Tulsa Takes to the Road for Matchup at Illinois State on Saturday

Saturday, December 2

Normal, Ill.

3 PM

Tulsa

Illinois State

Tulsa Takes to the Road for Matchup at Illinois State on Saturday

11/30/2017 2:09:00 PM | Men's Basketball

GAME #8 ... TULSA GOLDEN HURRICANE (4-3) vs. ILLINOIS STATE REDBIRDS (3-4)
Date/Time:	Saturday • Dec. 2 • 3 p.m.
Site:	Redbird Arena (10,200) • Normal, Ill.
Coaches:	Tulsa – Frank Haith (Elon '88), 4th year Illinois State – Dan Muller (Illinois State '98), 6th year
TV:	ESPN3 (Kurt Pegler and Bob Morris)
Radio:	Big Country 99.5 FM (Bruce Howard and J.R. Rollo)
Live Stats:	Live Stats
Series:	Tulsa leads, 18-16
Twitter:	@TUMBasketball \| @TulsaHurricane
Instagram:	TulsaMBasketball
Game Notes:	Tulsa

TULSA, Okla. — Tulsa will play its first true road game of the 2017-18 season when it travels to Normal, Ill., for a 3 p.m. matchup on Saturday, Dec. 2, at Illinois State.

The Golden Hurricane (4-3) is coming off a 100-96 win over UTSA on Tuesday night in the program's 300th game at the Donald W. Reynolds Center. Junior Etou led the way with 20 points for his third game of at least 20 this season. Sterling Taplin added 18 for Tulsa, which saw all 10 players that entered the game score and grab at least one rebound.

After hitting the century mark for the first time since 2013, TU ranks third in the American Athletic Conference in scoring (82.3 ppg) and shooting percentage (.486). The squad's 82.4 ppg also ranks 65th in the nation.

Meanwhile, the Redbirds (3-4) are coming off a 98-68 setback at Nevada on Wednesday night as part of the Mountain West-Missouri Valley Challenge. Keyshawn Evans leads the team and ranks second in the MVC by averaging 21.6 ppg, while Phil Fayne is averaging 16.6 points and a team-leading 6.7 rebounds per contest.

Tulsa leads the all-time series against Illinois State, 18-16, and this will mark the second straight season that the teams will meet twice. The programs split a pair of games in 2016-17 and the Redbirds took an 84-68 win in the third place game of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off at Myrtle Beach on Nov. 19.

Saturday's contest can be seen on ESPN3 or NBC Sports Chicago +. Fans in the Tulsa area can catch the action on Big Country 99.5 FM with Bruce Howard and J.R. Rollo on the call. Their broadcast also can be found on tulsahurricane.com or on the TuneIn app.

Fast Break Points
• Tulsa is in its 107th season of basketball and fourth season in the American Athletic Conference.
• Tulsa will play its first true road game of the 2017-18 campaign when it travels to Normal, Ill., for a matchup against Illinois State at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 2.
• TU leads the all-time series against the Redbirds, 18-16. Illinois State owns a 10-5 advantage at home and the Redbirds took an 84-68 neutral site win on Nov. 19 at the Puerto Rico Tip-Off at Myrtle Beach.
• Tulsa is coming off a 100-96 win over UTSA on Tuesday night at the Reynolds Center. Junior Etou led a balanced attack with 20 points, while Sterling Taplin added 18. All 10 players that checked into the game scored and had at least one rebound.
• Tuesday's win marked the first time that TU had scored 100 points in regulation against a Division I opponent since a 104-61 victory over Grambling State on Nov. 19, 2001.
• Junior Etou leads the team at 17.7 ppg and 6.1 rpg and those marks rank sixth and 13th in The American, respectively. The senior also ranks fifth in the circuit with a .593 field goal percentage.
• Tulsa is shooting 48.6-percent from the floor, which ranks third in The American and 65th in the nation. TU has shot at least 45-percent in six of its seven contests, including four games of at least 50-percent shooting.
• The Hurricane also rank third in the conference by averaging 82.3 ppg. Tulsa has scored at least 78 points in five of its seven games this season and is coming off a 100-point performance on Tuesday.
• Sterling Taplin is second on the team in scoring at 14.6 ppg to go along with a team-high 3.9 assists per outing. He is the only TU player to start and score in double-figures every game this season.
• Tulsa was picked to finish eighth in The American Preseason Poll. TU has finished better than its preseason prediction in all three previous seasons under head coach Frank Haith.

Notes
The Game
• Tulsa will play its first true road game of the season when it travels to Normal, Ill., for a 3 p.m. matchup at Illinois State on Saturday, Dec. 2.
• Saturday's game can be seen on ESPN3 and NBC Sports Chicago +, while fans in the Tulsa area can tune to Big Country 99.5 FM with Bruce Howard and former Hurricane player J.R. Rollo calling the action. Live audio from the game also can be found on tulsahurricane.com or by using the TuneIn app.

The Series
• Saturday's contest will mark the 35th all-time meeting between the Golden Hurricane and the Redbirds and TU leads the series 18-16. This is the second straight season that the teams will meet twice after splitting a pair of matchups last season.
• The teams were members of the Missouri Valley Conference together from 1981-96.
• Tulsa's last win at Redbird Arena came on Feb. 1, 1992, when the Hurricane claimed a 67-66 overtime victory.

Scouting the Redbirds
• Illinois State returns just five letterwinners and one starter from last year's team that went 28-7 and tied for first in the Missouri Valley with a 17-1 record. The squad defeated UC Irvine before a one-point loss to UCF in the NIT.
• The Redbirds are led by Keyshawn Evans, who ranks second in the MVC with a 21.6 ppg scoring average, while Phil Fayne ranks sixth in the circuit at 16.6 ppg.
• Picked fourth in the preseason MVC poll, Illinois State is 3-4 and coming off a 98-68 loss at Nevada on Wednesday.

Last Time Out
• Junior Etou led four players in double-figures with 20 points as Tulsa withstood a late flurry of 3-pointers to defeat UTSA, 100-96, on Tuesday night in the men's basketball program's 300th game at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.
• Sterling Taplin tied a season-high with 18 points to help a balanced TU offense as all 10 players that saw the floor scored and pulled down at least one rebound.
• TU also registered a season-best 47 rebounds and held a 47-27 advantage on the glass.
• TU hit the century mark in regulation against a Division I opponent for the first time since a 104-61 win over Grambling State on Nov. 19, 2001.

Sharp Shooting
• TU is shooting 48.6-percent from the floor to rank third in the American Athletic Conference and 65th in the nation. The squad has shot better than 45-percent in six of the team's seven games, including at least 50-percent in four contests.
• DaQuan Jeffries ranks fourth in the league by shooting 61.1-percent (33-of-54), while Junior Etou ranks sixth at 59.3-percent. In all, seven players are shooting better than 45-percent this season.
• The team's hot shooting has helped the offense rank third in the circuit by averaging 82.3 ppg. TU has scored at least 78 points in all but two contests.

Haith Enters Fourth Season at TU
• Head coach Frank Haith is in his fourth season at Tulsa, where he has compiled a 62-43 record and made a pair of postseason appearances during his tenure. Overall, he has an on-court record of 267-172 in his 14th season.
• Haith has led the Golden Hurricane to a pair of 20-win seasons and postseason appearances (2015 NCAA Tournament, 2016 NIT) during his first three seasons.
• With a win over No. 9 Wichita State in 2015-16, he led TU to its first win over a top-10 squad since 2000. Later that season, TU won at No. 16 SMU for its first road win against a top-16 program since 1981.

Haith in Exclusive Coaching Company
• Head coach Frank Haith is the only active Division I coach to take teams in four of the Power 6 conferences to the NCAA Tournament. Haith guided Tulsa (The American) to the Big Dance in 2015, Missouri (SEC) in 2013, Missouri (Big 12) in 2012 and Miami (ACC) in 2008.
• In addition, Haith is one of just 20 active coaches that have taken at least three different teams to the NCAA Tournament.
• Haith will face three other coaches on that list this season when TU matches up against Tubby Smith (Memphis), Kelvin Sampson (Houston) and Bruce Weber (Kansas State).

Tulsa's Success in The American
• Since joining the American Athletic Conference prior to the 2014-15 season, the Golden Hurricane has posted 34 league wins, which is tied with Temple for third-most in the circuit.
• Only SMU (44 wins) and Cincinnati (41 wins) have earned more victories than Tulsa's 34, which tops UConn (30) and Memphis (27) along with five other conference programs.
• TU has finished better than its preseason prediction in each of Haith's three seasons. The Golden Hurricane was picked to finish eighth in the conference prior to the 2017-18 season.

Etou Named Preseason Second-Team American Athletic Conference
• Senior forward Junior Etou was named preseason second-team American Athletic Conference in a vote by the league's head coaches.
• Last season, Etou led the Golden Hurricane in scoring (12.6 ppg) and rebounding (6.7 rpg) and was the only player to start all 32 games. He was even better in conference play as he averaged 13.4 ppg and 6.9 rpg.
• So far in 2017-18, Etou leads the Hurricane in scoring (17.7 ppg) and rebounding (6.1 rpg). Those marks rank fifth and 14th in the conference, respectively.
• Etou has scored in double-figures six times, including three games of at least 20 points.

Look Who's Back
• Tulsa returns eight letterwinners, including four starters, and 72-percent of its offense from last season's team.
• Returning starters include senior forward Junior Etou (32 starts), sophomore forward Martins Igbanu (17), junior guard Sterling Taplin (30) and senior guard Jaleel Wheeler (29).
• Other returners include junior forward Geno Artison, senior guard Corey Henderson Jr., sophomore guard Lawson Korita and junior forward Alex Foree.
• In all, Tulsa returns 68.8-percent of its minutes, 66.9-percent of its rebounding, 79.8-percent of its assists and 65.5-percent of its steals.

New Faces
• Along with the eight returning letterwinners, Tulsa has five newcomers, four of which made their debut in the season opener against Lamar.
• The newcomers eligible for 2017-18 are sophomore guard Curran Scott, junior guard/forward DaQuan Jeffries, freshman guard Darien Jackson and freshman guard Elijah Joiner. Sophomore forward Jeriah Horne will sit out the season after transferring from Nebraska.
• Scott redshirted the 2016-17 season after transferring from Charlotte, where he averaged 10.3 ppg as a freshman in 2015-16. He practiced with the Golden Hurricane last season.
• TU's four newcomers have totaled 206 points (29.4 ppg), led by 85 points (12.1 ppg) from DaQuan Jeffries.

Tulsa Enters 20th Season at the Reynolds Center
• After hosting the first TU men's basketball game on Dec. 29, 1998, the Golden Hurricane will play its 20th season in the Donald W. Reynolds Center this year.
• Tulsa has posted an overall record of 229-71 (.763) in its 19+ seasons, including a 3-1 mark this season.
• The building has seen 41 sellouts and 1,804,730 fans have witnessed Tulsa basketball at the Reynolds Center.

Offense Shines In Exhibition Wins
• Tulsa improved to 66-2 all-time in exhibition games, including a run of 37 consecutive victories, with wins over Northwestern Oklahoma State (96-65) and Missouri S&T (113-56) prior to the start of the 2017-18 season.
• TU put up impressive numbers in the wins as the team averaged 104.5 points and shot 56.6-percent from the floor, including 46.9-percent from behind the arc. Tulsa also recorded 46 assists to just 21 turnovers and out-rebounded its two opponents by a combined total of 99-46.
• Five players averaged in double-figures during exhibition play, led by Junior Etou's 17.0 ppg. Joining him were Corey Henderson Jr. (16.0 ppg), DaQuan Jeffries (12.5 ppg), Curran Scott (12.5 ppg) and Geno Artison (11.5 ppg).
• TU made 20 3-pointers in the win over Missouri S&T (the program's regular-season record for a game is 18), with half of that total coming from Henderson (6) and Artison (4).

TU Adds Three in the Early Signing Period
• Tulsa has signed three student-athletes — Chris Barnes, Peter Hewitt and Zeke Moore — to National Letters of Intent during the early signing period.
• All three signees are enrolled at junior colleges and will have three years of eligibility at TU.
• Barnes is a 6-foot-4 guard from Compton, Calif., who played his freshman season at UTEP. He appeared in 16 games for the Miners after earning all-conference honors as a senior at Compton HS. He is redshirting this season at Angelina College.
• Peter Hewitt is a 6-foot-10 forward from Mountain View, Calif., who redshirted last season at UC Davis. He currently plays for Las Positas College and he has helped the team average 99.0 ppg and start 3-0 this season. Hewitt was a three-year letterwinner at Saint Francis High School and led the Lancers to a pair of West Coast Athletic League titles.
• Zeke Moore is a 6-foot-7 guard from St. Louis, Mo., who played his freshman season at Saint Louis. He saw action in 29 games and averaged 5.3 points and 2.0 rebounds before transferring to Southwest Illinois CC, where he is redshirting this season. Moore was a standout at Riverview Gardens HS for his father, head caoch Gerard Moore, and he averaged 21.1 ppg as a senior.

Season Tickets Available Now
• Season tickets for Tulsa's full home schedule are on sale now.
• A four-game Mini-Plan also is available, which features four American Athletic Conference matchups (Jan. 3 vs. UConn; Jan. 13 vs. Wichita State; Feb. 1 vs. SMU; March 4 vs. Temple).
• Additionally, discounted group tickets are available to groups of 15 or more and fans also can purchase an All-Sport FlexBook, which allows flexibility in attending games for basketball, football and ticketed Olympic sports.
• Fans can purchase tickets in person at the TU Athletics Ticket Office in the Reynolds Center or by calling 918.631.GoTU (4688).

Next Up
• Tulsa will face Kansas State at INTRUST Bank Arena in Wichita, Kan., for the Wichita Wildcat Classic at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 9. The game will be broadcast on FOX Sports Kansas City and ESPN3.