Southern Jaguars
November 5th, 2025 at Fiserv Forum
Head Coach: Kevin Johnson (102-124 overall, 37-24 at Southern)
Three-Year NET Average: 251.7
Three-Year kenpom Average: 257.3
Projected 2025-26 T-Rank: 169
Photo from gojagsports.com
State of the Program
Kevin Johnson led Southern to their second straight winning season, the first time they've posted winning records in consecutive years since 2012-16 under Roman Banks. The Jaguars also won the SWAC regular season title. Perhaps most impressive, Johnson returns 6 rotation players and a redshirt freshman. In the transfer era, Southern's combination of success and retention jumps off the page. This will be one of the top programs in the SWAC once again.
Rotation
Southern has a loaded and experienced back court. Michael Jacobs, Cam Amboree, and Joe Manning all have starting experience and are skilled distributors, allowing them to put 2-3 point guards on the floor at a time. Jacobs is a downhill player who excels at getting to the line while both Amboree and Manning are perimeter threats. Defensively, all three also excel creating turnovers. DeMariee Jones and Delang Muon are both high efficiency offensive rebounders who excel at the putback. Defensively, both are capable shot blockers. How much they play together will likely be determined by whether or not either can develop an outside shot. UMass transfer Malek Abdelgowad will be counted on to anchor the defense. In limited minutes, he was an elite defensive rebounder, though his offensive efficiency leaves much to be desired. The bench has shooting, rebounding, and size. Johnson's squad is deep and talented.
Style of Play
While they ranked 3rd in SWAC play, offense is not the Jaguars' strong suit. They play a physical style predicated on getting to the line, and when that fails, scoring second chance points on offensive rebounds. They like to get out in transition and get to the rim off direct drives and through pick & roll cuts. Expect some offensive improvement this year. Development in the system, the addition of a three-point threat in D2 transfer Rondae Hill, and the team's best interior scorer in Delang Muon back from injury all should help. The biggest question might be turnovers. Southern had four rotation players with 20+% turnover rates and three of them departed. If the Jaguars can protect the ball better and their guard depth creates looks for each other, there's room for offensive improvement.
Southern's physical interior defense is tough to score on
Defense is where the Jaguars are strong and it's predicated on physicality. Johnson runs a rotation that goes 10-12 deep and attacks relentlessly. That attacking style led to a top-20 turnover rate and top-110 ranks in defensive eFG%, defensive rebound rate, and block rate. Opponents have also been top-20 in points scored from the free throw line each of the past two years and five Jaguars averaged more than 5 fouls/40 minutes last year. They will throw bodies out and punish opponents with little regard for the consequences.
2025-26 Outlook
In the past eleven years, just two SWAC teams have finished in the T-Rank top-200 (#197 Texas Southern in 2022, #178 Grambling in 2023). Starting this year, Jackson State, Bethune-Cookman, and Southern are all projected in the top-200. This will be one of the strongest SWACs in years and Southern will be one of the top contenders. While they're likely to be a Quadrant 4 opponent on the resume, it's possible they could be the first SWAC team to crack the NET top-160 and land in Quadrant 3. Even with their success last year, Southern went just 5-8 in non-conference play against the 11th toughest schedule in the country. Expect a win for Marquette but a solid buy game on the resume come March.
What We've Learned
Southern played one game against Arkansas, losing a 109-77 contest. Four of the five starters were accurately projected, but Delang Muon did not play. Guard Fazl Oshodi picked up most of the extra minutes, but Southern ran a deep lineup with nine players getting 10+ minutes. Defensively, the Jaguars were primarily in man, though did mix in a 2-3 zone at times. The Jaguars had 12 turnovers, 10 of which were live-ball steals by the Razorbacks. Southern was also poor in their transition defense when Arkansas got out and running. Per Synergy, the Jaguars gave up 27 transition possessions with just 10 live-ball turnovers and Arkansas scored 1.407 ppp on those possessions (that would've been 100th percentile last year). Offensively, hot three point shooting (44.4%) made the final score line more respectable but Arkansas was in control end to end.
Marquette Connection
Kevin Johnson has only been in charge of Southern for two years, but this won't be his first time coaching against Marquette. His first head coaching job was at Centenary. On December 1, 2000, he brought the Gentlemen to Milwaukee to take on Tom Crean and Marquette. The Golden Eagles scored the first 18 points of the game and Cordell Henry led the way with 17 points in a 66-47 victory. Despite the early run, it was a closer contest than the final score indicated. Centenary made an early push in the second half to close the score to 30-28, and trailed 56-47 before a 10-0 Marquette run to end the game.
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