UAB Blazers vs. Southern Miss Golden Eagles Prediction & Game Preview - 3/2/2022

Time: 8 p.m. ET

Venue: Reed Green Coliseum, Hattiesburg, MS

Where to watch: ESPN+

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UAB: 22-7 (12-4 C-USA)

Southern Miss: 6-23 (1-15 C-USA)

The UAB Blazers won’t be winning the regular season Conference USA championship but at the very least, they can lock up the No. 2 seed in the tournament should they handle business in their final two games.

One can only imagine what would’ve happened had UAB knocked off the North Texas Mean Green a couple of weeks ago, but that’s neither here nor there at this point. UAB has still won three of four and is coming off a 69-66 win at UTEP on Saturday.

Jordan Walker led with 22 points and hit the go-ahead jumper with less than a minute to go, and he also finished with seven assists and six turnovers in what was a closer game than it probably should’ve been against a 16-win UTEP squad. Walker was the only player to reach double figures, had to shoot 6 of 18 to get there and UAB shot 42 percent from the floor.

All in all, not a great time for the Blazers, but good enough to win a game. And at this time of year, that’s all that matters.

UAB is one of the highest-scoring teams in the conference at nearly 80 points per game while allowing only 64. They’re about as efficient as a team can be in the country, and if they make their way to the NCAA tournament, it wouldn’t be shocking to see this group potentially make a run. When you can make shots as well as you do and still play lockdown defense on the wing (averaging 10 steals per game), you’re bound to be doing something right.

It also helps that this team is facing a Southern Miss team that’s lost 12 straight games and is plummeting toward the bottom of purgatory. This is just too good of a matchup for UAB to not take advantage of.

You have to go back to Jan. 19 to find the last time the Southern Miss Golden Eagles won a basketball game. It was against something called Southeastern Baptist College and Southern Miss won by a resounding 100-50. It was a small break before a huge run in conference play.

Since then, it has been a god-awful time for the Golden Eagles, losing 12 straight and losing 15 consecutive games in C-USA play. Their only win was their first conference game on Jan. 6 against UTSA, a 74-73 victory on the road. And also since then, Southern Miss has only lost two games by single digits; one to North Texas on Jan. 27, and their latest at Rice, losing 77-72 in overtime on Saturday.

There’s also another overtime game thrown in there, a 98-79 loss to UTSA, but we won’t talk about that for the purpose of trying to keep Southern Miss alumni sane and how they didn’t outscore a team 21-2 in a five-minute stretch after the game was tied.

USM had only seven players suit up but got 29 points from Walyn Napper, but still taking 27 shots to reach that point is a lot of missed baskets, especially from 3-point range. The man went 3 of 11 and the team only made 5 of 19 from deep. Clearly we know where the problem lies. They also only took eight free throws and made five of them. Napper also played all 45 minutes, which tells you something about a Rice team that’s not that great.

We’re talking about a team that just has not made sense under any circumstance whatsoever. It’s baffling when teams play horribly for an entire season, but when you can pinpoint exactly why, it just makes the entire situation that much more weird. I think it would be great if we could just add all the horrible teams to one tournament and see who is the best of the worst. That would be awesome.

Don’t overthink it. UAB’s offense is too good, and Southern Miss’ defense is horrible to the point it might give up 90 to one of the best shooting teams in the league. And while this large spread doesn’t do much for UAB – they’re 0-5-1 ATS in their last six following an outright victory – Southern Miss just isn’t good enough to keep this game close. Again, all but two of their conference losses have been by double digits. To me, that’s not even close to being enough to give USM a chance. UAB by 20

UAB is 32-27 ATS as a favorite over the past three seasons.

The under is 186-131 after UAB plays the previous game as a favorite.

Southern Miss is 4-12 ATS revenging a same-season loss against an opponent.

PG: Jordan Walker

SG: Quan Jackson

SF: Tavin Lovan

PF: K.J. Buffen

C: Trey Jemison

PG: Rashad Bolden

SG: Mo Arnold

SF: DeAndre Pickney

PF: Isaih Moore

C: Tyler Stevenson

Points: Jordan Walker -- 19.1

Rebounds: Trey Jemison -- 7.5

Assists: Jordan Walker -- 4.9

Points: Tyler Stevenson -- 14.5

Rebounds: Tyler Stevenson -- 7.7

Assists: Walyn Napper -- 4.1