HAMMOND, La. – It's no secret that fifth-year Southeastern Louisiana men's head basketball Coach Jay Ladner is establishing himself as one of the top coaches in the Southland Conference.
 
Ladner guided the Lions to the 2017-18 Southland regular season championship. The Southern Miss grad has led the Lions to a 26-8 record in SLU's last 34 conference games.
 
The Lions (14-14, 10-5 Southland), with Ladner in his fifth year, are battling for a single bye and are still alive for a double bye in the Southland Conference Tournament Mar.13-17 in Katy, Texas.
 
However, with every great head coach, lies a great assistant coaching staff.
 
Assistant coaches David Kiefer, Mike Cyprien and Kyle Roane are assigned with the advanced scouting for each opponent.  The trio wastes little time in preparing for the next game as each will begin watching film and reviewing advanced stats mere hours after the previous game.
 
Kiefer, in his fourth year with Southeastern, feels the best advantage to scouting, is to find the opponent's tendencies.
 
"Personnel wise, I try to get players tendencies," said Kiefer. "I want to know which way certain players like to drive, their favorite moves, like spin moves, jab steps and shot fakes. Team wise, it's similar with looking for tendencies. I want to see how they cover ball screens, and other screening actions to know how to counter it. We also need to know what their favorite plays are especially at end-of-game situations and after timeouts. When we play an opponent for the second time, it's always about how they played us the first time and if they hurt us any certain way and we want to make sure we're prepared to counter it the next time around."
 
Roane, in his second year with Southeastern, keeps his eyes on systems and coaching styles.
 
"I think a coach's tendencies based on our history or a new staff and how they play against similar systems to ours is vital to a game plan," said Roane.
 
Roane, like Kiefer, look for how each team defends screens.
 
"You have to look for a consistency with how teams defend screening actions," said Roane. "Including ball screens to help us with points of attack to get some offensive production. I want to see what they do and how they defend each of these. Scouting gives our players a certain amount of confidence going into the games. I think it prepares us by being aware and having alertness to certain actions or tendencies that are easy to read because of indicators that Kief and Cyp (Coach Kiefer and Coach Cyprien) are great at pointing out. Also by knowing a team's tendencies, if the team does something that is not in the scouting report then we have a base of rules that allow us to be solid defensively."
 
Cyprien, in his first year with Ladner, coached three years under former SLU head coach Jim Yarborough. The New Orleans, Louisiana native, has a little bit different approach to scouting but with similar concepts to Kiefer and Roane.
 
Usually, I'll watch a game or two to get a feel for our opponent's pace or flow," said Cyprien. "After that, I'll get into personnel and get an idea of each player's strengths, weaknesses and tendencies. I want to see how we can attack certain guys offensively or defensively. Then I'll get into plays or sets. Later in the season I'll check for any new sets or wrinkles teams may have put in, especially late game or after timeout sets."
 
The Lions' initial game plans have clearly worked as SLU has led at halftime in 12 of 15 Southland games.  
 
Early in the season, it appeared as though the Lions were heading for a tough 2018-19 campaign as they started 4-12 overall and 0-3 in the Southland. But Ladner, Cyprien, Kiefer and Roane refused to quit on this team and the results have shown.
 
Southeastern returns to the court Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. when they host Northwestern State.
 
INSIDE SOUTHEASTERN BASKETBALL WITH JAY LADNER
Each Monday night at 7 p.m., beginning Jan. 7th, 'Inside Southeastern Basketball with Jay Ladner' broadcasts live on 90.9 KSLU from Rainbow Daiquiris at 14384 West Thomas Street. Talk college hoops with Coach Ladner and host Allen Waddell, cover the finer points of each game and preview upcoming games. If you can't join the crowd, you can submit a question at www.LionSports.net for the "Ask the Coach" segment. Inside Southeastern Basketball with Jay Ladner airs each Monday night during the Lions' Southland Conference schedule on the Southeastern Sports Radio Network.
 
HARDWOOD CLUB/S CLUB
Fans interested in becoming active supporters of the basketball program are encouraged to join the Hardwood Club.  Lion alums are encouraged to join the exclusive S Club, which is restricted to Southeastern athletic letterwinners.  All membership fees and donations to Hardwood Club are available for the exclusive use of the Southeastern basketball program. Membership information is available by contacting the Lion Athletics Association at laa@southeastern.edu or (985) 549-5091 or visiting www.LionUp.com.
 
SOCIAL MEDIA
For more information on Southeastern Basketball, follow @SLU_Hoops and @CoachLadner on Twitter, like /SLUathletics on Facebook and subscribe to the SLUathletics YouTube channel.