LAKE CHARLES, La. – After earning a double-bye straight to the SLC Semifinals, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi men's basketball team will finally be off on the journey towards three-peating the tournament title when it takes on No. 3 Nicholls at 8 p.m. CT Wednesday.
The Islanders (21-10, 14-4 SLC) locked in the No. 2 seed after finishing second in the regular season under first year head coach
Jim Shaw. Shaw now accounts for the best debut season by any head coach in program history within the regular season, beating out his predecessor, Steve Lutz, who won 20 regular season games in his first year when Shaw was on staff as an assistant. Shaw has now helped guide the Islanders to three straight 20+ win seasons and three Southland Conference championships including back-to-back tournament titles the last two years.
Additionally, out of the 31 rookie head coaches among the NCAA Division I landscape for the 2023-24 season, Shaw posted the second-most wins at 21 just behind Alan Huss of High Point (24).
In the SLC postseason awards, junior
Garry Clark was picked to the All-Conference First-Team while graduate
Marion Humphrey found a spot on the All-Defensive Team.
Clark was a two-time SLC Player of the Week this year, both coming during the conference schedule. He led the team in both scoring and rebounding, averaging 13.1 ppg and 8.2 rpg overall but 15.1 ppg and 8.3 rpg in SLC play. He finished the regular season topping the league in field goal percentage with 54.6% overall and 54.3% in conference play. In league play, Clark ranked third in defensive rebounding (5.7 drpg), fourth in rebounding (8.3 rpg), and fifth in offensive rebounding (2.6 orpg).
Humphrey joined the Islanders this year and ended tied for team-lead in steals with 29 in SLC play and 46 overall. It ranked him seventh in the league as he averaged 1.6 steals per outing. In addition, he recorded 33 defensive rebounds and five blocks during the conference slate.
Along with these new faces, the Islanders will look to certain returners who have been around the championship culture for the past two seasons. Most notably, sophomore
Owen Dease had a coming out party in the 2023 SLC Championship game where he registered 16 points and seven rebounds and was four-of-five from three-point range in the win over Northwestern State. He went on to tally 14 points against No. 1 Alabama in the NCAA Tournament. This year,
Junior
Jordan Roberts is another returner from the last two championship seasons who has come out shining this year, significantly improving from his last year's scoring average from 4.9 ppg to scoring 8.8 points per contest this year. He made a team-high 43 threes this year for a .391 3FG%.
The Islanders enter the tournament on a seven-game winning streak with every game being won by double figures. They shot over .500 FG% in four of those games after not hitting that mark in any of the previous conference games.
A rebound-heavy team, A&M-Corpus Christi also finished the regular season leading the conference in rebounds (40.5 rpg), off. rebounding (13.3 orpg), def. rebounding (27.2 drpg), and rebounding margin (+7.2). They led the league in 3FG% defense (.300) as well.
The semifinal game will be available to watch live with a subscription to ESPN+. The winner will advance to play the winner against No. 1 McNeese/No. 4 Lamar in the championship final, set for Wednesday at 4 p.m. CT on ESPN2.
NOTES
- The Islanders lead Nicholls 14-10 in the all-time series, but the teams split this year's series with each team winning at home. The last time the two met in the postseason was in 2021-22 when the Islanders knocked off top-seeded Nicholls 71-64 in the semifinals before inevitably winning that year's tournament title.
- With Shaw on the staff, the Islanders are undefeated in the Southland Conference tournament. As a program, the Islanders are 5-4 all-time in the semifinals.
- The Islanders are 32-2 over the last two seasons when holding the opposition to 70 points or less. They held 12 Southland opponents to less than 70 points this year. On the offensive end, A&M-Corpus Christi is 25-0 over the last three seasons when shooting over .500 FG%.
- The Islanders score 75.61 points per game and have 10 student-athletes scoring over 5.0 per outing. The Islanders also average 35.42 bench points per game, which ranks #3 overall in the NCAA. A&M-Corpus Christi also nationally ranks top-15 in rebounds per game (40.64) and FG% defense (.401).
- The Islanders are on a campaign towards another title after winning back-to-back tournament titles in 2021-22 and 2022-23. The Islanders earned the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament in consecutive seasons. Last year, the Islanders won their first-ever NCAA Tournament game with a 75-71 victory over SEMO in the First Four as A&M-Corpus Christi led for over 38 minutes.
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