Men’s Basketball Hosts UAPB Saturday Afternoon

• Texas Southern opens up its home SWAC schedule against UAPB on Saturday at 5 p.m.

• From Nov. 16-Dec. 17, six of its seven opponents on TSU’s schedule during that span were NCAA Tournament participants.

• TSU split its past road trip at Southern and Grambling State as newcomer Zaire Hayes scored a career-high 16 points at Grambling State to rally TSU back in the second half.

• UAPB is 8-8 against TSU in Pine Bluff since 2008 as they’re 1-14 in Houston over the past 17 games.

• Picked 10th in the SWAC Preseason poll, UAPB dropped its first two SWAC games but are the highest scoring team in the league with 84.3 points per game. Led by a pair of preseason All-SWAC selections in Kylen Milton and Joe French, UAPB leads the SWAC in three-pointers made (169 / 38%) but rank last in defense with 87.1 points.

• TSU head coach Johnny Jones is 7-3 lifetime against UAPB and has won five of the past six against them.

• The Tigers are coming off their third straight SWAC Tournament Championship and NCAA Opening Round appearance as they fell to Fairleigh Dickinson last season.

• After having four non-conference home games last season, TSU was back to a road-heavy non-conference schedule with nine consecutive road/neutral games to open the season. 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.

• 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.

• Seven NCAA Tournament participants and a pair of home contests highlights the 2023-24 Texas Southern men’s basketball non-conference schedule.

• TSU head coach Johnny Jones is 91-83 all-time in the month of January and 22-15 at TSU.