Southern Miss again bounced early from Sun Belt Conference tournament. What’s next?

Southern Miss found no answer for the Jordan Mason and Dontae Horne-led Texas State Bobcats in the second round of the Sun Belt tournament, falling to the Bobcats, 75-59, in Pensacola on Thursday.

Horne led Texas State (16-17, 7-11) with 20 points and seven rebounds, while Mason added 18 points and four assists.

The loss spoiled the return of head coach Jay Ladner to the USM bench after missing the previous eight games due to a heart attack suffered in early February. Ladner acted as an assistant as Juan Cardona continued to serve as acting head coach.

“First of all, I’m blessed just to be there and have another shot at life, really,” Ladner said after the game. “To be very honest with you, it makes you put a lot of things into perspective. I kind of wanted to be back around our players and be involved in the intensity of the game. Of course, I had an agreement with my cardiologist to make sure I try to be as low key as possible, but it was great.”

It was sloppy protection of the basketball and poor rebounding on the defensive end that was the ultimate undoing for USM (16-16, 9-9), which also went over four game minutes late in the first half without scoring a point.

The Golden Eagles would hit just one of their last 13 shot attempts to end the opening 20 minutes and put themselves in a double-digit deficit they wouldn’t recover from.

Victor Hart scored a team-high 20 points for USM with nine rebounds while Austin Crowley scored 16 and knocked down a trio of 3s.

Southern Miss was outrebounded 43-26 and turned the ball over 15 times.

The loss evened USM’s season record, leaving the Eagles with one winning season in their last five.

It’s the second consecutive year the Golden Eagles have been one-and-done in the SBC tournament and its the third straight conference tournament loss dating back to the CUSA tourney in 2022.

“We had high and lofty goals, our goal now and as we move into next year is to win the Sun Belt Conference tournament and get to the NCAA,” Ladner said. “We fell a little bit short and that’s the hurtful thing. After the hurt wears off... I know me and our staff, we’ll look back and be really proud of what our team did. And, of course, what guys like Mo (Arnold) and Crowley did for our program.”

Key offseason ahead

If Ladner’s willingness to coach in the future was in question, he put that to rest following the game.

“If (president) Joe Paul and (athletic director) Jeremy McClain will have me, I want to be right there coaching, that’s my plan,” Ladner said. “I haven’t thought about anything else.”

The coming months will be crucial for the coach exiting his fifth season with the program. Numerous key seniors are scheduled to depart, including two-time leading scorer Crowley.

The school also plans to begin work on a $43.2 million renovation to Reed Green Coliseum. And in today’s basketball landscape, the college coach’s offseason workload has found itself increasing ever higher.

“There really is no more offseason, that’s probably why I had a heart attack,” Ladner said. “There is no more break, anymore. Dealing with the challenges that we have in the landscape of college basketball... recruiting is, of course, of upmost priority. And now you have to recruit your own players that you want to return to your own team. That’s a challenge.

“People want to come in and grab the ones that are higher achievers ... NIL is, of course, a big challenge. It’s a very challenging and complex thing now to coach basketball at this level. But it’s exciting and I welcome the challenge.”