Men’s Basketball Set For Home Opener Thursday Evening

• Texas Southern prepares for its 2023-24 home opener against Samford Thursday night at 6 p.m. inside the H&PE Arena.

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

• This marks the third meeting overall and second consecutive time both teams will meet. The series is tied at 1-1 all-time as both teams also met in 1996.

• 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 is back to a road-heavy non-conference schedule with nine consecutive road/neutral games to open the season. The first contest at home isn’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.

• Even though TSU head coach Johnny Jones has spent 23 years as a head coach, he has only faced one team from the Southern Conference and that was Samford last season as he’s 0-1 all-time against the league.

• Both TSU and Samford have common opponents in Purdue, Alabama State, Alabama A&M and North Carolina A&T State.

• 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 89-56 all-time in the month of December and 11-16 at TSU.