Georgia Southern (0-0) at Wake Forest (0-0)
Friday, Nov. 10 - Lawrenceville Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum (14,665) – 7:30 p.m.
TV: ACC Extra
Radio: GS Sports Network (pregame show starts a half hour before tipoff) - WMCD 107.3 FM (Statesboro), 630 AM WBMQ (Savannah), 1370 AM WLOP (Jesup)
Series: GS trails 3-0, L3
Last Meeting: 11/16/2011, L 81-72 |
| Live Video | Live Audio | Live Stats | Twitter Updates |
Probable GS Starters:
#0
Montae Glenn
#2
Mike Hughes
#3 Ike Smith
#4 Tookie Brown
#10 Jake Allsmiller
Setting the Scene
• Georgia Southern opens its 88th season and 47th Division I campaign of men's basketball Friday when the Eagles travel to Wake Forest.
• The Eagles are 2-2 under head Coach
Mark Byington in season openers.
• The game will be broadcast live on ACC Extra and can be seen online at WatchESPN.com and on the WatchESPN app.
• It's the second straight season the Eagles have opened the campaign in North Carolina against an ACC program. NC State topped Georgia Southern, 81-79, Nov. 11, 2016.
• Wake Forest has won all three meetings in the series, which began in 1979, and all three contests have been in Winston-Salem. It's the first meeting between the teams since 2011, an 81-72 Wake victory in Lawrence Joel Coliseum.
• Georgia Southern's last win over an ACC opponent was an 83-78 victory at Virginia Tech in 2013.
• The Eagles have been one of the youngest teams in the country the last two years, and for the second year in a row, Georgia Southern returns 94 percent of its scoring and all five starters, including first-team All-Sun Belt selections
Ike Smith and
Tookie Brown.
• GS was picked fourth and Brown, Smith and
Mike Hughes were named all-conference in the Sun Belt Preseason Poll, which is voted on by the league's 12 head coaches.
• The Eagles played two exhibition contests and defeated Georgia College 92-59 at home Nov. 1 before topping Augusta, 88-67, Nov. 3.
• Wake Forest returns 12 letterwinners from last year's squad that went 19-14 and made the program's first NCAA Tournament appearance in seven years.
• The Demon Deacons return two starters, guards Bryant Crawford and Keyshawn Woods.
• Three other players return who played over 250 minutes last season (Mitchell Wilbekin, Brandon Childress, Doral Moore).
• Woods scored 21, and Crawford tallied 14 points and eight rebounds to lead Wake Forest to a 76-74 exhibition win over Queens College Nov. 3, which is ranked No. 2 in the preseason NABC Division II coaches poll.
Three Things to Know about the Eagles
1 -
Ike Smith is two points shy of reaching the 1,000-career point mark. Two active Eagles,
Mike Hughes and
Tookie Brown, reached the milestone last season.
2 - Georgia Southern returns the Sun Belt's top two scorers in juniors
Ike Smith (19.6 ppg) and
Tookie Brown (17.1 ppg). The 2017 first-team All-Sun Belt selections are the fourth-highest scoring returning duo in the country. They were the third-highest freshman scoring duo in the country in 2015-16 (1-Rice's Marcus Evans and Marquez Letcher-Ellis, 2- FSU's Dwayne Bacon and Malik Beasley).
3 - Georgia Southern's top-3 seasons in 3-pointers made and attempted have all come during Byington's tenure. GS ranked first in the SBC in threes per game (9.2) and 31st in the country this season, and the Eagles made 10 or more threes in a game 15 times. GS's .362 percentage from long distance was the eighth-highest in school history.
Carolina Connections
• Five Eagles hail from North Carolina.
• Seniors
Mike Hughes and
Coye Simmons are from Winston-Salem, N.C., and played at Winston-Salem Prep.
• Senior
B.J. Gladden, redshirt sophomore
Jared Hamilton and junior transfer
Simeon Carter are from Charlotte. Gladden played at Olympic High School and Hamilton played at Davidson Day and Cannon School.
• Carter, who is sitting out the campaign because of NCAA transfer rules, played at West Charlotte.
Team Storylines
•
Mark Byington is coaching in his 140th career game today and his 130th at Georgia Southern. His 51 wins in his first three seasons at Georgia Southern are the best of any coach in the modern era. He posted a 7-4 record at College of Charleston in 2012, filling in as the interim coach for Bobby Cremins.
• Under
Mark Byington, Georgia Southern is 48-11 in games when leading at half and 58-5 when leading with five minutes to go.
• Georgia Southern's NCAA RPI of 122 in 2017 was the second-highest in the last 27 seasons (111 in 2015).
• Georgia Southern made its seventh postseason appearance in the Division I era and first since 2006, as the Eagles played in the College Basketball Invitational last year.
• GS joins UTA and Louisiana as the only three teams to reach double digit wins in conference play in each of the last three seasons and has the third most league victories (36) during that time.
• Since joining the Sun Belt in 2014, 29 Georgia Southern games against Sun Belt schools have been decided by five points or less, and the Eagles are 19-10.
• The Eagles are 26-5 in Sun Belt games when leading at halftime. GS is 27-1 when leading with five minutes to go.
• GS has a combined record of 34-17 in Sun Belt games played in January and February since joining the league in 2014-15.
• GS averaged 75.5 points a game, the second-most in the last 11 years. The Eagles scored over 80 12 times, including six straight games from 12/20-1/14, and scored over 90 five times, including two in a row Jan. 21 and 23. It was the first time the Eagles scored 90-plus points in back-to-back Division I games since Feb. 11 and Feb. 13, 2006.
• GS shot 50 percent or better in a half in 21 games, including 60 percent or better three times. The Eagles shot 50 percent or better in both halves of a game twice (GSU, 12/31 and CCU, 1/23) and shot 50 percent or better in six games.
• Georgia Southern ranked second in the Sun Belt in fewest turnovers, turnovers per game and turnover margin. The Eagles logged single-digit turnovers in 10 games and posted a season-low six vs. Troy (1/7).
• GS ranked third in the Sun Belt in made free throws and in free-throw attempts. The Eagles attempted 30-plus free throws in six games and made 20-plus free throws in seven contests.
Next Up
• Georgia Southern plays its home opener Monday at 7:30 p.m. against Cal State Bakersfield, a 2017 NIT Final Four participant.
• The Eagles return the trip to the Roadrunners Dec. 16.
Georgia Southern Athletics provides current information on all its sports through its official website, GSEagles.com, which is fully responsive across all mobile devices. Information on Eagle athletics can also be found through social media channels facebook.com/GSAthletics, twitter.com/GSAthletics and Instagram.com/GSAthletics. To purchase tickets to Georgia Southern athletics events, visit GSEagles.com/tickets.
In order to expedite entry and provide a safe environment for all patrons and participants, Georgia Southern Athletics has implemented a Clear Bag Policy for all ticketed sporting events, effective Aug. 1, 2017. Fans can find the complete policy as well as an FAQ section at GSEagles.com/ClearBag.
