Championship Saturday: Tigers To Face Prairie View A&M For NCAA Tournament Berth

• The No. 3 Texas Southern Tigers have an opportunity to clinch its ninth NCAA Tournament berth and SWAC Tournament Championship as they’ll face SWAC rival Prairie View A&M Saturday in the championship of the 2021 SWAC Tournament. TSU’s last NCAA appearance was in 2018 as the contest will be shown live on ESPNU and heard on KYSU 90.9 FM.

• The Tigers have won eight straight and are winners of 13-of-14 games. TSU is participating in its fourth consecutive SWAC Tournament Championship since 2017.

• TSU is 8-7 all-time in SWAC Championship games. They’re 1-2 against PVAMU with games in 1998, 2014 (W) and 2019.

• This marks the third year for TSU head coach Johnny Jones. 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 competed in the CIT. TSU advanced to the semifinals of the CIT in 2019. Last season, 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.

• Head coach Johnny Jones is 45-32 all-time in the month of March and 15-4 at TSU. 

• Jones is 2-5 lifetime against Prairie View A&M and PVAMU’s Byron Smith. 

 • Prairie View A&M is the three-time reigning SWAC Champions as they shared a co-championship with Jackson State this season. Led by former TSU assistant coach Byron Smith, Jawaun Daniels leads the team with 15.4 points and 6.1 rebounds while transfer Cam Mack follows with 11.7 points and 7.9 assists. Jeremiah Gambrell averages 10.9 points while Lenell Henry is the top rebounder with 6.2 boards per game. 

• Since 2013, TSU is 12-7 against PVAMU but the Panthers have won three straight over TSU. PVAMU and TSU have met 10 times on a neutral court in SWAC Tournament history with TSU holding a 7-3 mark. The last meeting was in the 2019 SWAC Championship.

• TSU was tabbed as the preseason favorite to win the 2020-21 SWAC title in the annual preseason poll with nine lettermen returning and three starters. The Tigers also had a trio of student-athletes earn preseason honors as Yahuza Rasas and Justin Hopkins were named to the first team while Chris Baldwin received second team honors. Experience won’t be an issue as four of the five newcomers are NCAA Division I transfers who sat out last season due to NCAA rules.

• TSU takes the term “home, sweet home” to heart as the Tigers are 109-25 inside the H&PE Arena since 2008. TSU has won nine-plus games at home every year since the 2010-11 season but COVID-19 prevented the streak from continuing in 2021.