Sports, in many ways, helped put Augusta State on the map.

When the men’s basketball team played for the NCAA Division II championship on CBS in 2008, a national audience was exposed to our school. That event created more awareness of the university than any other in its history, at least until Jennifer Keeton became fodder for talking heads on “The O’Reilly Factor.”

If you lived around here in ‘08, you saw how many Augusta State license plates and “I love ASU” car magnets started popping up following the Jaguars’ historic run. After languishing for years as a commuter university with little discernible school spirit, Augusta State now had a serious and fervent fan base.

Suddenly, being a Jaguar was cool. Consecutive Division I national championships by the men’s golf team in 2010 and 2011 made being a Jaguar cooler still. Those titles also confirmed Augusta State’s standing as a legitimate brand in the college sports world. With a new name as the result of its merger with Georgia Health Sciences University, Augusta State will soon be taking on a very different identity. For loyal Jaguar sports fans, the approval of the clunky “Georgia Regents University” title brings about an abrupt end to a brilliant era of Augusta State athletics.

The point of this column is not to castigate the new name for the university. That’s been done to death in the days following the announcement of the Georgia Regents handle. (But it really is a sucky name, isn’t it?) Rather, I want to speak for the current and former players and coaches of the Jags’ athletic teams who are, as legendary men’s golfer Carter Newman put it, “heartbroken” over the loss of the Augusta State name.

Sports are not the primary mission of a university nor should they be. But that does not mean their importance in raising a school’s profile should be ignored or minimized. It would have been nice to have seen a name chosen that retained “Augusta” in the title to at least indirectly honor the contributions of the athletic teams that have made people proud to wear the blue and white.

A new name, even one so radically different, does not erase the remarkable accomplishments of the Jags’ athletic programs over the last half decade. The hard-won trophies and banners will still be proudly displayed at Christenberry Fieldhouse. The record books will still acknowledge Augusta State’s championships. Most importantly, Jaguar fans will always have the memories of those glorious triumphs.

But the uniforms will be different. The trademark “A” logo will be no more. The “A-S-U” chants at sporting events will have to be replaced. In many ways, Jaguar fans will feel like they will be having to adopt a new set of teams. It’s highly unusual, though not unprecedented, for a school that lays claim to an NCAA championship to undergo such a significant name change.

Texas Western made history in 1966 when it became the first school to win a men’s basketball championship with an all-black starting lineup. It was such a paramount moment in collegiate sports history that it inspired a feature film, “Glory Road,” four decades later.

Today, the former Texas Western is known as the University of Texas at El Paso (commonly referred to as “UTEP”). UTEP alumni have doubtlessly had to educate many basketball fans unfamiliar with that school’s name change of the fact that the revered ‘66 Texas Western team is, in fact, a part of UTEP’s history.

Maybe one day some down-on-his-luck director will make a boilerplate sports movie about a small, underdog school made up of scrappy overachievers shocking the college-golf world by defeating powerhouses Oklahoma State and Georgia for national championships in back-to-back seasons.

Should that day come, it will be a real shame we’ll have to explain to people, “Yeah, that was us.”

After nearly hooking the top-ranked Texas Longhorns, the men’s golf team earned a chance to shoot for its third consecutive national title.

In a stirring climax to an up-and-down regular season, the Jaguars battled the Longhorns, who have dominated college golf with six tournament victories this year, to a two-hole playoff at the Insperity Augusta State Invitational, held on March 31 and April 1 at Forest Hills Golf Club.

Though the Jags came up short against Texas in the extra holes, Augusta State junior Derek Chang said he was proud of the way his team stood toe-to-toe with the Longhorns.

“It definitely helped a lot to be at home and be on a course we were familiar with,” he said. “It was also a really good experience to play with (Texas) because their one and two guys (Dylan Fritelli and Jordan Speith) are ranked one and two in the country, and the rest of their guys are extremely solid. Their team is unbelievable.”

Augusta State entered the tournament knowing that it needed a top-6 finish to earn a spot in the NCAA Regionals. Despite the do-or-die nature of the event, senior Brendan Gillins said he felt the team’s play was loose and confident.

“This tournament was our best tournament we’ve played this year by far,” Gillins said. “Finally, all of our games have started to come together. We just contended with the best team in the country, so it’s a huge confidence boost for us when we go into regionals.”

The Jags were led by Gillins and fellow senior Taylor Floyd, who finished the weekend in a tie for third place at 11-under-par. Gillins fired a blistering 66 in the final round to help the Jags force the playoff with Longhorns and said his strong play was fueled by what was at stake for his team.

“I just wanted to make sure we got into regionals and make sure we were in contention to win (this tournament),” Gillins said. “I was going to do whatever it took for that to happen.”

After winning national championships in 2010 and 2011, advancing to regionals might seem like a modest accomplishment for the Jags. However, head coach Kevin McPherson faced a monumental rebuilding task in his first year on the job, as the team lost its top five players from last year’s roster. The Jags’ postseason prospects were in doubt after a shaky fall, but the team rebounded with two second-place finishes during the spring schedule to move above the .500 mark on the season, a requirement for entry into regionals.

Floyd, the lone remaining contributor from the Jags’ first championship run, said that because the expectations for Augusta State are much lower this year, the team will not feel burdened by pressure in the postseason, despite carrying the title of back-to-back national champions.

“Nobody really expects us to do real well, I don’t think, so we’re back to where we were a few years ago,” Floyd said. “I expect us to come out and play loose (in regionals).”

Chang said he believes the Jags are playing their best golf at the right time of year.

“I think teamwise we’re doing pretty well,” he said. “We’re peaking going into the postseason.”

Regional play will begin on May 18, and as the Jags wait to learn their destination, Chang said they will have to work to consolidate the gains they made at Forest Hills.

“We do have at least a full month before regionals,” he said. “We’re just going to have to keep the momentum going and possibly build on what we did (in the Augusta State Invitational) through that whole month.”

Chipper Jones has earned numerous accolades during his splendid 19-year major league career: All-Star, National League MVP, World Series champion.

And now, as he prepares for one last season before he calls it quits, it seems like an appropriate time to bestow Chipper with yet another title: the greatest Atlanta Brave of all time.

Since moving to Atlanta in 1966, the Braves’ franchise has employed some of the finest players in baseball history. But Larry Wayne Jones, Jr., whom the Braves drafted 22 years ago this June, shines as the brightest star in this constellation of greats.

Hank Aaron is undoubtedly the most accomplished Brave ever, but it’s hard to call him the greatest Atlanta Brave when he played in Milwaukee for 12 years. Similarly, Greg Maddux, who won three straight Cy Young awards in Atlanta from 1993-1995, was arguably the most dominant player in the history of the franchise at his peak, but the number of seasons he spent playing in other cities hurt his case as the greatest Atlanta Brave.

The 244 games, two Cy Young plaques and World Series MVP award Tom Glavine won in an Atlanta uniform were impressive, but he removed himself from this discussion when he broke every Braves fan’s heart by signing with the hated New York Mets in the winter of 2002.

While Glavine and Maddux left for free-agent riches with other organizations, Jones remained in Atlanta and piled up monster numbers season after season to help the Braves run their string of division titles to 14, an unprecedented run of first-place finishes that finally ended in 2006.

The great Braves teams of the 1990s and early 2000s were always known, first and foremost, for their dominant pitching, but it was Chipper who was the linchpin of the lineup, and just ask Braves fans who have watched the team over the last few years about the futility of having a great pitching staff without an adequate offense to back it up.

Chipper was such a dominant force in the Braves’ batting order for so many years that a sober argument could be made for him being the greatest hitting third baseman to ever play the position. No, he didn’t have Mike Schmidt or Eddie Mathews’ prodigious power, and his contact stroke was not quite as pure as Wade Boggs or George Brett’s. But no third sacker displayed the mastery over the all-around art of hitting that Chipper did. Barring a complete nosedive in 2012, he will retire as the only third baseman in major league history with a career .300 batting average, .400 on-base percentage and .500 slugging percentage.

But Jones’ numbers are only a part of his legacy.  His renowned knowledge of the game and respect among his teammates have made him an invaluable member of the Braves’ famously congenial clubhouse.

In recent years, Jones, who has struggled with a litany of injuries, has been the target of criticism from many Braves fans who claim he is only continuing to play in order to collect a hefty paycheck. But the preponderance of evidence does not jive with such cynicism.

Consider the selflessness Jones showed in restructuring his contract in order to allow the cash-strapped Braves to scrape together the funds to acquire ace pitcher Tim Hudson in 2004. In another unselfish act by Jones that has become largely forgotten with the passage of time, he willingly initiated a move to left field before the 2002 season in order to accommodate the signing of free agent Vinny Castilla.

As Chipper’s career rounds third and heads for home, here’s hoping his detractors will pause and reflect on all he’s done for the Braves over the last two decades both on and off the field. For his consistent production, unfailing loyalty to the franchise and contributions to winning teams, Chipper stands above the rest in the history of professional baseball in Atlanta.

March just doesn’t feel the same.

After hosting the NCAA Southeast Regional for a remarkable five consecutive years, the Augusta State University men’s basketball team failed to qualify for the NCAA Tournament this season. The Jaguars, with a 17-11 record, were passed over for the region’s final at-large spot in favor of Columbus State, a team Augusta State defeated during the regular season.

It was a turbulent season for the Jaguars, one that always had a not-meant-to-be vibe to it. Four of the team’s losses came by a combined total of 5 points. In both of Augusta State’s defeats to conference rival Montevallo, including the 63-59 loss to the Falcons in the Peach Belt Tournament that proved to be the Jags’ coup de grâce, the team blew leads of at least 16 points.

Every time it seemed the Jaguars were poised to turn a corner, they suffered a heartbreaking setback. But all of those close losses obscured an auspicious fact that bodes very well for the young team going forward. That Augusta State was competitive in almost every single game this year, despite starting three freshmen for a bulk of the season, speaks to the enormous potential the Jaguars’ roster possesses.

After two straight years of having to rebuild his lineup, Augusta State coach Dip Metress can catch his breath this offseason, as all five of his starters are slated to return in 2012-13.

Peach Belt Conference Freshman of the Year Devon Wright-Nelson was a force of nature down the stretch and could develop into one of the country’s finest players as a sophomore. Two other rising sophomores, guards Devonte Thomas and D’Angelo Boyce, also flashed tremendous potential in their rookie campaigns and should anchor the Jaguars’ backcourt for the next three years. Harold Doby and Travis Keels will also be back to provide dependable scoring and defense in the paint.

It gets even better. Roman Hill, an athletic wingman who raised eyebrows during fall practice, should rejoin the fray after being sidelined for the entire 2011-12 season. If he can overcome his chronic knee problems, Hill could provide the Jaguars with a dynamic sixth man to anchor a deep bench that will include returnees Kelth Cameron, Charles Robinson and Kyle Armour as well as Jay Manning, a rangy guard who redshirted this season.

Should Metress be able to add a big body or two to help fortify the post (Augusta State was inconsistent on the boards this year, especially against the more physical teams they faced), the Jaguars will head into next season as the favorites to win the Peach Belt and a likely preseason top-20 pick.

Even during the glory days of 2007 through 2011, Augusta State never entered an offseason with this much certainty. During those years, Metress was able to reload by bringing in impact transfers such as Fred Braithwaite, Alex Smith and George Johnson. It was hard to argue with that strategy, as each of those players became All-Americans and helped the Jaguars churn out 30-win seasons.

But this past year, Metress adopted a different approach, electing to build around his freshmen. While this new blueprint might have led to a dip (pun slightly intended) in 2011-12, it will pay huge dividends in the near future.

The youthful Jaguars learned a lot of hard lessons this season. Perhaps most valuable among these lessons was the realization that they cannot expect to win every time they step on the floor simply because their jerseys say “Augusta State.” It’s hard to say that the team became complacent, because so many of its players had not been a part of the Jags’ winning tradition, but having to experience adversity for the first time in a long time could turn out to be a blessing in disguise for Augusta State’s proud basketball program.

If the returning Jags can channel the disappointment from this season productively, then this will be the first and last March in which they’ll be subjected to sitting at home while other teams go dancing.

Ryan Braun may have just received some of the best news of his life, but no one should envy him.

Major League Baseball hit Braun with a 50-game suspension in December after he tested positive for an abnormally high testosterone level. Baseball arbitrator Shyam Das overturned the ban on Feb. 23 after the evidence against Braun was ruled to be inadmissible. However, the Brewers’ star left fielder isn’t anywhere close to being out of the woods yet.

No matter what Braun does the rest of his career, questions surrounding the legitimacy of his accomplishments will linger. It’s unfortunate that such doubt will inevitably exist, but players who warrant far less suspicion than Braun are likewise regarded with distrust by the hardball-watching public.

One of my favorite players in the game today is Blue Jays’ slugger Jose Bautista. After spending six nondescript seasons in baseball purgatory with the Orioles, Rays, Royals and Pirates, Bautista arrived in Toronto in 2009 and reinvented his swing. Over the last two seasons, Joey Bats has become the most destructive hitter in baseball, belting 97 home runs.

But instead of celebrating Bautista’s remarkable transformation, baseball fans have come to view him with a healthy dose of skepticism. If you punch “Jose Bautista” into Google, the second suggested search is “Jose Bautista steroids.” This despite the fact that Bautista has never tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs and has maintained the sleek 195-pound frame he has sported his entire career. The only “evidence” against Bautista is his superlative stat sheet.

Unfortunately, players like Bautista and Braun have to pay for the sins of sluggers from a bygone era. When Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds each shattered Roger Maris’s single-season home run record and then were all subsequently linked to steroid use, MLB was dealt a public relations catastrophe. It’s hard to fault fans for their leeriness of modern superstars when so many of baseball’s most decorated sluggers of the last two decades have been exposed as frauds.

Perhaps Braun actually was guilty and got off on a technicality, or maybe he was simply the victim of a flawed drug-testing system, as he claims. But regardless of where the truth really lies, the stain this bizarre case leaves on Braun’s legacy will not easily wash. His performance in the next few seasons will be carefully scrutinized. Any drop-off from his established standards of excellence will be viewed by many as evidence that he cannot produce at an MVP-level without the use of steroids. And if he’s able to sustain or even improve on his award-winning work from 2011, those same detractors will see this as proof positive that he is continuing to cheat the game.

Braun’s reality is one all major league players have to be prepared to face in the post-Steroid Era. They must be above reproach in avoiding all appearances of impropriety, but as Bautista’s doubters prove, even that is not always enough. No matter how dubious the allegations of a player’s supposed juicing might be, any whisper of cheating puts him in the impossible position of having to prove a negative.

The good news for Major League Baseball is that cases like Braun’s are becoming less commonplace thanks to the sport’s drug-testing policy, which became considerably more strenuous in 2005. As each year passes, fewer players are getting caught doping and run-scoring totals around the league continue to drop precipitously. It hasn’t necessarily been borne out in the television and attendance ratings, but baseball has become a much more pure game in the past few years. A pitcher’s game. A better game.

But Braun’s ordeal will delay the healing of baseball’s scars, and that is the most disappointing part of this entire saga. It is not just Braun who will suffer. So will every player, like Jose Bautista, who makes the mistake of being great.

Augusta State’s baseball program, generally speaking, has rarely done much to capture the attention of the student population and alumni.

There have been pockets of success, such as in 2004 when the Diamond Jaguars finished 38-18 and spent much of the season ranked in the top 20, but overall, the hardball team has not been able to maintain anything approaching the consistent excellence of Augusta State’s men’s golf and basketball programs.

But that could be about to change.

As he settles into his third season heading up the baseball team, Chris Cooper has the Jaguars poised for a breakthrough into the Peach Belt’s upper crust.

Whether 2012 will be the year the Jaguars take the next step and earn an NCAA Tournament bid remains to be seen. Early returns have been mixed. The team opened its season by taking two of three games from Carson-Newman and then splitting four road games with Paine and West Georgia.

But even if this isn’t the year that the Jags put it all together, that season will not be far in coming. Cooper is still growing as a coach, and considering the progress he’s already been able to make since going 16-31 in his first season, that portends very good things for the Jaguar program in the days ahead.

Heading into the 2011 campaign, a fan asked Cooper if he thought his team could reach the .500 mark. Though his team was picked by the media to finish dead last in the Peach Belt, Cooper responded that he had much higher hopes than just breaking even.

It was that kind of confidence that allowed Augusta State to surprise everyone by coming within a single victory of winning the Peach Belt Tournament last spring. The Jags were not the most talented team in the conference last year, but you could make a good argument that they were the scrappiest.

Cooper’s work building the Augusta State program is far from done. The Jags struggled offensively last year, and the hitting in the early part of the season has again been sporadic. Cooper, who anchored the Jaguars lineup as a first basemen a decade ago, knows he has to get some more pop in his batting order.

But one of the things that has been most impressive about Cooper has been the willingness he has shown to adapt to his personnel. Though he was a prolific power hitter in college, Cooper employed a run-heavy, small-ball attack that helped the Jags win several games last year that they, frankly, had little business winning. The mark of a good coach is the ability to adjust to the talent he has at his disposal rather than trying to make his players fit into his philosophy. Instead of waiting around on the three-run homer that likely is not going to come, Cooper has demonstrated he is not afraid to be aggressive and force the issue.

More to the point, despite the fact that he was a slugger himself, Cooper understands that a team has to be able pitch at an elite level to compete for championships, and he has assembled what has to rank as one of the finest staffs in Augusta State history. Scott Shipman, who joined the program the same year Cooper took over, was named a preseason All American and gives the Jags an excellent chance to win every time he steps on the hill. Josh Barks, Dylan Wall and Kip Custer have all impressed in early-season starts, and hard-throwing closer Wilson Taylor anchors a deep bullpen.

Though Augusta State is still a work in progress, once Cooper is able to put together a lineup that can match the talent and depth of his outstanding pitching staff, there will be no limit to what the Jaguars program will be able to accomplish.

Derek Chang shot a 1-under 71 to lead the Augusta State men’s golf team in the first round of the San Diego Intercollegiate.  The Jaguars finished the day in seventh place at 14-over-par.

Taylor Floyd posted Augusta State’s second-best score with a 74. Brendan Gillins added a 6-over 78, while Alex Wennstam and Robin Petterson had matching 7-over-par rounds.

Washington leads the 15-team field heading into tomorrow’s final round after compiling a 4-under 284.

The Intercollegiate is the first tournament of the spring schedule for the two-time defending national champion Jaguars.

This year’s NFL playoffs have been about as good as anyone could possibly hope for.

From the memorable Saints-49ers shootout in San Francisco to the high anxiety of both conference championship games, this postseason has delivered as much excitement as any in a very long time.
Which is why it is so disappointing that these fantastic playoffs are going to conclude with a matchup between the New York Giants and New England Patriots in Super Bowl XVLI on Feb. 5.

Now, to be clear, the Pats and G-Men are two great football teams. Do not be fooled by the Giants’ 9-7 regular season record. New York played a murderer’s row of a schedule and is just now getting healthy after being racked by injuries all season long. The Patriots, meanwhile, are the NFL’s model franchise, having won 13 or more games five times in the past 11 years.

This game will pit the best quarterback of this generation (the Patriots’ Tom Brady) against the hottest quarterback on the planet (New York’s Eli Manning). New England’s Bill Belichick and the Giants’ Tom Coughlin are two of the best tacticians in the game.

There is also a tantalizing element of revenge in this game. Four years ago, the Giants pulled off one of the biggest stunners in NFL history, when they defeated the previously unbeaten Patriots 17-14 in Super Bowl XLII. That game will doubtless weigh heavily on both teams’ minds during their preparation and add an extra dash of intrigue to this year’s clash.

On paper, it sounds like a dream Super Bowl. And for some fans, perhaps it is. But if you are like me and you enjoy seeing some new blood in the Super Bowl, this year’s title bout is as bad as it gets.

The Patriots are attempting to win their fourth Lombardi Trophy since 2001. The Giants are seeking their second in five years. Unless you root for one of these teams, trying to decide who to pull for is like trying to decide if you would rather see Bill Gates or Warren Buffett win the Powerball.

One of the reasons – perhaps the reason – the NFL has entrenched itself as the most popular sports league in the U.S. is because of its parity. Every franchise – if it is smart with its money, hires the right coaches and makes savvy personnel decisions – can get to a Super Bowl. This has been evidenced in the last the last few years with historically sad-sack organizations like the Arizona Cardinals and New Orleans Saints reaching football’s biggest stage.

The Patriots and Giants should be commended for maintaining their excellence in a league that is so fluid at the top. But that doesn’t mean that it is especially compelling to see the usual suspects back in the Super Bowl.

I am not anti-dynasty. Dynasties drive the narrative in sports. It’s good for the health of a league to have teams that people love and that people love to hate. The fun is in seeing an established power go down at the hands of a plucky upstart. It is those David vs. Goliath matchups that provide the most fascination for the fans. Unfortunately, Super Bowl XLVI is Goliath vs. Goliath.

With that being said, it seems likely the Patriots and Giants will provide yet another entertaining game. Both teams come in peaking, with the Patriots having won 10 in a row and the Giants outscoring the Jets, Cowboys, Falcons, Packers and 49ers by an aggregate 141-67 score over their last five games. It would be a surprise if the game ends up being decided by more than a touchdown in either direction.

But no matter how competitive a Super Bowl it might turn out to be, it’s hard to get excited about one of these teams packing one more Lombardi into its already-crowded trophy case.
Whoever wins, we lose.

Reese Library is not responding to the growing eBooks craze sitting down.

Kyle McCarrell, Augusta State University’s acquisitions and cataloging librarian, said the library now has approximately 60,000 to 65,000 eBooks that are available for students to download to eReader devices.

“We have purchased an Adobe content server, and if you set up Adobe Digital Additions on your E-book and device, then you are able to download those eBooks, and we didn’t have that capability up until (last) summer,” McCarrell said. “So that’s the new thing that we’ve been promoting – that you can download them for seven days, and then once those seven days are up, they clear off your device. You can get them through two ways. One is through Galileo and (the books) are now on eBooks on EBSCOhost, which used to be called Net Library before it was bought out by EBSCO.”

Rod Bustos, Reese Library’s automation librarian, said Digital Additions is not compatible with Apple devices, but iPhone and iPad users can download a third-party reader called Bluefire to download the library’s eBooks.

Although eBooks have existed for more than a decade, McCarrell said recent innovations have made them more readily available.

“It hasn’t been until probably the last five years with the advent of the eReaders like the Kindle and the Nook and now as we go into the tablet realm with the iPad and all the other copycats of those things that (Ebooks) have really become accessible for the average person,” McCarrell said.

As these types of devices have emerged, McCarrell said eBooks have become more user friendly. Originally, eBooks could only be read on web browsers, but now readers can download these books to their mobile devices.

“Now that we do have the ability to download them, they will have some more appeal for the average person,” McCarrell said.

The type of content students are able to download from Reese Library is wide-ranging, McCarrell said.

“We now, within the last year and a half, have started going in some different directions,” he said. “We have a number of eBooks through Ebrary, which is another vendor that sells them. We only have 89 because some single titles there, but they have some beneficial features that we liked with their platform.”

Additionally, McCarrell said the library has purchased reference materials through Credo Reference and University Press as well as a collection of business books.

The University’s acquisition of these materials was essential given the ever-increasing demand for eBooks. The convenience and portability of eBooks is a big reason for their popularity, according to McCarrell.

“You can look at an eBook if you have a paper due tomorrow, you can look at it at 12:30 (at) night even if the library is not open because you can access the eBook online,” he said. “You get a lot more uses, potentially, out of an eBook than a print book, and it also doesn’t take up nearly as much space.”

Bustos said he agreed that eBooks make life easier for students. The freedom of not being constrained to a physical copy of a printed book is the biggest advantage of eBooks.

“You don’t have to worry about bookmarks or (ink) markers or anything like that because eBooks allow for highlighting,” Bustos said.

Because of their easy accessibility, Bustos said he does not see the demand for eBooks slowing down any time soon.

“I think it’s definitely going to be the wave of the future, particularly if textbook providers get on board with it,” he said. “Not a lot of them are doing that yet, but, for example, Amazon has a rental service where you can download (books) for a semester. And with the new Kindle (Fire) device coming out, I think that’s just going to feed into this. For someone who wants to focus specifically on eBooks, it’s relatively easy to limit it to that in our catalogue when you’re searching for different topics. There are just a lot of diferent benefits.”

On a night when they paid tribute to a fallen fan, the Augusta State University men’s basketball team delivered a performance that would have made him proud.

The Jaguars wrapped up a three-game homestand on Jan. 11 with a 72-64 over division rival Lander, ending the Bearcats’ sixgame winning streak and pulling Augusta State over the .500 mark in conference play (3-2) and overall (7-6).

Before tipoff, a ceremony was held to honor the life of Matt Miklas, an Augusta State student and devoted Jaguar basketball fan who passed away last November. Because Jan. 11 would have Miklas’s 24th birthday, Augusta State head coach Dip Metress pledged to donate $24 for every 3-point shot his team made against the Bearcats to Miklas’s scholarship fund.

Thanks in large part to junior guard O’Neal Armstrong, the Jaguars canned nine 3-pointers for the game, bringing Metress’s donation to a total of $216. Armstrong buried five of his seven attempts from long distance to break out of a season-long slump from behind the arc.

“Before tonight I really hadn’t been shooting that well,” Armstrong said. “Coach (Metress) has come up with this thing where he’s got me lifting weights before I practice. He told me the weight room would help my shot out, and that’s proven to be right.”

The weight-lifting strategy that Metress suggested to Armstrong was one that the coach said he picked up during his playing days at Belmont-Abbey.

“I told (Armstrong) that (lifting weights) helped my shot in college as a point, so I think that’s given him a little more confidence to shoot the ball when he’s open,” Metress said.

After being replaced in the starting lineup by freshman D’Angelo Boyce following the Jaguars’ 73-62 home defeat to Armstrong Atlantic State on Jan. 4, Armstrong came alive, averaging 17.0 points in the last two games of the homestand with a sparking 13-1 assist to turnover ratio. He said he believes not being in the starting lineup has been beneficial.

“I feel like I can feel the game from the bench and then I can go out there and what I need to to the game,” Armstrong said.

Metress said he’s been pleased with the maturity Armstrong showed in accepting his move to the bench.

“He’s fine with that role, and he’s really embraced it,” Metress said.

Playing against the Bearcats without leading scorer Harold Doby, who was serving a onegame suspension following a flagrant foul in Augusta State’s previous game, the Jaguars’ interior game got key pickme- ups from freshman Devon Wright-Nelson and junior Travis Keels. Each made a run at a double-double, with Wright- Nelson scoring 13 points and registering 9 rebounds and Keels adding 11 points and 9 boards of his own.

Keels said he took it upon himself to help offset the loss of Doby, because the Jaguars’ needed to continue to build on the momentum they gained in their 72-53 rout of North Georgia College & State on Jan. 7.

“Tonight was a big win for us because it’s the first time we’ve won back-to-back conference games this year,” Keels said. “This gives us more confidence to go on the road and get some more wins.”

The win brought a sense of relief to Metress, who said the Lander game was a virtual must-win with a three-game road trip to Clayton State, USC-Aiken and Georgia College & State looming.

“We’ve got seven games coming up in the next 12 or 13 days and the next three on the road, so we had to get this one,” Metress said. “I didn’t talk to the team about the importance of this game, but as a coach I was thinking, ‘This is one we better get.’”

While the win over Lander was vital in helping keep the Jaguars’ in the thick of the Peach Belt’s Eastern division race with a challenging slate of games on the horizon, it was also important because it was a fitting tribute to Miklas, Metress said.

“Matt was a special person.” Metress said. “I’m really happy for him, and to get a win, I know he’s looking over us.”