• By PERRYN KEYS
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Nov 20, 2009

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

During its rough-and-tumble mini-tour of the Big 12 Conference, the Southern men’s basketball team learned a painful lesson: Those big-money programs have plenty of height and muscle in the post.

Now the Jaguars have moved on to the Mountain West — and, from top to bottom, those teams aren’t much shorter, either.

Shortly before 8 p.m. today, when Southern (0-2) takes a good look at Utah (1-1) during pregame warmups inside the Jon M. Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City, the Jaguars will see more young men in more XL uniforms.

Four players in the Utes’ regular rotation stand 6-foot-9 or taller — including 7-3 senior center David Foster and 7-0 freshman center Jason Washburn.

The Jaguars’ tallest player, Quinton Doggett, is 6-8. No other Southern player stands taller than 6-9.

Should be another fun night underneath the goal for Southern.

“We’ve talked about this already on this trip, but the obvious difference is the size and height of the players these teams have in the frontcourt,” said fifth-year coach Rob Spivery, whose team also faces Brigham Young on Tuesday.

“Size was certainly the main difference for us in those first two ballgames.”

With a tale-of-the-tape advantage in the post, Baylor and Oklahoma State grabbed 27 more rebounds than Southern, and the Jaguars simply couldn’t get the second-chance points they needed in back-to-back losses.

Still, Southern’s two losses weren’t nearly as lopsided as they appeared.

The Jaguars, who had a No. 335 RPI rating last season, held Baylor (No. 44) to 18 second-half points and lost, 61-45.

Against Oklahoma State (No. 17 last season), SU trailed by as few as nine points in the second half before the Cowboys pulled away at the end.

“I think considering the caliber of teams we’ve faced, the main thing for me is that we’ve really competed very well,” Spivery said.