USI Screaming Eagles -- From DII to the Big Time?

[PointGuard]

Three straight single point losses! Oy-vey! Then a bunch of close games...you must have bought out the pepto bismol supply at your local drugstore.

[jksander]

Three straight single point losses! Oy-vey! Then a bunch of close games...you must have bought out the pepto bismol supply at your local drugstore.

Such brutality! It's the perils of simming out games ... you never know what you're gonna get

[jksander]

JANUARY 2, 2026
Little Rock (6-5, 0-0) @ Southern Indiana (7-4, 0-0)

We got out to a good start in our first game of the year in the OVC, getting out to a five-point lead by halftime and adding through the second half as we beat the Trojans 71-62. Jermaine Timmons remains the star, leading our team with 19 points six rebounds six assists and four steals, while Matt Carson came off the bench with 15 points a rebound and a steal.

In non-game news, we’ve been involved in discussions with the administration at Indiana State, and pending a few more small items of interest being ironed out, it appears we’re going to be launching an annual in-state series between our two teams starting next year. That’s great news for both programs, as I fully intend to build this program up for long term success.

JANUARY 6, 2026
Southern Indiana (8-4, 1-0) @ Morehead State (5-7, 0-1)

Our winning streak came to an end tonight as the Morehead State Eagles grounded our Screaming Eagles with an 87-78 shootout loss. They only led 30-26 at the half, but we let them loose in the second half with 57 points, and our team is not built to keep up with that kind of insane pace. Jermaine Timmons led with 14 points five rebounds and an assist, Travis Townes added 13 points four rebounds two assiss, and Morris Morin came off the bench with 12 points three rebounds two assists.

JANUARY 11, 2026
Western Illinois (7-7, 0-3) @ Southern Indiana (8-5, 1-1)

Maybe I spoke too soon about our ability to put up big points! We opened this one with a 50 point first half, leading the Leathernecks by 23 at the break, but then let them climb back in the second half with their own 47 point effort ... but they didn’t slow us down enough, and we were able to hold on to win 83-74. We had four starters in double figures scoring, led by the ever-present force that is Jermaine Timmons -- he had 24 points two rebounds and an assist, while Henry Carlisle added 15 points five rebounds eight assists two steals and a block ... what an effort! This is our first of six games in a 13-day stretch, so we’re about to see how fresh we can stay on our feet.

 
JANUARY 13, 2026
Southern Indiana (9-5, 2-1) @ SIU Edwardsville (5-10, 2-2)

There was a stretch late in the first half when the game was close, our two teams trading places seven times and alternating two or three point advantages. But we built a 34-30 halftime lead and never looked back, leading by as many as 14 before closing out the 78-65 win on the road. Jermaine Timmons led the way with 18 points six rebounds two assists a steal and a block, and Paul Lampley added 10 points nine rebounds two assists and two blocks.

JANUARY 16, 2026
Southern Indiana (10-5, 3-1) @ Little Rock (7-8, 1-3)

Little Rock never had a lead bigger than two in this one; we led by four at the half and then cruised our way to a 79-67 win in a game we dominated in the paint 30-16. Jermaine Timmons led the way with 16 points two rebounds an assist and a steal, and Henry Carlisle added 12 points five rebounds seven assists and a steal. We remain in a tie for first in the conference with the Lindenwood Lions at 4-1 each.

JANUARY 18, 2026
Tennessee-Martin (3-13, 3-2) @ Southern Indiana (11-5, 4-1)

In a strong defensive effort, we stumped the Skyhawks early, taking a 23-21 lead after a back and forth first-half battle. But the second half was all us, as we put up 46 points and completely knocked the air out of their sails, winning this one 69-55 in a defensive blowout. Paul Lampley stepped into the leader role today and put up 23 points with four rebounds an assist and a block, as they held Timmons to just 11 points ... though he stepped up on defense with three assists four steals and a block.

JANUARY 20, 2026
Morehead State (9-8, 4-2) @ Southern Indiana (12-5, 5-1)

There’s something about this Morehead team we can’t seem to handle ... and now they have the tiebreaker against us in the conference standings, as tonight we spotted them a dozen points in the first half and weren’t able to make up enough in the second. They beat us 73-69, another tight loss, and though we’ve only lost two games in the OVC thus far, they now have a significant edge if they keep winning like they have been. Right now the two of us are tied for first with SE Missouri State and Lindenwood half a game back at 4-2 each, and the 4-3 Panthers of EIU and Cougars of SIU-E are right there just a game back. So this race is not going to be an easy one to win. Jermaine Timmons led the way with 19 points seven rebounds two assists and a block, taking the team on his back as our only player in double figures scoring.

JANUARY 23, 2026
Southern Indiana (12-6, 5-2) @ Tennessee State (8-9, 2-4)

This was a “come back down to Earth” moment for us, as Tennessee State overcame a one-point halftime deficit to flat-out dominate us in the second half, holding us to 19 second half points as we lost this one 65-49. Travis Townes led the way with 20 pointsfour rebounds and two blocks, but they successfully held Jermaine Timmons to six points four rebounds and a pair of assists, taking our best player completely out of the game.

JANUARY 27, 2026
Lindenwood (8-10, 5-2) @ Southern Indiana (12-7, 5-3)

We just love to be in hard-fought close games this year, and the Lindenwood game didn’t disappoint. Up 38-32 at the half, we led by as many as eight before getting locked in a back-and-forth exchange that ate up almost all of the second half. After nearly two dozen lead changes, we had the ball in our hands in the final seconds and were able to get out of here with a critical 80-79 win at the conference season’s midpoint. Travis Townes dominated with 21 points 11 rebounds and a pair of steals, while Jermaine Timmons added 15 points five rebounds four assists three steals! With nine games left in the OVC slate this season, we now sit locked in a two-way tie with Eastern Illinois, half a game behind the 6-2 Eagles of Morehead State and half a game up on Lindenwood. But two thirds of the conference is within 2.5 games of each other, so this is setting up to be an OVC race for the ages despite our NET (72nd) and Morehead State’s NET (193rd) being the only ones inside the top 200 nationally.

[jksander]

FEBRUARY 1, 2026
Southern Indiana (13-7, 6-3) @ SE Missouri State (9-11, 5-4)

One thing is becoming abundantly clear ... winning on the road, even in a conference as weak as ours, is never a given. The Redhawks were dominant the entire game, leading by nine at the half and coasting to an 83-64 win on their court as our team looked completely lost. Timmons had a double double with 10 points 12 rebounds two assists and four steals, but the rest of the team played like their battteries had gone completely flat. Keep playing like this and suddenly even making the NIT coulld become a stretch with the OVC’s mediocre schedule strength this season.

FEBRUARY 3, 2026
Southern Indiana (13-8, 6-4) @ Eastern Illinois (9-12, 6-4)

We built a 14-point halftime lead in this one then squandered it to force overtime as the Panthers held us to 25 second half points. But we had the deeper team in the end and were able to blast through the overtime period to win this game 77-68 and, as a result, took first place in the conference standings. Jermaine Timmons had his second double double in a row, putting up 21 points with 11 rebounds and a pair of assists, and Travis Townes added 12 points six rebounds and an assist.

FEBRUARY 6, 2026
Southern Indiana (14-8, 7-4) @ Lindenwood (9-12, 6-4)

This game had huge conference implications, as we went in knowing a win would give us a tiebreaker over the Lions, and they knew a loss would therefore making repeating as conference champion much more difficult. The game turned into what has been common for us all year, a tightly contested battle, and Lindenwood overcame several late-game deficits as they locked in down the stretch and beat us 69-62 despite us leading the battle in the paint 30-14 and outscoring them 11-2 on second chances. Jermaine Timmons led with 15 points seven rebounds, Townes added 10 points eight rebounds two assists and two steals, and Matt Carson came off the bench with nine points two rebounds two assists and two steals but it wasn’t enough.

FEBRUARY 10, 2026
Tennessee Tech (7-15, 3-8) @ Southern Indiana (14-9, 7-5)

We held the Golden Eagles to 18 first-half points in this game, rolling from there to crush them defensively 68-42. Jermaine Timmons led the team with 12 points eight rebounds two assists and three steals, while Matt Carson scored 13 points off the bench with one rebound one assist and one steal.

FEBRUARY 13, 2026
SE Missouri State (12-11, 8-4) @ Southern Indiana (15-9, 8-5)

We finally got a win in a game that could help set us apart from the remainder of the top OVC teams, building a seven-point halftime lead and cruising to an 81-66 victory over a tough SE Missouri State team this evening. Travis Townes led the way with 20 points three rebounds and an assist, while Jermaine Timmons put up 15 points with eight rebounds. The win once again puts us into first place in the OVC standings by half a game, and though seven teams remain within two games of first, SE Missouri State, Lindenwood, Tennesee State and Tennessee-Martin remain the teams who are locked most closely into the race with just four games remaining.

FEBRUARY 15, 2026
Southern Indiana (16-9, 9-5) @ Tennessee-Martin (8-17, 8-6)

Tennessee-Martin came into this game with the 334th ranked NET rating, but they continue to win games when it counts, and they dominated us defensively tonight in an embarrassing performance from our Screaming Eagles. They built a 39-21 halftime lead and though we spent the second half chipping away at it, they still won with ease, blasting us 68-55 in a game we needed in order to build some separation into the standings late in this conference season. Paul Lampley led our team with 15 points three rebounds and an assist, while Jermaine Timmons added 11 points three rebounds two assists and two steals. The loss complicates the top tier of our conference standings, with four teams now within half a game of first, and Lindenwood (12-13, 9-5) currently leading the pack. We have three games remaining, two of which are at home, and the crazy thing is nine of the conference’s 11 teams are within three games of first, so even SIU-E, sitting in ninth place with a 6-8 record, doesn’t know if they’ll find a way to finish in the top half of the conference standings or miss out on the conference tournament entirely.
 
FEBRUARY 20, 2026
Southern Indiana (16-10, 9-6) @ Western Illinois (14-12, 7-8)

The Leathernecks picked up a win over the weekend over Tennessee Tech, so they’re now two games back and sitting in a tie for seventh in the standings, but with a chance to get themselves into at least a bye in the conference tournament if they can win out. We, meanwhile, are now locked in a tie for first with Lindenwood and Tennessee-Martin, but just half a game up on SE Missouri State and Tennessee State, and one game up on Morehead State. So the stakes were high heading into this final road game of the season, and it turned appropriately into yet another nailbiter of a game. The Leathernecks led early, and took a 45-40 lead into the half, but we traded leads with them throughout the second half and were able to come out of this one with a huge 84-81 win thanks to strong shooting from our entire starting five down the stretch! But Travis Townes in particular stepped up big time, scoring 24 points with seven rebounds, making up the ground we needed as they double-teamed Timmons all night, holding our star player to just nine points (though he contributed eight rebounds five assists three steals and a block on defense).

FEBRUARY 22, 2026
Tennessee State (14-12, 8-7) @ Southern Indiana (17-10, 10-6)

Our offense is clicking at the right time! Tennessee State had a great first half, leading us 43-40 at the half, but it all came together for us in the second half as we outscored them by 15, putting up 51 points, en route to a 91-79 win to help cement our place at the top of the OVC standings. We’re already having our best season since moving up from Division II, and Jermaine Timmons (25 points 10 rebounds two assists three steals) has been a huge part of that. Travis Townes put in 14 points with with six rebounds and Paul Lampley added 14 points four rebounds and two assists. Even Matt Carson got in on the fun from the bench, adding 20 points with four assists and three steals!

MARCH 1, 2026
Eastern Illinois (12-16, 9-8) @ Southern Indiana (18-10, 11-6)

We went into this game with a chance to win and guarantee ourselves the top seed in the OVC Tournament, with Morehead State facing Tennessee Tech on the road and SE Missouri State hosting Little Rock. Our fate was in our hands -- win and the top seed was a guarantee, while a loss would put our fate up to various tiebreakers that could send us as low as third place. Our team played the entire game with fire and spirit, making sure we had full control over our chances, and after trailing by three at the half we took firm control in the second. We held Eastern Illinois to just 22 second-half points and were able to win comfortably 74-57, completing our first regular season conference championship since moving up divisions. Jermaine Timmons was on fire with 24 points 10 rebounds and three assists, and freshman Morris Morin had a great night with 19 points two rebounds and a block in 13 minutes off the bench. Morehead State and SE Missouri State both lost their games, so we won the conference by two full games, as Morehead, SE Missouri State and Lindenwood finished in a three-way tie for second. Western Illinois (15-14, 8-10) won a series of tiebreakers against SIU Edwardsville (11-18, 8-10) and won the final spot in the conference tournament, ahead of Tennessee Tech and Little Rock who each finished 7-11 in the OVC.

Final conference standings:

1. Southern Indiana (12-6, 19-10) - NET: 61
2. Morehead State (10-8, 15-14) - NET: 198
3. SE Missouri State (10-8, 14-15) - NET: 237
4. Lindenwood (10-8, 13-16) - NET: 216
5. Eastern Illinois (9-9, 12-17) - NET: 302
6. Tennessee State (9-9, 15-14) - NET: 250
7. Tennessee-Martin (9-9, 9-20) - NET: 328
8. Western Illinois (8-10, 15-14) - NET: 220
--------------------------------------------------
9. SIU Edwardsville (8-10, 11-18) - NET: 310
10. Tennessee Tech (7-11, 11-18) - NET: 317
11. Little Rock (7-11, 13-16) - NET: 258

MARCH 7, 2026
(4) Lindenwood (14-16) @ (1) Southern Indiana (19-10)

We blew our chance at making it to the NCAA Tournament and will now have to settle for an NIT invite as we blew a four-point halftime lead and lost to the Lindenwood Lions 65-59 tonight in the OVC Semifinals. They held Timmons to 12 points seven rebounds two assists and two steals, while Matt Carson came off the bench with 11 points three rebounds and three assists.

March 8, 2026: Lindenwood easily handled the Morehead State Eagles 67-57, so they’ll earn the OVC’s automatic bid and an all-but-guaranteed 16-seed play-in spot.
 
MARCH 13, 2026
Southern Indiana (19-11) @ Charlotte (19-12)

As the conference’s champion who did NOT qualify for the NCAA tournament, we automatically qualified for the NIT this year, earning the fifth seed in the Midwest Region. And being that this is our first postseason tournament as a Division I member, we’re definitely glad to have a chance to let our season end on a note somewhat less sour than the one we faced losing in the conference tournament. We led by as many as 14 in this one, and aside from a close call or two late in the second half as they tried to make a game of it, we held our ground and were able to beat the 49ers 72-64, advancing to the tournament’s second round! Travis Townes led the way with a massive performance -- 26 points 13 rebounds two assists and a block, while Jermaine Timmons put up 19 points with four rebounds two assists four steals and a pair of blocked shots.

MARCH 15, 2026
Southern Indiana (20-11) @ Mass-Lowell (17-16)

Mass-Lowell wouldn’t have qualified for postseason eligibility had they not been a regular season conference champion and then lost in their conference tournament, but that didn’t stop them from completely manhandling us tonight with a 47-30 first-half beatdown. They then held their ground the rest of the way and whipped our asses 77-55, proving that even in the NIT it’s damned hard to string wins together if you don’t come out sharp from the start. Jermaine Timmons’ junior season ended with a 16 point seven rebound two block effort, while Matt Carson came off the bench with 10 points two rebounds and a block.

March 17, 2026: I’m still not a hundred percent sure what the committee was smoking, but they gave Lindenwood a 15-seed in the NCAA Tournament, where the Lions faced off against 2nd-seed Saint Mary’s despite their 16-16 regular season finish. It didn’t matter, they were no match whatsoever for the Gaels, who threw down 51 points in the first half and then toyed with them the rest of the way, winning 83-63.

April 3, 2026: The Final Four pitted (1) Creighton and (2) Maryland plus (1) Kansas and (1) Louisville against each other in another chalk tournament finish. But Louisville was looking for its first (non vacacated) title since the 1980s, and Creighton was playing in its first Final Four ever, so there was plenty to enjoy for fans of the non-blue bloods of the world. Louisville knocked off Kansas in a 97-86 shootout that included double overtime, while Maryland outlasted Creighton in their semifinal with a 61-58 defensive win. Those two teams faced off in the championship, with neither team having won a title in decades, but in the end it was Louisville who took its first NCAA Tourney title since 1986 by beating the Terps 69-68 after overcoming a five point halftime deficit to win in regulation.

April 4, 2026: Jermaine Timmons was named OVC Player of the Year, while I was named OVC Coach of the Year for our big turnaround and 20-win season. It’ll be interesting to see if we can build on it significantly with our incoming class of freshmen, even as we struggle to keep our coaching staff together and maintain momentum in that regard. Our AHC, Kenyon Davenport, is almost certainly headed to greener pastures after next year, and my second assistant, Matt Gilmore, wants a raise that would put him well out of our range if we were to promote him to AHC next season. So it’s very likely that, unless we can get significant budget improvements this year or next I’ll have to start from scratch in the coaching department in order to not eat up our recruiting budget.

April 30, 2026: I had a good sit-down with Morris Morin regarding whether he was going to transfer out after his freshman campaign, during which he put up 6.7 points and 2.9 rebounds per game while playing about 17.5 minutes per game though the season. I think he’s going to stick around, but with today’s easy ability to transfer without penalties, it’s hard to fully anticipate. The board, meanwhile, again denied our request for increased budget since clearly they think we’re doing fine with what we have. Here’s hoping for a conference title and an NCAA Tourney run in the coming season to grease the wheels.

[jksander]

May 1, 2026: Recruit class rankings came out today, and our incoming class is ranked 76th in the country, which is incredibly good considering our almost non-existent national profile. We have four open scholarships this season, so there’s no reason to expect we can’t remain competitive even with our budget unchanged. We’re going to keep our training / amenities / wellness budgets at $5,000 apiece, which leaves us $19,500 through which to recruit, and which should be enough to maintain our "C-" rated facilities grade. We have one scholarship available for transfer recruiting if we choose to do so, and none of our current players are leaving.

June 26, 2026: Our initial foray into the transfer market was an expensive lesson in “how stupid can you be thinking anyone wants to come to your league?” We wasted $5,800 of our already meager budget to get nowhere, leaving us $13,700 for the high school recruiting season. This is definitely going to be interesting. Lesson learned: at this level the risk vs. reward of spending the money to try and lure a transfer player would be better invested into high school-level recruiting and to building up our facilities.

September 18, 2026: Last year’s solid recruiting run may have gotten us a little cocky out of the gate, but this year we continued to aim high, and got our first commitment of the season from three star JuCo sophomore recruit Quentin Russell, a 5’10” point guard from Newburgh, Indiana. He’s averaging 17 points a game in junior college, and has above average athleticism with great outside shooting skills and scoring ability in general. Ranked 323rd overall nationally, we’re definitely pleased to have him joining our team in 2027.
 
September 25, 2026: This year we got a solid home schedule, including visits from solid mid-majors Vermont, San Francisco and Western Kentucky, to go with our first rivalry matchup against Indiana State. We also will play a post-Thanksgiving road game against preaseason #20 Memphis’s Tigers, along with a December 10th trip to play the Dayton Flyers. I’m not sure what the addition of so many home games is going to mean for our strength of schedule, but we’ll have a much better chance of piling up wins in front of our fans for a change, which should give us a good chance to improve on our 2025-26 season. We definitely have a team with much higher potential with the addition of our freshman class, but getting everyone to gel into our system is going to be the interesting part. Keeping everyone happy with their playing time while putting our best team on the court at all times is going to be a challenge. And will freshmen Albert Deane and Terrance Raines be happy with their likely redshirt status? Only time will tell.

We got our second recruit to commit this week: Russell Logan, a 6’8” forward from Mooresville, Indiana, comes in as a two-star (borderline three star) recruit ranked just outside the top 500, but he comes in as a well balanced prospect ... great athleticism and shooting skills, plus above average rebounding and exceptional stealing ability. His defense is also excellent, so he should fit in just fine with the team we’ve been building and could be a real steal, a diamond in the rough who other teams will regret having passed on.

October 2, 2026: We’ve signed our third of four recruits, getting 6’8” power forward John Martin of Goshen, Indiana, to commit to playing for us. A three-star recruit ranked #167 nationally, he’s now the best player in our incoming class, with above average defense and good shooting both inside and out. He’s raw overall athletically, however, and has a lot of room for improvement as a rebounder, blocker and overall ball handler. Was mostly interested in playing close to home over playing time, so he may be a good candidate for a redshirt.

It appears we’ll have to wait til the end of the season to sign our final recruit, or we’ll end up rolling that fourth scholarship over to next year’s class. Even without a fourth signing, we again have the top class in the conference according to early predictors, with Tennessee-Martin and Morehead State our nearest competitiors. We’ve been picked to finish third in the OVC this year, with SIU Edwardsville and Lindenwood bringing back solid teams and ours being incredibly young. Can we win 20 games again and find our way into the NCAA Tournament for the first time as a Division I competitor?

November 6, 2026: Here’s how our roster looks like it’s gonna shake out for the early season games, as we figure out what we have here:

PG - Michael Miller
SG - Randy Potter
SF - Rod Rodriguez
PF - Jermaine Timmons
C - Travis Townes

Sophomore Morris Morin will again be our sixth man, playing split minutes as point and shooting guard backup. We still lack a true center who is ready to take on starters’ minutes, so we’ll be playing seniors Jermaine Timmons and Travis Townes as our starting big men. Junior Lamoni Humphrey and freshman Stacey Schuller will share backup minutes, but we’re not going to be a deep team ... nine players are expected to get minutes, but only our starting five plus Morin and Schuller are expected to be handling the bulk of our on-court time. Redshirting Albert Deane may have proven to be a mistake, as he got a solid bump in skill ratings by our coaching staff as we head into the new season, but with our senior big-men deserving to get big minutes, I don't feel we could have played him enough to make it worth it from a development standpoint. I'll just have to hope that we can keep him happy this season knowing that he'll be our guaranteed starter in the following year.