Regular Season Finale At Prairie View A&M On Tap For TSU Basketball Saturday Afternoon

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
• TSU women’s basketball closes out the 2023 season on the road against SWAC rival Prairie View A&M live on HBCU GO at 12:30 p.m.

• Freshman Donterria Brown recorded TSU’s first double-double of the season on Saturday against Florida A&M on Feb. 4. Brown led the team in points (12) and rebounds (10).

• Andriana Avent and Micah Gray have combined to win SWAC Player of the Week five times this season.

• Micah Gray has seven of the SWAC’s top 25 scoring performances including the highest with a 41-point performance at UAPB.

• TSU head coach Vernette Skeete inherits a program which fined fourth in the SWAC last season and fell in the first round of the 2022 SWAC Tournament on a late putback. This year’s roster, which has been picked to finish eighth in the SWAC, is drastically different with nine newcomers and six returnees. Six of the nine newcomers are true freshmen.

• TSU has dropped two straight to Prairie View A&M and three of the past five.

• Andriana Avent is TSU’s lone All-SWAC returnee as she was a scoring machine for TSU during her first season. She averaged 18.1 points in 23 games played. Avent has scored in double figures in 24 consecutive games dating back to the non-conference finale at USC on Dec. 18, 2021. Avent had nine games with 20-plus points, including four with 30-plus including a season-high 35 against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Jan. 8.

• TSU has faced off against teams from seven conferences in 2022-23. TSU will square off against teams from the American (2), Sun Belt (1), Conference USA (2), SEC (2), WAC (2), ACC and Pac-12.

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MEN’S BASKETBALL
• TSU closes out the 2022-23 regular season on the road at SWAC rival Prairie View A&M Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m.

• The injury bug infected TSU during the first half in a big way as the team was down two key starters in every SWAC game until Jan. 16. TSU has slowly recovered since having everyone back and are now locked in a seventh-place tie with Bethune-Cookman as only eight seeds are available for the upcoming SWAC Tournament. With only one game left, a TSU win along with a Bethune-Cookman win against Florida A&M creates a three-way tie for sixth as TSU would clinch the sixth seed due to having two wins over PVAMU and BCU. BCU should gain the seventh seed due to the head-to-head win over PVAMU. A TSU loss and Bethune-Cookman win drops TSU to the No. 8 seed or another scenario could happen where both TSU and Bethune-Cookman loses and either both Alabama State and UAPB wins or one of them wins which creates a three-way or four-way tie. If that occurs, TSU still comes out ahead due to having the best record amongst all tied teams.

• TSU head coach Johnny Jones is 5-6 lifetime against Prairie View A&M and PVAMU’s Byron Smith, a former assistant at TSU in 2009-10.

• Since 2013, TSU is 15-8 against PVAMU but has won three of the past four games against the Panthers. TSU, which won at PVAMU last year, has not won two straight in Prairie View since 2004 and 2005/ Since 1997, TSU is 9-15 at Prairie View and has lost 14 of the past 21 in Prairie View.

• TSU’s Karl Nicholas joined the 1,000-point club in early February. He’s the second Tiger on the team (John Walker III) to have surpassed the mark this season.

• 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 has faced 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 hosted a pair of NAIA institutions in December.

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

• Jones is 51-33 all-time in the month of March and 22-7 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.