Men’s Basketball To Host UAPB At Home Saturday Night

• Texas Southern finally returns home for its 2022 home opener against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Saturday evening inside the H&PE Arena at 7:30 p.m.

• Saturday’s game will be televised live on AT&T Sportsnet with Butch Alsandor and Lemont Williams calling the action.

• TSU played six games in 15 days to begin the year and has slowed down with only five games over the past 36 days as its last two non-conference games were wiped out due to COVID-19. TSU’s travels started in Oregon, moved to California and then to the states of Washington, Colorado, North Carolina, Utah, Louisiana, Florida, Texas and Louisiana.

• Head coach Johnny Jones hit a career milestone late in 2021 with his 350th career win after the SWAC Tournament semifinal win on March 12. • Jones is 4-2 lifetime against Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

• This marks the fourth year for TSU head coach Johnny Jones. TSU returned to the NCAA Tournament after the 2020-21 season and won its second NCAA Tournament contest in school history. 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 kept its bags packed as the first 11 games on the schedule were on the road. • TSU faced off against teams from seven conferences in 2021-22. TSU squared off against teams from the Pac-12 (2), WCC (2), Mountain West, ACC, Conference USA, SEC and WAC.

• UAPB has won four of the past nine games versus TSU thanks to its home court. UAPB is 7-7 against TSU in Pine Bluff since 2008 as they’re 1-12 in Houston over the past 14 games. 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 as COVID-19 prevented the streak from continuing in 2021.

• Jones is 82-74 all-time in the month of January and 13-7 at TSU.

• TSU was picked to finish first by the Southwestern Athletic Conference while the duo of John Walker III and Justin Hopkins both earned preseason honors. Experience won’t be an issue as four starters return along with eight letterwinners from 2020-21.