2019-20 Sun Belt Men's Basketball News and Notes:
Standings | Composite Schedule | Stats  
 
AROUND #SUNBELTMBB
• Sun Belt Conference men's basketball has another busy seven days ahead with 17 games on the slate.
 
• Coming into the last month of the calendar year, Texas State (6-2) and Georgia State (4-3) enter the week streaking with the Bobcats on a four-game winning streak and the Panthers on a three-game winning streak.
 
• Texas State is 5-0 at home for the second-straight season (6-0 start in 2018-19). The Bobcats got a big game in their last outing from sophomore forward Alonzo Sule with 14 points and a career-high 14 rebounds for his third career double-double in the win over Hartford on Nov. 30. Not even halfway into his second season in San Marcos, Texas State is 8-0 when Sule scores in double figures. Also fueling their start, the Bobcats lead the Sun Belt and rank ninth in NCAA Division I in field goal percentage (.353).
 
• Georgia State has won eight-straight games at home, dating back to last season. The streak is currently tied for the fifth-longest in program history and tied for the 23rd-longest in the nation. The Panthers have been getting it done on both ends of the floor from three-point range, ranking first in the Sun Belt and tied for 12th nationally in three-point field goal percentage (.412) and first in the Sun Belt and 10th nationally in three-point field goal percentage defense (.248).
 
• Call the Sun Belt dunk city as of late with two rim-rocking dunks appearing on ESPN SportsCenter's Top 10 Plays of the Day – South Alabama senior forward Josh Ajayi's dunk against Miami (Ohio) on Nov. 26 came in at No. 8 and Georgia Southern sophomore forward Elijah McCadden's dunk vs. Florida Gulf Coast on Dec. 1 came in at No. 3.
 
• Coastal Carolina senior guard Tyrell Gumbs-Frater has been lighting it up from downtown, ranking second in the nation in three-point field goal percentage (.581). Gumbs-Frater has connected on 25 of his 43 three-point attempts through the first eight games of the season. His eight threes made against Delaware State on Nov. 30 are tied for the fifth most in the nation in a game this season.

• Arkansas State senior guard Canberk Kus is one of 18 Division I players to average at least 13.0 points (13.9), 6.0 rebounds (6.7), 2.0 assists (2.4) and 2.0 steals (1.7) per game, as of Dec. 2.

• Appalachian State (4-4) has won 15 consecutive non-conference home games, which is the longest non-conference home winning streak in the Sun Belt. With a win against St. Andrews on Nov. 3, the Mountaineers would cap their third-straight undefeated non-conference home slate.
 
• Through its first five games, UTA (4-5) got 45.5 percent of its points from three-pointers. In their last four games, the Mavericks have amassed 71.6 percent of their points from inside the three-point line.
 
• UTA, South Alabama, Arkansas State and Texas State were among the teams receiving votes in this week's 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.
 
• Georgia Southern redshirt senior guard Ike Smith, South Alabama redshirt senior forward Trhae Mitchell and Texas State senior guard Nijal Pearson were among the preseason picks on the watch list for the 2019-20 Lou Henson Award, presented annually to the nation's top Division I mid-major player.

• The Sun Belt is slated to showcase a record 341 games on the ESPN family of networks – 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.

• 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
Markquis Nowell, Little Rock (So., G, Harlem, N.Y.)
Little Rock sophomore guard Markquis Nowell posted another big week as the Trojans won two of their three games. Nowell matched his season high with 28 points, going 12-for-14 from the free throw line, with six rebounds, two assists and four steals in the win over St. Francis Brooklyn. He followed that up with a 26-point performance that included 12-straight points in the second half to go along with four rebounds, two assists and two steals in the win over Alcorn State. Nowell was hot in Little Rock's loss to East Tennessee State, once again scoring 12-straight points in the second half, to lead Little Rock back from a 13-point deficit to a four-point setback. He closed that game with 20 points, three rebounds, six assists and one steal. Nowell leads the Sun Belt in points (20.3), steals (3.0) and minutes played (39.1) per game. His minutes per game rank second and steals per game rank tied for seventh in the nation.
 
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

UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Tuesday, December 3
St. Andrews (N.C.) at Appalachian State (ESPN+), 6 p.m.
Dartmouth at Georgia State (ESPN+), 6 p.m.
Omaha at Arkansas State (ESPN+), 7 p.m.
Southeastern Louisiana at Louisiana (ESPN+), 7 p.m.
 
Wednesday, December 4
Greensboro College at Coastal Carolina, 6 p.m.
Millsaps College at ULM (ESPN+), 7 p.m.
Texas State at Houston (ESPN3), 7 p.m.
North Alabama at Troy (ESPN+), 7:15 p.m.
 
Friday, December 6
1-Carver at Georgia Southern (ESPN+), 6 p.m.
 
Saturday, December 7
Arkansas State at Tulsa (ESPN3), 2 p.m.
UC Santa Barbara at UTA (ESPN+), 2 p.m.
UTSA at Texas State (ESPN+), 3 p.m.
Georgia State at Mercer (ESPN+), 3:30 p.m.
Little Rock at North Texas, 5 p.m.
Coastal Carolina at Winthrop (ESPN+), 6 p.m.
Louisiana at Arizona State (Pac-12 Networks), 8:30 p.m.
 
Sunday, December 8
South Alabama at Richmond (ESPN+), 1 p.m.

All Times are Central and Subject to Change