Three Mobile-Area Colleges Tip Off Basketball Season With New Coaches at Two Schools

MOBILE, Ala. — College basketball is back on the Gulf Coast, and this year fans in Mobile and Baldwin counties can follow three men’s and three women’s programs from four-year schools: South Alabama, the University of Mobile and Spring Hill College. Two of the three have already played, and the third opens Nov. 13.

The schools sit in three different conferences and answer to three different governing bodies. South Alabama is an NCAA Division I program in the Sun Belt Conference. Mobile competes in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and the Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC). Spring Hill College is an NCAA Division II program in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) for now, and it is scheduled to join the Gulf South Conference in July 2027.

Early results

South Alabama’s men opened Monday night, Nov. 2, against Ohio University and lost 86-77, while the women won at Akron 75-74. Both games were part of the annual Sun Belt-Mid-American Conference Challenge. South Alabama Coach Richie Riley’s reaction to the men’s loss is in our earlier report.

The University of Mobile men are 1-1. The Rams lost their opener 90-84 in overtime to LSU-Alexandria, then beat Pensacola Christian 92-88 last Saturday. The Mobile women are 1-2: they beat Stillman 70-66 in the opener, then lost both games of the Life University Classic to nationally ranked opponents, 75-46 to No. 5 Freed-Hardeman and 86-72 to No. 11 Georgetown College.

Spring Hill has not played a regular-season game yet. Both of its teams open Nov. 13: the men against Delta State in Memphis, and the women at Mississippi Christian at 2 p.m.

Men’s teams

South Alabama. The Jaguars finished 21-12 last season, including 11-7 in Sun Belt play, and earned a National Invitational Tournament bid, where they lost in the first round to Auburn, the eventual champion. Only four players return: Peyton Law, Desmond Williams, Stephen Williams and Samuel Shoptaw. Ten newcomers fill out the roster.

The league’s coaches picked South Alabama fourth in the preseason poll, behind Arkansas State, James Madison and Troy. Law is a preseason first-team all-conference selection, and newcomer Jalen Langsy made the third team. (The full order of finish is in our preseason poll story, and Law’s comeback from a knee injury is covered here.) South Alabama beat Mississippi Christian 99-83 in an exhibition last Thursday. Riley is in his ninth season at the school with a 152-106 record.

University of Mobile. Mike Doig is the Rams’ new head coach. He was an assistant at Pepperdine and has also coached at Liberty University, St. Catherine College and Indiana University. He replaces Darnell Archey, who resigned to become the girls’ head coach at UMS-Wright. Doig inherits a team that went 9-21 last year and 8-10 in SSAC play, with only two returning players from a roster that had just one senior. Mobile was picked ninth in the 14-team SSAC coaches’ preseason poll; Loyola of New Orleans is the pick to win the league. The Rams play again Thursday at Cumberland in Tennessee.

Spring Hill College. The Badgers also have a new coach with local ties. John Redman spent one season as head coach at Northwest Mississippi Community College, where his team went 18-12, a 12-game improvement. He played high school ball at Spanish Fort and joined the Spring Hill roster, but an injury turned him into a student assistant coach for three seasons. He later coached at Delta State for seven years and was an assistant at Dalton State on an NAIA national championship team. Back in Mobile, he was head coach at St. Paul’s and an assistant at the University of Mobile. Spring Hill’s roster is almost entirely new. The Badgers lost 108-97 in an exhibition at Tulane last week and are picked to finish last in the SIAC.

Women’s teams

South Alabama. Yolisha Jackson begins her fourth season after a 17-19 finish. The highlight of last year was a five-game run in the Sun Belt tournament, ending in the quarterfinals, which earned the Jaguars a Women’s National Invitation Tournament berth. Jackson then brought in several new players. The coaches picked South Alabama 12th in the 14-team league, and no Jaguar made the preseason all-conference team. Amyah Sutton, last year’s leading scorer, is back. The next game is Saturday at 1 p.m. at home against UAB.

University of Mobile. Sydney Westry starts her third season. She led the Rams to a 26-7 record in her first year, including a trip to the NAIA national tournament, before last year’s 10-20 mark (5-12 in the SSAC). Westry is a Faith Academy graduate who played at the University of Mobile and was an assistant at Spring Hill before being hired. Mobile was picked ninth in the SSAC. The Rams play Friday at 5 p.m. at LSU-Alexandria.

Spring Hill College. Dan Presel’s team went 8-20 last season, 6-18 in SIAC play. Presel pitched for the Badgers’ baseball team from 1996 to 1999 and later served as an assistant at Spring Hill before joining Terry Fowler’s staffs at North Alabama and South Alabama. This year’s roster has five juniors and three seniors, including three players from the Mobile area: Ta’Myla Allen (Williamson), Jenice Adjesson (Davidson) and Ella Vallas (St. Paul’s). Adjesson was named to the SIAC coaches’ preseason all-conference third team. The Badgers open Nov. 13 at Mississippi Christian.

What to watch

With so many new coaches and rosters, the standings could shift quickly. South Alabama’s men have the clearest path to a high finish in a bunched Sun Belt, while the other five programs are all trying to climb from the lower half of their leagues. Spring Hill is also preparing for its July 2027 move to the Gulf South Conference, a change that will reshape its schedule. For more on the Badgers’ athletic history, see our story on the Spring Hill College Hall of Fame class.