Eagle’s Landing

We’re about a third of the way into the season and so far it looks like a carbon copy or the last few.   Tht could all change today.  The Golden Eagles have a chance to make a statement by winning the series at Rice.  It would be the kind of win that could lead to getting a host spot in a regional.  The difference in being a 1 seed at home vs. a 2 seed in someone else’s park is huge.  It’s the kind of edge that can get us over the hump in the post season.

 The question today is are we up to the moment?

Good week for the baseball team, going 4-0 by beating teams they should beat.  Next weekend’s conference opener against surprising Central Florida will be a good barometer.

Congratulations to Coach James Green.  His Delta Devils are going dancing.  Nice reward for a class act. 

 Here in Mobile, there’s a lot of crossed fingers for the South Alabama Jaguars.  In the classic case of the life of the mid-major, they are sweating it out today on the bubble despite a 26 win season after losing in the semi-finals of the Sun Belt tournament on their home court.  They’re a well-coached and talented team that will be a tough out for soeone if they get their chance.

Sadly, there isn’t the same anticipation in Hattiesburg.  Looks like we’ll be shut out of the post-season again.  We finished the season strong, but taken as a whole it was a disappointment.  In fact in a theme we’ve seen in both football and baseball recently, the season was the spitting image of last season.  Sometimes I think we should be the Fighting Groud Hogs rather than the Golden Eagles.  A lull in late December, early January including losses to McNeese State, Savannah State, and Central Florida was the difference in the year.  Next year will need to bring the next jump up in results or it will be time to take a hard look at the program.

Four years ago, when we hired Larry Eustachy, days like today were what was envisioned.  Large crowds, great atmosphere, exciting basketball, plying competitively with the best in the nation, we saw all of that today, despite the 9 point loss.  Unfortunately, we’ve seen way too little of this over the last 4 seasons.

Today the excitement was great.  It brought back fond memories of the Green House rocking from the mid-80s thru the Spoon era.  Unfortunately, the talent gap, the physicality gap was too great to overcome.  Memphis, while looking lethargic for long periods, still looked like men against boys (or Superman in Derrick Rose’s case) when they chose to turn it on.

The challenge for Southern Miss now is to build on this.  That goes for the fans as much as team.  Will RGC go back to being 1/4 filled for Tuesday’s matchup with UTEP.  For the first time in a couple of seasons, we actually get to have a Senior night. 

It’s been a pretty disappointing season with some real lows.  But we have a chance to end the year on a high.  I hope 50-60% of the fans that showed up today make it back out Tuesday.  I hope the team shows the same desire and heart as they did today.  I hope we end the season at .500 in conference play and win a game or 2 in Memphis.

I hope for all of this.  But I can’t yet say I expect it.