Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
Middle Tennessee
South Alabama
Blue Raiders Put 10-Game Home Win Streak On Line Against South Alabama
1/19/2005 9:46:00 PM | Men's Basketball
The Blue Raiders (12-5, 2-1 SBC) are one-half game behind Arkansas State and Arkansas-Little Rock entering play Thursday night and carry a 10-game home winning streak into the pivotal Sun Belt clash against the Jaguars (4-11, 1-3). Middle Tennessee's home winning streak is the program's longest since the 1988-89 Blue Raiders strung together 14 straight during one stretch.
"We have had success at home and that's so important in college basketball because winning on the road is difficult regardless of which league you are talking about," said Middle Tennessee third-year coach Kermit Davis, who has guided the Blue Raiders to a 7-0 home record this season and a 17-3 mark at the "Glass House" during the past two seasons. "We have been fortunate to have some very nice crowds at the outset of the home portion of our schedule and with the students back in school we hope that continues against a good South Alabama team Thursday."
Middle Tennessee finds itself near the top of the league standings by virtue of splitting its recent road trip through Arkansas, winning at Arkansas State and falling at Arkansas-Little Rock. The Blue Raiders opened Sun Belt play with an 85-50 win against Arkansas-Little Rock at Murphy Center.
South Alabama is coming off a 73-64 win against New Mexico State and suffered a near-miss against West Division favorite Louisiana-Lafayette, 59-56, last Thursday.
"We know we have to come to play because South Alabama is a team that has played a tough schedule and they've been in all of their league games," senior Michael Cuffee said. "We have to protect our homecourt and look to continue playing team basketball. Our crowds have been great and the fans are so important to us. We kind of thrive off of them at home and they've been good to us so far. Hopefully we will have two more good crowds this week because we have two tough games ahead of us. The biggest thing is we have been focused and taking one game at a time and that never changes."
Cuffee is averaging 18.3 points and eight rebounds, while shooting 55 percent, in the team's first three conference games. He recorded consecutive double doubles on the Arkansas swing. Overall, Cuffee is second on the team in scoring at 14.5 points per game, while his 7.5 rebounds lead the Blue Raiders and are fifth-best in the Sun Belt. Senior guard Mike Dean is the team's leading scorer at 15.4 points per game, while Marcus Morrison is averaging 10.8 points and 6.1 rebounds.
One of several keys to Middle Tennessee's success near the halfway point of the season has been the play of its bench. While the starters have been solid contributors, the play of Morrison, Bryan Smithson and Alex Weekes has completed a solid eight-man rotation and keyed the Blue Raiders recent winning ways. Middle Tennessee has won five-of-six and 11-of-13.
Tipoff for the South Alabama contest is 7 p.m.
