West Coast Swing Starts Thursday Night At UCLA For Women’s Basketball

• The Texas Southern women’s basketball team is back in action for a two-game West Coast swing at UCLA on Thursday night and USC on Saturday.

• This marks the first meeting between TSU and UCLA in program history.

• Fourth-year head coach Cynthia Cooper-Dyke is back on the TSU sidelines for the third straight season. She led TSU to the SWAC Regular Season Championship for the first time in school history in 2012-13 in addition to a second-place finish in 2019-20. The team made it to the semifinals of the SWAC Tournament (before COVID-19) in 2020 and a quarterfinals appearance in 2021.

• TSU will keep its bags packed as the first eight games on the schedule are on the road. TSU’s first home contest isn’t until Wednesday, Dec. 22 against Virginia.

• Thursday’s game marks the third contest in eight days for TSU. TSU will have a pair of games in California and was scheduled to play in Louisiana at Tulane next week but the tournament has been canceled due to COVID-19 concerns at Tulane.

• TSU will face off against teams from six conferences in 2021-22. TSU will square off against teams from the Pac-12 (4), ACC, Conference USA, SEC, American and Big 12. TSU is a de facto member of the Pac-12 this year with games at Arizona, Colorado, UCLA and USC.

• Cooper-Dyke is 3-5 against UCLA and head coach Cori Close as Cooper-Dyke faced UCLA while serving as head coach at USC.

• TSU has four players from the state of California on the roster as three hail from the Los Angeles area. Guard Shalexxus Aaron is the lone Californian on the roster who has faced UCLA as she transferred to TSU from USC. TSU assistant Alexis Lloyd also faced UCLA as a player at USC.

• UCLA is 2-0 lifetime against the SWAC with both games against Southern.

• TSU was picked to finish sixth while guard Ataiya Bridges was named to the 2021-22 Preseason All-SWAC Second Team. The Tigers feature a revamped roster with 12 newcomers and five letterwinners returning.