Of the four current top NET ranking for the Sun Belt, the Red Wolves occupy one slot, and three consecutive Arkansas State opponents make up the remaining three – all played on the road. After dispatching Old Dominion in Norfolk with relative ease, A-State fell to James Madison in Harrisonburg 67-62, a game that once saw the Red Wolves leading by 13. On Thursday evening, Bryan Hodgson’s bunch arrives in Mobile to take on top-NET rated South Alabama, a team that has smashed their last four opponents by at least 20 points – one of which those Dukes of James Madison. A couple days later, the Red Wolves conclude their journey away from Jonesboro with a dustup in Troy, who like South Alabama is 3-0 in conference.

South Alabama is the surprising party crasher, picked to finish an inglorious 11th in the Sun Belt, helmed by head coach Ritchie Riley who bears the honorable distinction of having never led the Jaguars to a losing season. Riley is receiving value from 6’6″ forward Barry Dunning Jr, the former two-time Gatorade Alabama Player of the Year turned Razorback recruit turned UAB transfer turned productive Jaguar. He’s averaging 13 points and six boards a game.

As dangerous as Dunning Jr. is, the man to contain is 6’0″ guard Myles Corey, who had enjoyed a long, productive career at William Jessup before becoming South Alabama’s leader in points scored (17), assists (4.5) and field goal percentage (46.6%). Add 6’6″ forward Judah Brown and his propensity for nailing three pointers to the equation, and you have a pleasantly surprising team that leads the entire Sun Belt in defense, limiting opponents to a mere 61 points per game.

The Jags aren’t especially big – senior Elijah Ormiston is the tallest member on the roster at 6’8″ – but they play a tenacious style of D that held Georgia Southern scoreless for the first 8 minutes of their contest on Saturday. The Jaguars may not play big beneath the bucket (South Alabama ranks near the bottom of the SBC for both defensive and offensive rebounding) but they make up for it with the conference’s best turnover margin (a crazy 6.80, fifth best nationally) and by making a high percentage of three point shots.

Meanwhile, the Trojans of Troy are working on a five game win streak by playing solid Scott Cross basketball. Like the Jags (and Arkansas State), the Trojans are 11-4 and play better than average defense. Returning SBC Freshman of the Year Myles Rigsby paces the Trojans with 12 points per game with only senior guard Tayton Conerway joining him in posting double figure (10). Troy ranks 5th in the SBC for scoring, but it’s the defense that propels the Trojans, who rank second in steals and fifth in blocked shots. Also like South Alabama, the Trojans are generous with assists (third), but are far better rebounders than the Jags.

Consistency is the magic fueling Scott Cross’ hocus-pocus. Nearly the entire team from last year’s roster has returned bearing the Trojan short sword for another season. Conerway can likely find Rigsby with an outlet pass in his sleep. Yet the Trojans lack a big win on their bingo card, which does feature a bevy of blowout losses to better resourced teams like Oregon, Arkansas and Houston. Its conference victories have come at the expense of the struggling East, the last a one-point win over Marshall. Arkansas State will surely put them to the test.

And what of Arkansas State? The Red Wolves had notched six straight victories before becoming flummoxed by the Dukes’ aggression at James Madison. Arkansas State was without preseason SBC player of the year Kobe Julien, still nursing a dinged ankle. His physical presence was sorely missed in the paint against the Dukes bruising Elijah Hutchins-Everett. A guy such as the tankish Julien would surely be an asset against the smallish Jaguars and not-so-small Trojans.

By tightening the defense on Taryn Todd, the Dukes seemed to take A-State (who appeared to forget about its considerable outside weapons) out of the game. Clearly, the Red Wolves wanted to defeat James Madison inside the paint. It may have, had Hodgson bore a healthy Julien. Perhaps we’ll see him in Mobile on Thursday.

Feature Image: Carla Wehmeyer – Arkansas State