The SMU men’s basketball team huddles at center court after beating Rice. (John Schreiber)

The SMU men’s basketball team, losers of four of its last five games, will try to get back on track on the road tonight when it faces Southern Mississippi.

The Mustangs (8-15, 2-8) are coming off a road loss to the Houston Cougars, Conference USA’s second-place team, on Saturday.

The Eagles (13-11, 5-5) have won three of their last four games and four in a row in Reed Green Coliseum, their home gym. They are 9-2 at home this season.

Tonight’s game can be heard on the radio at 7 on KAAM 770 AM.

While it may seem like just another average game between the two teams, fans will be treated to a battle of former Associated Press National Coaches of the Year.

SMU head coach Matt Doherty won the honor in 2001 at North Carolina, and Southern Miss head coach Larry Eustachy earned the award with Iowa State in 2000.

Plenty is on the line for both coaches tonight.

Doherty and his Mustangs are still looking for their first Conference USA road victory, and are quickly running out of chances. SMU is 0-5 away from Moody Coliseum in conference play with only three road games remaining, including tonight’s trip to Southern Miss.

SMU also will be trying to avenge a season-ending 59-52 loss to the Eagles last year in the Conference USA tournament.

While the Mustangs will be trying to escape the conference cellar, Southern Miss will attempt to break out of a log jam in the middle of the conference standings.

The Eagles are in a three-way tie for sixth and are only one game back of fourth-place Central Florida. The top four teams in the conference will get a first-round bye in the postseason tournament.

Both teams are relatively young but will rely on proven players to carry them to victory.

The Mustangs hope 7-foot-2-inch junior center Bamba Fall continues his dominant play in the post. Fall has tallied 16 points in each of the Mustangs’ last two games. Fall is first in the conference in shooting (60 percent) and is second on the team in scoring (11.4 points per game).

Senior point guard Jon Killen leads the Mustangs with 12.8 points per game and 113 assists this season. However, he was only one of six from the field Saturday versus Houston, tallying three points.

The Mustangs’ other senior guard, Derrick Roberts, hit only two of nine shots and finished with a meager five points.

Roberts, Killen and the rest of the Mustangs’ defenders will have their hands full while defending Southern Miss sophomore guard Jeremy Wise.

Wise is averaging 18.5 points and 104 assists this season. He notched his first double-double of the season Saturday when he scored 12 points and dished out 12 assists against East Carolina.

After Saturday’s game, Eustachy remarked that it was his team’s most satisfying win in his four-year tenure there.

The Mustangs will return to the friendly confines of Moody on Saturday, when they face Alabama-Birminghan.