Men’s Basketball Returns To Oregon Saturday Night

• Texas Southern is back in Eugene, Ore. for the third straight year as the Tigers will face No. 8 Oregon Saturday evening inside Matthew Knight Arena.

• This marks the second 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 last season.

• TSU has to replace three key starters from last year’s squad but has several returnees who had made starts last year that will have to step up. Point guard Tyrik Armstong, shooting guard John Jones and forward Eden Ewing will be counted on to lead the charge as Armstrong and Jones are top returning scorers while Ewing is the top returning rebounder.

• Head coach Johnny Jones is 82-46 all-time in the month of December and 3-6 at TSU. 

• Even though Jones has spent 18 years as a head coach, he has only faced three Pac-12 teams as head coach and is 1-4 all-time. He’s 1-0 against Oregon, 0-2 versus Arizona State, 0-1 versus Colorado and 0-1 against USC.

• This marks the third meeting in series history between the teams. Against Oregon head coach Dana Altman, TSU is 1-2 all-time.

• Oregon is 14-1 all-time against the SWAC as the only teams they haven’t faced are Alabama A&M and Southern. Oregon’s Dana Altman is 25-1 all-time against the SWAC.

• TSU was picked second in the Southwestern Athletic Conference preseason poll as senior forward Eden Ewing was named to the All-SWAC Preseason First Team. Ewing was granted a sixth year of eligibility in the summer while forward John Walker III was granted a waiver to participate immediately after spending the past season at Texas A&M University. 

•TSU and Oregon’s brief series has been intense as the scoring margin is 11.3 points between both teams. The last two games have been decided by a total of 11 points.

• Three of TSU’s first three opponents (San Diego State, Wichita State, Arkansas) are ranked in the Ken Pomeroy Basketball Ratings Top 40 and three of the final four non-conference opponents are also ranked in the top 100 (Nevada, Oregon, Arizona State, Texas A&M).