The Mustangs take on Southern Miss at 7 p.m. tonight at Moody Coliseum in their last home game of the season.

It will be Senior Night for the Mustangs (8-19, 2-12), and SMU will recognize its only senior, center Bamba Fall. The Golden Eagles (14-14, 4-10) have lost eight of their last nine conference games and are currently tied for 10th place in the Conference USA standings.

When SMU and Southern Miss are compared statistically, they are very similar teams. Both teams struggled on the road this year. SMU has not won a road game yet this season and the Golden Eagles only road victory was on Jan. 14 at Tulane. Both teams give up 66.7 points-per-game, and both teams usually win the rebounding battles (SMU’s rebounding margin is plus 2.2, USM’s is 2.0).

SMU continues to be led by freshman Paul McCoy who averages 13.6 points-per-game. The Mustangs have recently benefited from an offensive surge from Fall, who has scored in double figures in five of the last six games. Junior Jeremy Wise and Courtney Beasley, who average 16.0 and 14.8 points respectively, lead Southern Miss in scoring.

With the conference tournament looming next week, both teams are battling for a better position in the tournament. If SMU loses either of its last two games (Southern Miss, at Houston) then it will finish alone in last place.

However, if SMU wins both games

and Southern Miss loses its season finale against UTEP, the head-to-head win would give the Mustangs 11th place over the Golden Eagles.

The difference between the 11th and 12th seed might not seem that significant, but it would probably mean playing a lesser team like Tulane or Central Florida in the first round of the conference tournament instead of a high-powered offense like Houston or UTEP, which might give SMU a better chance at a first round upset.