The Southern men's basketball team's celebration after Saturday's 71-57 win over Alabama A&M was well-earned after it had crossed the regular-season finish line.
The win capped off Southern's 14th regular-season Southwestern Athletic Conference championship campaign, one in which the Jaguars won their first 10 conference games and never dropped out of first place.
Southern finished 20-11 overall and 15-3 in league play to earn the top seed in the SWAC Tournament, which is being played at the Gateway Center Arena in Atlanta. Southern has a first-round bye, but the road will be a tough one after that.
"It's nice having that (celebration) after a long season, but it has to be over now," Southern coach Kevin Johnson said. "Our focus is on the conference tournament and (Wednesday's) game"
The Jaguars will open play with a quarterfinal matchup against Grambling at 1 p.m. Wednesday. The tournament's eighth seed, Grambling (11-21) defeated No. 9 Alabama A&M 73-56 on Tuesday to earn a quarterfinal spot.
Wednesday's game will mark the third time in five seasons that Southern and Grambling have met in the quarterfinals of the SWAC Tournament. Both of the previous games were in Birmingham, Alabama, including 2021, when Grambling won 72-67 in overtime. A year later, the Tigers edged Southern 60-58.
The 2025 season was a disappointing one for Grambling after it swept regular-season and tournament titles last year, but a win over Southern would alleviate some of the Tigers' pain. The winner of the Southern-Grambling game will have to deal with either No. 4 Texas Southern (15-16) or No. 5 Alabama State (16-15) on Friday.
Southern defeated Texas Southern twice during the regular season but lost both of its contests against Alabama State.
"Every team is back at 0-0, but that's the way we approach every game," Johnson said.
Part of that approach is to remain focused despite the distractions that come with winning. The Jaguars attended the conference banquet Monday night, where Johnson was recognized as the SWAC Coach of the Year. Also earning a distinction was Andre Nunley as the SWAC Defensive Player of the Year, and first-team All-SWAC selection Michael Jacobs.
"I thought it was good," Johnson said. "We had the banquet, and any time you have the chance to get recognized it feels good, but we shut it down after that. We'll scout the (Grambling-Alabama A&M) game and then get ready for (Wednesday)."
Southern's play this season has been characterized by a long bench. The Jaguars routinely have substituted five players at a time during games, showing how much confidence Johnson has in his entire team.
The Jaguars' bench is so long that no other team in the nation has relied more on bench production. The Southern bench averaged 39.4 points per game, a number that was No. 1 nationally.
Defensively, Southern forced 15.5 turnovers and averaged 9.6 steals, which was sixth in the nation.
