Men’s Basketball Prepares For Contest At Texas Tech Thursday Night

• Texas Southern is back in action Thursday night for a match-up at #25 Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas at United Supermarkets Arena live on ESPN+.

• TSU is coming off a season-opening loss at San Francisco on Monday night. The Tigers  had two big runs in both halves to get close but USF answered with runs of its own to pull away at the end.

• Despite both teams located in the same state, this marks only the second meeting all-time between both teams and first since 2013 as Tech leads 1-0.

• This marks the fifth year for TSU head coach Johnny Jones. TSU made its third consecutive postseason under Jones and second straight NCAA Tournament appearance in 2021-22.  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 will face off against teams from nine Division I conferences in 2022-23. TSU squares off against teams from the WCC, Big 12 (2), Pac-12, Summit, SoCon, American, SEC, Big South and CAA. TSU also hosts a pair of NAIA institutions in December.

• For the first time since 2002, TSU will spend a considerable amount of time at home during non-conference play with four home games during its 2022-23 non-conference schedule.

• TSU head coach Johnny Jones is 8-17 against teams from the Big 12 all-time. He has faced every team in the current lineup of the Big 12 except Iowa State. Jones is 3-2 all-time against Tech as he faced them at North Texas (1-1) and LSU (2-1). Jones last met Tech in 2017 while at LSU.

• Jones is 58-47 all-time in the month of November and 6-17 at TSU.

• For the third straight season, the Texas Southern men’s basketball team was picked to finish first in the Southwestern Athletic Conference while the duo of Karl Nicholas and John Walker III both earned preseason honors. Nicholas was tabbed the SWAC’s Preseason Defensive Player of the Year.