Southern Miss men’s basketball will face Troy on Saturday, February 14 at Reed Green Coliseum in Hattiesburg. The game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. and is part of Super Saturday events. Southern Miss enters the matchup with a 13-14 overall record and a 6-8 mark in Sun Belt Conference play, while Troy holds a 17-9 overall record and is 9-4 in conference games.
Fans can listen to the broadcast on the Southern Miss Radio Network or watch live coverage on ESPN+. John Cox will handle radio commentary, while Lee Roberts and Larry Boyd will call the game on television.
Tylik Weeks recently moved into seventh place for single-season free throws at Southern Miss after making 11 against South Alabama. Djahi Binet was named Sun Belt Player of the Week on February 10, averaging 24 points and 11 rebounds in recent games against Marshall and Kent State. On February 7, Southern Miss contributed to a Sun Belt win over Kent State during the MAC-SBC Challenge with a close victory at home.
Binet also became the first player this season in the Sun Belt Conference to post at least 30 points and 15 rebounds in one game, recording those numbers against Marshall earlier this month. The team limited turnovers to a season-low seven at Coastal Carolina on January 24 and began its conference road schedule with two wins—its best start away from home in league play for over ten seasons.
Weeks recorded his first career double-double against Ole Miss and earned MVP honors at the Pensacola Invitational, where he scored a personal-best 37 points against North Florida. This achievement marked one of the top scoring performances by any Sun Belt player since last season.
This year marks the program’s 106th season overall and its 61st inside Reed Green Coliseum. Southern Miss was projected to finish twelfth in preseason polls after ending last year twelfth as well.
Troy comes into Saturday’s contest following a loss to Texas State but remains among conference leaders in several statistical categories such as assist-to-turnover ratio, assists per game, effective field goal percentage, fastbreak points, offensive rebounds, scoring margin, scoring offense, steals per game, three-point shooting percentage, three-pointers made per game, turnover margin, turnovers forced per game, and winning percentage.
Victor Valdes leads Troy’s scoring efforts with an average of nearly sixteen points per contest; teammates Thomas Dowd (14.5), Cooper Campbell (12.6), and Theo Seng (13) also contribute double-digit averages. Dowd adds over ten rebounds per outing.
The two teams have met twenty-three times before; Southern Miss leads all-time series play when hosting Troy but has lost their last three meetings dating back to last season—including an earlier matchup this year that ended with Troy winning by more than twenty points.
Southern Miss has relied heavily on free throw opportunities this season—making twenty or more shots from the line ten times so far—which is their highest frequency since the 2013-14 campaign. A season-high twenty-seven free throws were converted during their win over Radford.
At home inside Reed Green Coliseum (“The Greenhouse”), Southern Miss has compiled forty-three wins since early last year and has maintained an undefeated streak in home openers under head coach Jay Ladner.
On February 14 specifically—the date of Saturday’s contest—Southern Miss holds twelve wins out of twenty-two previous Valentine’s Day games played historically by the program.
Curt Lewis enters this season as one of Division I basketball’s oldest active players; born May 19th of 1999.
Southern Miss’ non-conference schedule included only five home games alongside several notable road matchups such as South Carolina and Miami (Fla.).
Tickets are available through southernmiss.com/tickets or by calling their ticket office during business hours.
