Friday, March 10
Hartford, Conn.
6:00 pm
Tulsa
vs
Cincinnati
Tulsa in Quarterfinal Action Against #2-Seed Cincinnati Tonight
3/10/2017 9:30:00 AM | Men's Basketball
TULSA BASKETBALL
Tulsa in Quarterfinal Action Against #2-Seed Cincinnati Tonight
| GAME #32 ... TULSA GOLDEN HURRICANE (15-16, 8-10 AAC) vs. CINCINNATI BEARCATS (27-4, 16-2 AAC) AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP • QUARTERFINAL ROUND |
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| Date/Time: | Friday • March 10, 2017 • 7:00 p.m. (ET)/6:00 p.m. (CT) |
| Site: | XL Center (15,564) • Hartford, CT |
| Coaches: | Tulsa – Frank Haith (Elon '88), 3rd year Cincinnati – Mick Cronin (Cincinnati '97) 11th year |
| TV: | ESPNU (Allen Bestwick and Tim Welsh) |
| Radio: | Big Country 99.5 FM (Bruce Howard and J.R. Rollo) |
| Live Stats: | No Live Scoring |
| Series: | Cincinnati leads 25-11 |
| Twitter: | @TUMBasketball | @TulsaHurricane |
| Instagram: | TulsaMBasketball |
| Game Notes: | Tulsa I Cincinnati |
THE GAME . . .
• The No. 7-seed Tulsa Golden Hurricane (15-16, 8-10 AAC) will face the #2-seed Cincinnati Bearcats in Quarterfinal action on Friday, after Tulsa defeated Tulane 66-60 in first round play of the American Athletic Conference Championship Thursday.
• It's the third time this season that Tulsa and Cincinnati will meet.
• Tulsa took the Bearcats to the wire at home, losing 57-55, on Feb. 1, then lost in Cincinnati by a score of 80-60.
THE SERIES . . .
• This is the 37th meeting between Tulsa and Cincinnati.
• The Bearcats lead the series 25-11, and won the two earlier meetings this year
• The two teams have played twice before on a neutral court with Tulsa winning both of those contests . . . Tulsa won the second game in the series in Oklahoma City, 76-70, in the All-College Classic in December 1953 . . . Tulsa also defeated Cincinnati 69-61 in Nashville at the 2000 NCAA Tournament Second Round.
TULSA IN THE AMERICAN TOURNAMENT . . .
• This is the third American Athletic Conference Championship that Tulsa will be a participant as this is the third season that Tulsa has been a league member . . . Tulsa has a 2-2 tournament record in The American.
• Tulsa was 1-1 in its' inaugural season of 2014-15, defeating Houston 59-51, then losing to UConn in the semifinals, 47-42, in Hartford.
• The Hurricane lost a quarterfinal game last year against Memphis, 89-67, then evened the series record this year with a 66-60 win over Tulane.
• This was the first season that Tulsa played in a first round game in the American Athletic Conference Championship.
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 34-20 regular season record in its third season of American play, which in the last three years is tied for the third-best league mark behind SMU (44-9) and Cincinnati (41-12) . . . Tulsa is tied with Temple (34-20), while UConn has a 30-24 over the last three seasons.
• Tulsa had league records of 14-4 in 2014-15 and 12-6 in 2015-16 . . . Tulsa finished 8-10 in The American this season.
• In the preseason coaches poll, Tulsa was picked to finish 9th in the league . . . this year, Tulsa has defeated teams picked above them –– UConn (2nd), Memphis (5th), Temple (6th), East Carolina (7th) and UCF(8th).
TULSA IN CONFERENCE TOURNAMENTS . . .
• Tulsa has an overall 53-31 record in conference tournaments, combining the record in the Missouri Valley Conference, Western Athletic Conference, Conference USA and The American.
• The Hurricane has a .631 winning percentage for all conference tournament games, and has won a conference tournament six times . . . the Hurricane has an overall 6-10 mark in conference tournament title games . . . Tulsa has played in a conference tournament semifinal game 26 times (13 in MVC, 6 in WAC, 6 in C-USA, and one in AAC) and has posted a 16-10 mark in 26 semifinal matchups.
• Tulsa is 2-2 in American Athletic Conference tournament games.
• In nine years in the Conference USA tournament, Tulsa had a 13-8 record . . . the Hurricane won the 2014 C-USA Tournament . . . TU played in two straight C-USA Championship games, in 2008 and 2009 . . . Tulsa made it to the C-USA semifinals in six of its final seven years, and the finals three times.
• Tulsa participated in 19 of 20 Missouri Valley Conference postseason tournaments while a member of the league . . . upon leaving the MVC after the 1995-96 season, Tulsa had the most victories in the MVC Tournament (25) since the event began in 1977 . . . the Hurricane had a 25-15 record in the MVC Tournament for a .625 winning percentage . . . Tulsa won four MVC Tournament Championships (1982, 1984, 1986 and 1996), which tied Creighton and Southern Illinois at the time for most tournament titles . . . Tulsa played in the MVC Championship game nine times and had a 4-5 record.
• Tulsa played in nine Western Athletic Conference postseason tournaments and had a 12-8 record . . . Tulsa made the WAC Championship game four straight seasons ––2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003 . . . Tulsa lost in the title game the first three years, but defeated Nevada, 75-64, to claim the 2003 WAC crown . . . Tulsa was 0-2 in first round games, 7-1 in the quarterfinals and 4-2 in semifinal action in the WAC Tournament.
THE AMERICAN SCHEDULE . . .
(Game Times are Eastern Time)
FIRST ROUND (Thursday, March 9)
GAME 1: #9 East Carolina 80, #8 Temple 68
GAME 2: #7 Tulsa 66, #10 Tulane 60
GAME 3: #6 UConn 77, #11 USF 66
QUARTERFINALS (Friday, March 10)
GAME 4: #1 SMU vs. #9 East Carolina, 12 pm (ESPN2)
GAME 5: #4 UCF vs. #5 Memphis, 2 pm (ESPN2)
GAME 6: #2 Cincinnati vs. #7 Tulsa, 7 pm (ESPNU)
GAME 7: #3 Houston vs. #6 UConn, 9 pm (ESPNU)
SEMIFINALS (Saturday, March 11)
Game 8: Game #4 winner vs. Game #5 winner, 3 pm (ESPN2)
Game 9: Game #6 winner vs. Game #7 winner, 5 pm (ESPN2)
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME (Sunday, March 12)
Game 8 winner vs. Game 9 winner, 3:15 pm (ESPN)
FROSH IGBANU COMING ON STRONG . . .
• True freshman Martins Igbanu has come on strong as of late, averaging 10.7 points (96) and 5.7 rebounds (51) in the last 9 games.
• In those 9 games, he has shot 53.6% from the field, 62.5% from 3-point range and 64.6% from the free throw line.
• He has had 6 double-digit scoring games in the last 9 games, including the last four contests.
• Igbanu had his first career double-double with career-highs of 19 points and 10 rebounds in the regular season finale at Tulane.
BIRT SHOWING SIGNS . . .
• In the last two games, Pat Birt has shown signs of coming out of a shooting slump that had him hovering around 30-percent shooting from the field and 3-point range.
• Birt has made 56.3-percent of his field goals (9-of-16) and 50-percent of his three-pointers (4-of-8) in the last two games, both against Tulane.
• He had 14 points and 3 rebounds at Tulane in the regular season finale, and totaled a team-high 15 points and added 3 rebounds and 2 assists in The American first round game against Tulane.
• Birt connected on 5-of-9 field goals and 3-of-6 treys last night against Tulane.
QUICK SHOTS . . .
• Tulsa is playing its 106th season of basketball.
• Tulsa features only three players on its roster that appeared in a game at TU prior to this season – Pat Birt, TK Edogi and Sterling Taplin.
• Tulsa graduated 9 seniors after last year's 20-12 season and NCAA tournament appearance, including losing 81-percent of its scoring and 78-percent of its rebounding.
• Tulsa has 10 newcomers to its roster, including two juniors, three sophomores and five freshmen.
• Tulsa has used 9 different starting lineups this year.
• Ten players have made their Tulsa debuts this season . . . they have accounted for 66.4 percent of Tulsa's total points, scoring 1,392 of Tulsa's 2,097 points.
• Tulsa has out-rebounded 17 opponents this season, winning 10 of those games . . . among those 16 games, Tulsa has had 8 double-digit rebounding margins, including a high of 21 more than ORU.
• After allowing its first two opponents this season to average 82.0 points, both losses, Tulsa has held its next 29 opponents to a 66.6 scoring average.
• Tulsa has had 7 different players lead the Hurricane in scoring in at least one game this year.
THE LAST TIME OUT . . .
• After losing in the regular season finale at Tulane by 12 points, Tulsa turned around in a first round game of the American Athletic Conference tournament for a 66-60 win over that same Tulane team.
• Pat Birt led the Golden Hurricane with 15 points on 5-for-9 shooting and making three of six three-point shots.
• Tulsa had Tulane down by as many as seven in the second half before the Green Wave took a 48-47 lead with 8:40 to play . . . Tulsa responded with a 13-3 run to take control of the game.
Players Mentioned
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