• TSU is back in action for round two of SWAC Tournament play as they’ll take on #7 Alabama A&M Friday night inside Bartow Arena at 8:30 p.m.
• TSU head coach Johnny Jones is 11-0 lifetime against Alabama A&M. TSU has dominated the series against Alabama A&M recently as the Tigers have won 20 straight and 31 of the past 32 match-ups. AAMU’s last win over TSU was on Feb. 1, 2014. The teams last met in January as TSU defeated AAMU in its lone meeting of the year. This will be a rematch of last year’s semifinals as TSU won 74-61.
• This time of the year is TSU’s time to shine. TSU has not lost in the semifinal round since 2016 and has played in the title game the past five of six years as 2020 was canceled due to COVID-19.
• TSU has not played in the Friday night slot of the SWAC Tournament since an 80-66 win over Alabama State in 2019.
• Picked seventh in the SWAC Preseason poll, AAMU finished seventh but rebounded from a slow start and is 9-3 over the past 12 games. Dailin Smith paces Alabama A&M averaging 14 points while Cam Tucker averages a team-high 4.4 rebounds.
• TSU’s Jonathan Cisse is averaging 18.8 points and 3.6 assists over the past 10 games.
• Guard PJ Henry joined the 1,000-point club at TSU on Jan. 29 while TSU head coach Johnny Jones won his 400th career game on March 9 and achieved his 100th career win at TSU on Feb. 19.
• The Tigers are coming off their third straight SWAC Tournament Championship and NCAA Opening Round appearance as they fell to Fairleigh Dickinson last season.
• From Nov. 16-Dec. 17, six of its seven opponents on TSU’s schedule during that span were NCAA Tournament participants. The first contest at home wasn’t until Dec. 21.
• For the fourth straight season, the Texas Southern men’s basketball team was picked to finish first in the Southwestern Athletic Conference preseason poll while senior guard PJ Henry was named the 2023-24 SWAC Preseason Player of the Year. Henry ended up with first team postseason honors.
• TSU, which is led by sixth-year head coach Johnny Jones, has won the past three SWAC Tournament Championships and enters the 2023-24 season looking to earn an unprecedented fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament bid and its eighth over the past 11 years. Only three teams have made three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances in SWAC history.
• TSU made its fourth consecutive postseason under Jones and third straight NCAA Tournament appearance in 2022-23. Jones went 24-14 in his inaugural year as head coach with three Power 5 conference wins. TSU fell in the finals of the 2019 SWAC Tournament and advanced to the semifinals of the CIT in 2019. In 2019-20, the Tigers made it back to the semifinals of the SWAC Tournament after a third-place regular season finish but saw the season end abruptly due to COVID-19. TSU won the SWAC Tournament and First Four contest in 2021 and was the first SWAC team to beat a ranked opponent from the SEC in 2021 at Florida. TSU claimed another Power 5 non-conference win against Arizona State last season.
• Jones is 59-35 all-time in the month of March and 29-10 at TSU.
Courtesy: TSUSports.com