TSU Basketball Teams To Host Alcorn State Saturday Afternoon
The TSU men’s and women’s basketball teams are back at home today for a big battle against Alcorn State beginning at 3 p.m. inside the H&PE Arena.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
• Texas Southern women’s basketball is looking for its second win of the year as they’ll host Alcorn State
• Vernette Skeete earned her first win at the helm of the Texas Southern University women’s basketball team as her Tigers cruised past Mississippi Valley State University 77-61 on Monday evening.
• TSU freshman guard Micah Gray was named the SWAC Women’s Basketball Player of the Week for her efforts this past weekend against Mississippi Valley State and Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Gray had a strong weekend as she posted the best Texas Southern women’s basketball scoring performance in a decade with a 41-point outing at Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Saturday. She followed up that performance with 24 points during the team’s first win at Mississippi Valley State on Monday night. For the week, she averaged 32.5 points per game, shot 51.1 percent overall from the field and 50 percent from the three-point line. Gray also averaged 3.5 rebounds and 2.5 steals while going 8-for-9 from the free throw line.
• Micah Gray is averaging 27.5 points per game in the SWAC.
• Andriana Avent was named the SWAC Player of the Week on Nov. 30 after recording double-digits against Rice (22) and Ole Miss (13). She surpassed the 500-point career mark at TSU in the loss against Ole Miss.
• TSU head coach Vernette Skeete inherits a program which finished 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.
• 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.
MEN’S BASKETBALL
• Texas Southern is back in action Saturday evening for a key contest versus Alcorn State at 5 p.m. inside the H&PE Arena.
• The injury bug has infected TSU in a big way as the team has been down two key starters since starting SWAC play in January. As a result, TSU has dropped four straight contests and has began SWAC play 0-4 for the first time since 1963.
• Grad student Karl Nicholas is red hot as he has posted four double-doubles over the past seven games.
• TSU’s 25-game win streak over ASU came to an end in January of 2020 as ASU started a two-game streak in 2020. TSU broke the streak last season with two wins but ASU swept the season series in 2022 as both games came down to the wire. However, TSU got the last laugh with a win in the SWAC Tournament Championship.
• Head coach Johnny Jones is 5-4 lifetime against Alcorn State and 3-2 against ASU’s Landon Bussie.
• 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 87-80 all-time in the month of January and 18-13 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.
Courtesy: TSUSports.com
