2019-20 Sun Belt Men's Basketball News and Notes:
Standings | Composite Schedule | Stats | Records Book 
 
AROUND #SUNBELTMBB
• Sun Belt Conference men's basketball hits the home stretch with a collection of crucial matchups to determine the seeding for the 2020 Sun Belt Men's Basketball Championship. This week's schedule is highlighted by a clash of in-state rivals on ESPN2 as UTA hosts Texas State on Friday, Feb. 28 at 8 p.m. CT.
 
• Little Rock (19-9, 13-4 Sun Belt) controls its own destiny, entering its final three games with a two-game lead. The Trojans can secure a share of the regular-season title with a win over ULM on Thursday, Feb. 27. Little Rock plays two of its final three games in the friendly confines of the Jack Stephens Center. The Trojans are one of two just teams, joining Merrimack in the Northeast Conference, in NCAA Division I leading its conference after being picked 11th or lower in its conference's preseason poll.
 
• Texas State (19-10, 12-6) sits second in the standings, rolling into its final stretch on a four-game winning streak. The Bobcats have won four-straight games for a second time this season. Texas State finishes the regular season with a 14-3 home record, marking the most wins at home since the 1993-94 season (15-0). The Bobcats' final two regular-season contests are on the road. Texas State has secured 10 wins or more in conference play for the first time since 2001-02 and 2002-03 and the first time in five-plus seasons under head coach Danny Kaspar.
 
• South Alabama (18-11, 11-7) is on a late-season surge, winner of its last six in a row to move into a tie for third place with Georgia State (18-11, 11-7) and Georgia Southern (17-12, 11-7). The Jaguars' six-game winning streak is their longest since recording six consecutive victories from Feb. 16-March 9, 2008. During this streak, redshirt senior forward Trhae Mitchell has poured in 20 or more points three times.
 
• Georgia State and Georgia Southern renew their rivalry Friday night with plenty of Sun Belt Tournament seeding implications. The Eagles lead the all-time series 36-23; however, the Panthers have won 14 of the last 20 matchups since 1995.
 
• With two games remaining, the picture is still a bit cloudy for the final five spots in the conference championship field. Five teams are separated by just three games in the loss column – Appalachian State (16-13, 10-8), UTA (13-16, 9-9), Arkansas State (15-14, 7-11), Coastal Carolina (14-15, 11-7) and Louisiana (11-17, 6-11).
 
• Texas State senior guard Nijal Pearson, the school's all-time leading scorer, enters the week 12th among active Division I players with 2,068 career points. Pearson is just the 10th player in Sun Belt history to reach 2,000 career points. His career points total currently ranks seventh in conference history behind 2,238 career points by Western Kentucky's Courtney Lee from 2004-08 and 2,221 career points by South Alabama's Jeff Hodges. Pearson is the first player in school history to score 500 points in three consecutive seasons.
 
• Arkansas State continues to lead Division I in free throws made (530) and attempted (751). The Red Wolves are 11-1 this season and 33-5 under head coach Mike Balado when scoring 65 points before their opponent. Arkansas State is second in Division I behind Winthrop with 32 double-figure scoring games from players off the bench. Senior guard Jerry Johnson Jr. has 14 double-figure scoring games off the bench, tied for fifth-most in the nation.
 
• UTA has had 36 double-figure scoring performances from players off the bench. The Mavericks have had eight different leading scorers so far this season with the leading scorer coming off the bench in 12 times (six different players).
 
• 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 leads the Sun Belt in rebounds (9.9 per game). His 14 doubles-doubles lead the conference and rank tied for 15th in Division I. He has scored in double digits a team-high 21 times with 16 double-digit rebounding performances. Monyyong ranks seventh in the nation in defensive rebounds per game (7.9) and also leads in the conference in blocks per game (2.2).
 
• Georgia Southern redshirt senior guard Ike Smith continues to move up the Sun Belt's career scoring list. Smith enters the week with 1,877 career points (22nd among active Division I players), good for 16th on the conference's all-time 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 1,687 career points (45th among active Division I players).
 
• With 107 Sun Belt wins, Louisiana head coach Bob Marlin ranks fourth in Sun Belt 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 Southern head coach Mark Byington enters the week with 69 Sun Belt wins, good for 12th on the conference's all-time coaching victories list.
 
• Texas State has the Sun Belt's highest ranking in the Ken Pomeroy Ratings (92nd), ESPN College Basketball Power Index (103rd), Jeff Sagarin Ratings (107th) and NCAA NET Rankings (119th), while Little Rock has the conference's top ranking in the CBSSports.com RPI (85th). The Sun Belt is currently ranked 14th among the Division I conferences, according to the Sagarin Ratings.
 
• Little Rock ranked 21st in the Feb. 17 edition of the CollegeInsider.com Men's Mid-Major Top 25 with Texas State and Georgia State listed among the teams receiving votes.
 
• 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.
 
• Ten Sun Belt players were named to the midseason watch list for the 2020 Dos Equis 3X3U National Championship, which will be held April 3-5 at Atlantic Station in Atlanta as a part of the festivities surrounding the 2020 NCAA Men's Final Four.
 
• 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
Kamani Johnson, Little Rock (So., F, Brooklyn, N.Y.)
Little Rock sophomore forward Kamani Johnson set career highs with 32 points and 16 rebounds, posting his fifth double-double of the season, in the Trojans' win over Arkansas State to remain atop the Sun Belt Conference standings. Johnson scored 21 points and grabbed nine rebounds in the second half alone. Six of his 16 rebounds were off the offensive glass and all six led to points. Johnson registered a key block with less than a minute to play with Little Rock up two, preventing a Red Wolves' scoring chance. For the game, he shot 9-of-12 (.750) from the floor and 14-of-19 (.737) from the free throw line. This marks Johnson's second Sun Belt Player of the Week honor of his career.
 
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
February 3: Justin Forrest, Appalachian State and Markquis Nowell, Little Rock
February 10: Quan Jackson, Georgia Southern
February 17: Nijal Pearson, Texas State
February 24: Kamani Johnson, Little Rock

UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Wednesday, February 26
*Arkansas State at Louisiana (ESPN+), 7 p.m.
 
Thursday, February 27
*ULM at Little Rock (ESPN+), 6:30 p.m.
 
Friday, February 28
*Georgia Southern at Georgia State (ESPN+), 6 p.m.
*Texas State at UTA (ESPN2), 8 p.m.
 
Saturday, February 29
*Louisiana at Little Rock (ESPN+), 2 p.m.
*Coastal Carolina at Appalachian State (ESPN+), 3:30 p.m.
*Troy at South Alabama (ESPN+), 6 p.m.
 
Tuesday, March 3
*Little Rock at Georgia State (ESPN+), 6 p.m.
*Arkansas State at Georgia Southern (ESPN+), 6 p.m.
*UTA at Troy (ESPN+), 6 p.m.
*Appalachian State at ULM (ESPN+), 7 p.m.
*Coastal Carolina at Louisiana (ESPN+), 7 p.m.
*Texas State at South Alabama (ESPN+), 7 p.m.
 
*Sun Belt Conference contest
All Times are central and Subject to Change