Tigers To Face Air Force Wednesday Night

• The Texas Southern Tigers continue their road swing Wednesday night in Colorado Spring, Colo. against Air Force of the Mountain West Conference.

• This marks the fourth contest in eight days for TSU as the trip started in Oregon, moved to California and then to the state of Washington before embarking to Colorado.

• 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. 

• 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 will keep its bags packed as the first 13 games on the schedule are on the road. TSU’s first home contest isn’t until Saturday, Jan. 8.

• TSU will face off against teams from nine conferences in 2021-22. TSU will square off against teams from the Pac-12 (2), WCC (2), Mountain West, ACC, Conference USA, SEC, WAC, American and Big 12.

• Air Force is 21-1 against the SWAC all-time as Jackson State has the only win. They’ve played every team in the league except Alabama A&M, Alabama State, Southern and Bethune-Cookman.

• Even though Johnny Jones has spent 21 years as a head coach, he has only faced four Mountain West teams as head coach and is 1-5 all-time. He’s 0-2 against Boise State, 0-2 versus San Diego State, 0-1 against Nevada and 1-0 versus Wyoming. Jones spent one season (2017-18) at Nevada as the team’s Associate Head Coach and faced Air Force once as Nevada claimed the win.

• 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.

• Head coach Johnny Jones is 58-44 all-time in the month of November and 6-14 at TSU.