Arkansas State University's men's basketball team has seen South Alabama twice already.
To the Red Wolves, their 66-65 victory Jan. 10 at First National Bank Arena in Jonesboro has become fairly irrelevant prior to today's first-round game at the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.
The second game, South Alabama's 70-62 home victory Feb. 7, is more useful for the ninth-seeded Red Wolves' preparation ahead of today's 7 p.m. tipoff against eighth-seeded South Alabama at the Mitchell Center in Mobile, Ala.
The winner of South Alabama (15-16, 8-10) and ASU (13-18, 7-11) will advance to face No. 5 seed Louisiana-Lafayette at 5 p.m. Thursday at Lakefront Arena in New Orleans.
"I thought they came in with a completely different game plan in the second game, which we'll be ready for now," ASU Coach Mike Balado said. "They haven't changed.
"The second game is better for us to watch because the first was so long ago. And the second is the way they're playing now, and that'll help us prepare better."
What does ASU remember about the differences in the two games?
"The zone," ASU sophomore guard Markquis Eaton said.
Balado said South Alabama began almost exclusively using a matchup zone defense later in the season following a 2-5 start in Sun Belt play. The zone troubled ASU in its February loss on the road.
"They kind of distorted us last time," Eaton said. "On offense, we were kind of moving slow, not playing free. ... At the beginning, they were playing us man and we just carved them up the whole game. Their bigs couldn't guard us."
Beginning with ASU's one-point victory against South Alabama on Jan. 10, the Jaguars lost five consecutive games until a 78-72 victory at Louisiana-Monroe on Jan. 26.
South Alabama was 3-5 in its final eight games of the regular season, including a 78-71 victory Saturday against Appalachian State to officially gave the Jaguars the No. 8 seed in the conference tournament.
"They took five losses in a row and flipped their whole mentality," Eaton said. "They're straight zone."
In Balado's first season at ASU last year, the Red Wolves lost 76-54 to Louisiana-Monroe in the first round Sun Belt Tournament.
Louisiana-Lafayette defeated ASU 90-87 on Saturday at First National Bank Arena. Going forward, another loss ends ASU's season -- and the Red Wolves know it.
"We don't have the luxury of saying it's all right. We've got to keep our head up," Eaton said. "It's win and survive. Win and survive."
Sports on 03/12/2019