The end of the 2007-08 season was so different from most of the rest for South Alabama.

The end was a one-sided loss to Butler in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, a game in which South Alabama led 23-22 with six minutes left before Butler outscored the 10th-seeded Jags 23-7 over the rest of the half on the way to an 81-67 victory.

"One loss doesn't ruin the whole year," South Alabama coach Ronnie Arrow said. "It's just a shame that it had to end like this. I know what our team did this year and we're definitely a better team than this."

The Jags proved themselves throughout the season, beating SEC West champion Mississippi State and losing to Vanderbilt and Ole Miss by three points each before moving on to their Sun Belt Conference schedule and winning the conference regular-season championship.

Along the way, the Jags won 13 consecutive games, tying for the second-longest winning streak in school history, and won a school-record 26 games. By the time the Jags lost to Middle Tennessee in the semifinals of the Sun Belt tournament, they had already built up enough of a resume to become the Sun Belt's first at-large NCAA Tournament team since 1994.

The Jags did all that with just two seniors, but those two -- guards Demetric Bennett and Daon Merritt -- finished as the Jaguars' first and third-leading scorers. Merritt led the Sun Belt in assists and both players earned all-conference honors.

The Jags will build on a core of junior Domonic Tilford, the team's second-leading scorer, post players Brandon Davis, DeAndre Coleman and Ronald Douglas, and junior wing Daniel Hayles. Arrow will also look for more minutes and points from freshman shooting guard DeAndrae Ross, but he'll need to find new point guards through the recruiting process.

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