MBB Season Preview: Eagles Poised to Take Next Step

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STATESBORO – As the sleeper bus twisted and turned through the Kentucky mountains bound for Statesboro in the dead of night, Georgia Southern men’s basketball coach Brian Burg knew the payoff was coming. It might take a while, but it was coming.

The trip to Morehead State was one of 17 contests Georgia Southern played away from the friendly confines of Hanner Fieldhouse last season - all part of a plan - and the fruits of that labor will be reaped this season as Georgia Southern will host 16 contests, the most in 30 years.

The slate includes a stretch of six consecutive home games, also the most for the Eagles since 1991-92, when GS capped the season with three straight home contests before hosting and winning the TAAC Tournament in Hanner to earn the Eagles' last NCAA Tournament bid.

“We purposefully loaded up the road schedule last year with the goal to have the most home games we’ve ever had this year,” says Burg. “It’s great to spend almost the entire month of December in Statesboro with all the familiarity and advantages that come with playing at home. Hanner Fieldhouse is one of the toughest places to play in the Sun Belt, and we hope to take advantage of that.”

"A lot comes with traveling, but when you’re home, you have your routine and you are familiar with everything,” adds fifth-year senior guard Kamari Brown. “You sleep in your own bed, shoot on the same goals and play in front of the home crowd. It's a huge advantage.”

Nine returners, including starters Andrei Savrasov (10.7 ppg, 5.5 rpg), Kaden Archie (7.6 ppg, 2.4 rpg) and Brown (9.5 ppg, 3.9 rpg) are set to suit up for the Eagles. Georgia Southern also welcomes four newcomers to the program, a recruiting class that is expected to make major contributions this season.

Burg and the coaching staff like to do in-home recruiting visits, and for his first two years, those visits were replaced by Zoom calls because of the COVID Pandemic. Those restrictions were removed last spring, allowing the Eagle staff to return to the in-home visits and land transfers Jalen Finch (Jacksonville State) and Tai Strickland (Temple) along with junior college transfer Tyren Moore and freshman Nate Brafford.

“Last spring was really the first time we could get out and get into families' houses and get a chance to build relationships, and I think that's carried over to our recruiting efforts,” says Burg. “We had a really good recruiting class with the four guys who we brought in. All four are winners, who will make an immediate impact in our program.”

Finch, Strickland and Moore are athletic, playmaking guards, and their aptitude to create will make the offense more fluid.

“They are very skilled with the ability to get out in transition and get some easy baskets and they have the ability to create their own shot or a shot for someone else,” says Burg.

The Eagles spent a good chunk of their seven weeks in the summer playing 5 on 5 with an emphasis on building on-court chemistry, a new wrinkle the coaching staff decided to incorporate.

“We wanted to get our guys out and play as much 5 on 5 together so that they understand how to play with each other,” says Burg. “That was a huge emphasis with our staff. Let's get out and preach our fundamentals with some breakdown drills, teach our philosophies and then we need these guys to play. We played more 5 on 5 this summer then we ever have, and to me, this is the best summer that we've had since I've been here.”

"When you have a group of new guys, it's always great to get up and down because that's how you really build chemistry,” adds Archie. “It's still going to take some time, and getting live-game experience is going to help as well, so this non-conference schedule is really huge for us.”

Defense has been the identity of the Eagles under Burg. Georgia Southern has held its opponent under 60 points 14 times during his tenure and forced its opponent to shoot under 40 percent 22 times. The Eagles’ field goal percentage defense of .410 last season was the second-best in school history, and their .423 percentage in 2019-20 ranks sixth.

“We want to force teams to play in the halfcourt, make everything difficult, generate turnovers or difficult one-and-done shots and get out in transition to generate easy baskets,” says Burg. “Defense travels, and defense wins in March.”

Georgia Southern was picked 11th in the Sun Belt Preseason Coaches Poll with no representatives on the three preseason all-conference teams, but as Burg noted at the conference’s media day, nobody hangs banners for the preseason. Consistent winning requires an entire team effort, and Burg says to the leadership of his three fifth-year seniors as the reason the Eagles are poised to take the next step.

“Kaden Archie, Kamari Brown and Jalen Finch are going into their fifth year of college basketball, and I'm extremely excited for those three guys,” says Burg. “They know it's their last year, and they have stepped up in terms of leadership. Our guys have one common goal, and that's to win at the highest level.”

The Eagles open the 2022-23 season Nov. 8, at San Jose State and play their season opener Nov. 12, at 7 p.m. in Hanner Fieldhouse. GS’s six-game homestand begins Nov. 26 and features contests against FGCU (Nov. 30), Wofford (Dec. 10), Morehead State (Dec. 14) and Campbell (Dec. 17). The home Sun Belt schedule has games against South Alabama (Dec. 29), Appalachian State (Feb. 24), Arkansas State (Feb. 11), Coastal Carolina (Feb. 22), Georgia State (Jan. 21), James Madison (Feb. 9), Marshall (Jan. 5), ULM (Jan. 19) and Old Dominion (Jan. 7).

Season tickets, which start as low as $100, are on sale and can be purchased by calling 1-800-GSU-WINS.