Tulsa Men's Basketball Hosts Memphis Tigers on Wednesday

TULSA BASKETBALL

Tulsa Hosts Tubby Smith's Memphis Tigers on Wednesday

GAME #15 ... TULSA GOLDEN HURRICANE (7-7, 1-1 AAC) vs. MEMPHIS TIGERS (12-4, 2-1 AAC)
Date/Time:	Wednesday • January 11, 2017 • 7:05 p.m. (CT)
Site:	Donald W. Reynolds Center (8,355), Tulsa, Okla.
Coaches:	Tulsa – Frank Haith (Elon '88), 3rd year Memphis – Tubby Smith (High Point '73), 1st year
TV:	ESPNews (Dave LaMont and Bryndon Manzer)
Radio:	Big Country 99.5 FM (Bruce Howard and J.R. Rollo)
Live Stats:	Live Stats
Series:	Memphis leads 25-15
Twitter:	@TUMBasketball \| @TulsaHurricane
Instagram:	TulsaMBasketball
Game Notes:	Tulsa I Memphis

THE GAME . . .
•   The Tulsa Golden Hurricane (7-7) has had a week off since its first road American Athletic Conference game last Wednesday at Houston
•   Memphis is off to a 12-4 start and 2-1 in AAC play . . . the Tigers lost their first league game against SMU before rebounding to defeat UConn (70-61) and Tulane (80-59).
•   Tulsa and Memphis have been in three different conferences as co-members – Missouri Valley Conference, Conference USA and now the American Athletic Conference.

THE SERIES . . .
•   This is the 41st meeting between Tulsa and Memphis.
•   The Tigers lead the series 25-15, including an 11-6 record in Tulsa . . . five of Tulsa's losses at home occurred when Memphis was ranked in the top-20.
•   Memphis has won the last two meetings after Tulsa had won two consecutive games.
•   Tulsa's last win in the series came in Memphis in overtime, 74-72, on Feb. 28, 2015.
•   The last Tulsa win at home came on Jan. 21, 2015 by a score of 73-55.

TULSA IN THE AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE . . .
•   Tulsa is in its third season as a member of the American Athletic Conference, after finishing its first year in second-place and placing in a tie for third-place a year ago.
•   Tulsa has an overall 27-11 record in its third season of American play.
•   Tulsa had league records of 14-4 in 2014-15 and 12-6 in 2015-16.
•   In the preseason coaches poll, Tulsa was picked to finish ninth in the league, while Memphis was selected to finish in fifth place . . . Cincinnati was picked first in the preseason poll.

COACH HAITH GETS 50th WIN AT TULSA . . .
•   While capturing its American Athletic Conference-opening win over UConn this year, it was also the 50th win for Frank Haith as the Tulsa head coach.
•   Haith now has a 50-30 record in his third season as the Hurricane head coach.
•   In his first two years, Haith led Tulsa to over 20 wins both years, including 23 in his first year and 20 victories a year ago.
•   Haith averaged 21.5 wins in his first two years, while leading Tulsa to an NIT in 2014 and the NCAAs in 2015.

LAST TIME OUT . . .
•   It was a game that came down to the last seconds as Houston held on for a 64-61 win over the Tulsa at the Hofheinz Pavilion in Houston.
• Houston connected on its final seven free throws in the final 1:37 overcoming a 59-57 deficit, as Tulsa was held to just two free throws over that final stretch.
•   Corey Henderson led the Hurricane with 16 points in 19 minutes off the bench.
•   Henderson hit two free throws with 0:13 remaining to pull the Hurricane to within one point at 62-61. A quick foul put Houston's Wes VanBeck to the line, where he converted both freebies.
•   Henderson's 3-point attempt in traffic to tie the game at 0:05 was blocked.
• Tulsa's free throw shooting, converting 20-of-22 from the line for a season-best 91-percent, and its' three-pointers on 7-of-13 kept the Hurricane in the lead for a good portion of the contest.

TULSA'S LAST HOME GAME . . .
•   Pat Birt scored nine of Tulsa's final 13 points, including three in overtime, as the Golden Hurricane pulled out a 61-59 win over the UConn Huskies to close out 2016 in a New Years Eve day game.
•   After going 0-of-6 from three-point range, Birt knocked down his first 3-pointer with 3:14 to play, breaking a 48-48 tie to put Tulsa ahead 51-48, and his second trey with 1:33 left made it 54-54.
•   With UConn leading 56-54, Jaleel Wheeler scored a game-tying driving layup with 0:07 left in regulation to force overtime.
•   Birt and Sterling Taplin shared Tulsa's scoring honors with 13 points apiece, while Taplin added six assists and two steals.
• After shooting over 50-percent from the field and 60-percent from three-point range in the first half, UConn cooled down in the second half and ended the game converting 40-percent from the field and 32-percent from three-point range.

FAMILIAR FACES . . .
•   The Memphis coaching staff has a couple of familiar faces from Tulsa basketball history – Head Coach Tubby Smith and assistant coach Alvin "Pooh" Williamson.
•   Smith coached Tulsa from 1991-92 through the 1994-95 season, compiling a 79-43 record.
•   He took his final two Tulsa teams (1993-94) the farthest a Hurricane team had reached into the NCAA Tournament, taking both the 1994 and 1995 teams to the "Sweet Sixteen".
•   Williamson, from Beggs, Okla., was one Smith's early recruits and was the starting point guard on those two NCAA teams, ending his career with 844 points (7.2 ppg) and 277 assists (2.3 apg) while starting 63 of 118 career games.
•   Smith's prize recruit during his tenure at Tulsa is current Hurricane Assistant Coach Shea Seals.
•   Seals, who went on to become the school's all-time leading scorer and a senior All-American, played on Smith's 1993-94 and '94-95 teams before Smith left for the University of Georgia.

HENDERSON TAKES HIS TURN . . .
•   Junior transfer Corey Henderson scored a career-high 16 points on 4-of-10 from the field, 3-of-6 from 3-point range and 5-of-5 from the free throw line at Houston.
•   It was Henderson's fourth double-figure scoring game and his first in the last eight games.
•   He became the sixth Tulsa player to lead the Hurricane in scoring in at least one game this year.
•   Henderson averages 7.1 points in 19.6 minutes per game this season.

BENCH SCORING . . .
•   Tulsa's bench has averaged 25.8 points (361) in 14 games this season, while the opponents average 16.0 points (224) off the bench.
•   Tulsa's bench has outscored all but three of its opponents this year – Wichita State (52-20), Oklahoma State (26-14) and San Diego State (15-12).
•   The bench is scoring 38.2 percent of Tulsa's points, while the opposition has 23.4 percent scoring from the bench.
•   Remove a 52 to 20 scoring performance by Wichita State's bench over Tulsa's and the opponent scores only 13.6 percent bench points.
•   Tulsa's bench has scored over 30 points 6 times this year –– 33 vs. Jacksonville State, 35 vs. New Orleans, 35 at ORU, 30 at Little Rock, 34 vs. Texas State and 42 vs. Stephen F. Austin.
•   Tulsa's largest margin in bench scoring is 34 points, which has occurred twice . . . Tulsa outscored the ORU bench 35-1 and the Texas State bench 34-0.
•   In Tulsa's last outing, Tulsa's bench out-scored Houston's bench 28-8.

BETTER FROM THE LINE . . .
•     After the first 3 games, Tulsa was shooting just 55.2-percent from the free throw line (37-of-67).
•     In Tulsa's last 11 games, Tulsa is shooting 74.1 percent from the line (166-of-224), improving its season average from .552 to .698.
•     Tulsa has knocked down 82.6 percent of its free throws (71-of-86) over the last four games .
•     After the poor free throw shooting in the first three games, Tulsa went the next three games hitting 75.9 percent from the line (44-of-58), including 13-of-16 at ORU for a percentage of .813 in that third game.
•   Tulsa connected on a season-best .909 from the line (20-of-22) against Houston.

Tulsa Men's Basketball Hosts Memphis Tigers on Wednesday

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Players Mentioned

Pat Birt

Sterling Taplin

Jaleel Wheeler

Tulsa Men's Basketball Hosts Memphis Tigers on Wednesday

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