6'2 SR G Dawan Wooten who lead the Jags in scoring with 15ppg returns after making over 100 3 pointers last year. Sharp shooting 6'5 SO G Darius McDade will complement Wooten's scoring on the other side of the perimeter, McDade shot 48% from behind the arc last year scoring 13ppg.

The front court features 6'7 JR F Calvin Head who is a former BYU transfer and should have an immediate impact on both sides of the ball. Head can defend all 5 positions and have a nice mid range jumper to go along with his malicious rebounding. Along side Head is crowd favorite and the high flying 6'8 JR F Anderson Beckwith, Beckwith lead the Jags in rebounding last year with 10 a game.

Southern Returns with a very young but talented bench lead but 5'9 SO G Kyile Garner, Garner with his 8ppg will be joined by 6'5 SO G/F Younes Guzman, Guzman will see more time in the back court this year with the loss of their two SR G's. 6'7 JR F Diamond Cochran will battle 6'6 top recruit Emilio Matela for significant playing time at the Forward spot.

Southern start the season off against Southern Miss.

Southern Jaguars 2033-34 Schedule
DATE	OPPONENT	RESULT
Nov 5	at Southern Miss
Nov 11	at Texas A&M
Nov 15	at Texas State
Nov 16	at Iowa St
Nov 26	at Kentucky
Nov 29	at Northwestern State
Dec 3	at UTEP
Dec 10	at Arkansas
Dec 12	at Arkansas St.
Dec 16	vs Texas Tech
Dec 31	at Texas Southern
Jan 2	at Grambling
Jan 7	vs Jackson St.
Jan 9	vs Arkansas Pine Bluff
Jan 14	at Alcorn St.
Jan 16	at Alabama St.
Jan 21	vs Prairie View
Jan 23	vs Miss Valley St.
Jan 28	vs Alabama A&M
Feb 4	at Jackson St.
Feb 6	at Arkansas Pine Bluff
Feb 11	vs Alcorn St.
Feb 13	vs Alabama St.
Feb 18	at Prairie View
Feb 20	at Miss Valley St.
Feb 25	at Alabama A&M
Mar 2	vs Texas Southern
Mar 4	vs Grambling