Ragin’ Cajuns guard Johnson earns Sun Belt Men’s Basketball Player of the Week honors

AROUND #SUNBELTMBB
• It is another pivotal seven days ahead for Sun Belt Conference men’s basketball with 12 matchups on ESPN+ on the docket.

• Little Rock (15-7, 9-2 Sun Belt) remains atop the standings after another 2-0 week to move its winning streak to four games. The Trojans are one of only two teams in NCAA Division I with nine or more conference wins at this point in the season. The only other team is San Diego State, Division I’s only undefeated team (21-0, 10-0 Mountain West Conference), ranked fourth in both the Associated Press and USA Today Sports Top 25 polls.

• Arkansas State (15-7, 7-4) and UTA (9-12, 5-5) each enter the week on three-game winning streaks. The Red Wolves have used a mixture of offense and defense over their winning streak, erasing a double-digit deficit in the second half at Coastal Carolina (11-10, 4-6), shooting .500 from the field (22-of-44) against South Alabama (12-10, 5-6) and clamping down for an opponent season-low .293 (17-of-58) against Troy (8-14, 4-7). The Mavericks have used a similar formula in their streak, shooting .870 (47-of-54) from the free throw line and outrebounding their opponents by +30 (120 to 90).

• UTA has had eight different leading scorers in 21 games – the most of any Division I team so far this season. In 11 games, the Mavericks’ leading scorer has come off the bench.

• Georgia State (14-7, 7-3) stands in second behind Little Rock after putting together an epic comeback against Georgia Southern (12-9, 6-4) on Jan. 25. The Panthers clawed back from 14 points down with under 13 minutes to play to win on their in-state rival’s home court for the second-straight year.

• The Sun Belt boasts eight teams with double-digit wins with Texas State (12-9, 5-5) and Appalachian State (11-10, 5-5) each sitting at the .500 mark in conference play at the midway point.

• Arkansas State was highlighted in The Athletic in Brian Bennett’s This Week in Mid-Major piece coming off the Red Wolves’ participation in Coaches vs. Cancer’s Suits and Week as a part of Sun Belt men’s and women’s basketball programs once again taking part in the initiative.

• Arkansas State leads NCAA Division I in free throws made (399) and attempted (571). The Red Wolves have attempted 30 or more three throws three times in the last five games.

• The Jan. 18 game between Louisiana and Texas State resulted in an interesting statistic. In that game, both teams were perfect from the charity stripe – Ragin’ Cajuns were 13-of-13 and the Bobcats were 8-of-8. It marked the eighth time since the 2014-15 season that this occurrence happened in a Division I men’s game, according to Sports Reference.

• Little Rock junior forward Ruot Monyyong is the only player in the Sun Belt currently averaging a double-double (11.8 points, league-leading 10.3 rebounds). His 12 doubles-doubles lead the conference and rank tied for fifth in Division I. He ranks sixth in the nation in defensive rebounds per game (8.2) and also leads in the conference in blocks per game (2.1).

• Texas State senior guard Nijal Pearson, the school’s all-time leading scorer, enters the week sitting 10th among active Division I players with 1,943 career points. Pearson’s point total ranks 12th in Sun Belt history behind Old Dominion’s Anthony Carver’s 1,958 career points from 1986-90 and Florida Atlantic’s Greg Gantt’s 1,972 career points from 2010-13. Only nine players in conference history have reached the 2,000-point plateau.

• Georgia Southern redshirt senior guard Ike Smith with 1,770 career points (19th among active Division I players) has moved in the Sun Belt’s top 25 scoring list as well. Smith enters the week 25th on the list. Also poised to move into the conference’s top 25 in career points before season end is South Alabama redshirt senior forward Josh Ajayi with 1,618 career points (39th among active Division I players).

• With 104 Sun Belt wins, Louisiana head coach Bob Marlin ranks fourth in conference history in all-time conference wins. Marlin’s total trails former Middle Tennessee State’s Kermit Davis, Jr., (117), South Alabama’s Ronnie Arrow (112) and UAB’s Gene Bartow (111).

• Georgia State holds the Sun Belt’s top spot in several rankings – CBSSports.com RPI (69th), Ken Pomeroy Ratings (93rd), ESPN College Basketball Power Index (98th), Jeff Sagarin Ratings (101st) and NCAA NET Rankings (105th). The Sun Belt is currently ranked 14th among the Division I conferences, according to the Sagarin Ratings.

• Georgia State, Little Rock and Arkansas State were among the teams receiving votes in the most recent CollegeInsider.com Men’s Mid-Major Top 25.

• The Sun Belt is one of 10 NCAA Division I conferences that received approval from the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Rules committees to permit the use of electronically transmitted data to the bench for coaching purposes during the 2019-20 season.

• Little Rock sophomore guard Markquis Nowell and Coastal Carolina sophomore guard DeVante Jones were among names on the midseason watch list for the 2019-20 Lou Henson Award, presented annually to the nation’s top Division I mid-major player. Smith, Pearson and South Alabama redshirt senior forward Trhae Mitchell were among the initial list of players listed on the preseason watch list.

• The Sun Belt is set to showcase a record 341 games on the ESPN family of networks this season – 327 regular-season home games (172 men and 151 women) and 18 Sun Belt Basketball Championship games (nine men and nine women).

• The Sun Belt pulled in numerous national preseason honors and recognitions, headlined by South Alabama recognized as the conference’s preseason favorite by multiple publications.

• The Jaguars were selected by the conference’s 12 head coaches as the preseason favorite as well to go along with Mitchell selected as the league’s Preseason Player of the Year.

• Sun Belt men’s basketball has three new head coaches roaming the sidelines this season – Appalachian State’s Dustin Kerns, Georgia State’s Rob Lanier and Troy’s Scott Cross.

• Three former Sun Belt standouts are on NBA rosters this season. Former Little Rock star Rayjon Tucker is the latest addition, signing with the Utah Jazz on Dec. 23. Tucker spent the first part of the season with the Wisconsin Herd, the NBA G League affiliate of the Milwaukee Bucks, starting 16 games and averaging 23.8 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 33.8 minutes per game. Tucker joins Louisiana’s Elfrid Payton, who is in his sixth NBA season and first with the New York Knicks, and UTA’s Kevin Hervey, who signed a two-way contract with the Oklahoma City Thunder on Dec. 13.

• The 2020 Sun Belt Men’s Basketball Championship is set to feature a 10-team bracket with first-round games on Saturday, March 7, second-round games on Monday, March 9 and quarterfinal games on Wednesday, March 11 hosted by the higher seeds on campus sites. The four men’s teams that advance from the quarterfinals will then converge on New Orleans and the Smoothie King Center, home of the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans, for semifinals games on Saturday, March 14 and championship game on Sunday, March 15. The No. 1 and No. 2 seeds receive byes directly to the semifinals. First-round, second-round, quarterfinal and semifinal games are set for live coverage on ESPN+. The championship game is set for Sunday, March 15 at 1 p.m. CT on ESPN2.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Jalen Johnson, Louisiana (RJr., F, Baton Rouge, La.)
Louisiana redshirt junior forward Jalen Johnson stuffed the box score in a career performance in the Ragin’ Cajuns’ victory over ULM. Johnson scored a career-high 27 points, going 7-for-10 from the floor and 10-for-12 from the free throw line, with seven rebounds, two assists, three blocks and two steals in 37 minutes of action. It marked his seventh 20-point game of the season and sixth-straight game to score in double figures. Johnson earned his first Sun Belt Player of the Week honor and first for the Ragin’ Cajuns since JaKeenan Gant on Jan. 28, 2019.

2019-20 Weekly Award Winners
November 12: Josh Ajayi, South Alabama
November 19: Markquis Nowell, Little Rock
November 26: Elijah McCadden, Georgia Southern
December 3: Markquis Nowell, Little Rock
December 9: DeVante Jones, Coastal Carolina
December 16: Nijal Pearson, Texas State
December 23: Justin Forrest, Appalachian State
December 30: Ike Smith, Georgia Southern
January 6: Kamani Johnson, Little Rock and Michael Ertel, ULM
January 13: Nijal Pearson, Texas State
January 20: Josh Ajayi, South Alabama
January 27: Jalen Johnson, Louisiana

UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Thursday, January 30
*Troy at Georgia Southern (ESPN+), 6 p.m.
*South Alabama at Georgia State (ESPN+), 6 p.m.
*Coastal Carolina at Little Rock (ESPN+), 6:30 p.m.
*Appalachian State at Arkansas State (ESPN+), 7 p.m.
*Louisiana at UTA (ESPN+), 7 p.m.
*ULM at Texas State (ESPN+), 7 p.m.

Saturday, February 1
*Troy at Georgia State (ESPN+), 1 p.m.
*Appalachian State at Little Rock (ESPN+), 2 p.m.
*ULM at UTA (ESPN+), 2 p.m.
*South Alabama at Georgia Southern (ESPN+), 3 p.m.
*Coastal Carolina at Arkansas State (ESPN+), 4 p.m.
*Louisiana at Texas State (ESPN+), 4:30 p.m.

*Sun Belt Conference contest
All Times are Central and Subject to Change