Saturday, February 11
5 p.m.
Tulsa
vs
Houston
Tulsa Hosts Houston on Saturday at 5 pm
2/10/2017 1:47:00 PM | Men's Basketball
TULSA BASKETBALL
Tulsa Hosts Houston on Saturday at 5 pm
| GAME #24 ... TULSA GOLDEN HURRICANE (12-11, 6-5 AAC) vs. HOUSTON COUGARS (17-7, 8-4 AAC) | |
|---|---|
| Date/Time: | Saturday • February 11, 2017 • 5:00 p.m. (CT) |
| Site: | Donald W. Reynolds Center (8,355), Tulsa, Okla. |
| Coaches: | Tulsa – Frank Haith (Elon '88), 3rd year Houston – Kelvin Sampson (UNC Pembroke '78), 3rd year |
| TV: | ESPNU (Allen Bestwick and Tim Welsh) |
| Radio: | Big Country 99.5 FM (Bruce Howard and J.R. Rollo) |
| Live Stats: | Live Stats |
| Series: | Tulsa leads 27-23 |
| Twitter: | @TUMBasketball | @TulsaHurricane |
| Instagram: | TulsaMBasketball |
| Game Notes: | Tulsa I Houston |
THE GAME . . .
• The Tulsa Golden Hurricane (12-11, 6-5 AAC) returns home to host the Houston Cougars (17-7, 8-4) . . . Tulsa fell at Memphis on Tuesday, while Houston won at Tulane on Wednesday
• Houston won the earlier meeting between the two teams at home by a score of 64-61.
THE SERIES . . .
• This is the 51st meeting between Tulsa and Houston.
• Tulsa leads the series 27-23.
• Houston won the earlier meeting this season in Houston by a score of 64-61 on January 4.
• Tulsa has a 15-8 home record against the Cougars, including a current seven-game winning streak in the series.
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 32-15 record in its third season of American play, which in the last three years is the third best league mark behind SMU (39-9) and Cincinnati (36-11).
• 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 9th in the league . . . this year, Tulsa has defeated teams picked above them –– UConn (2nd), Memphis (5th), Temple (6th) and UCF(8th).
FRIENDLY CONFINES OF THE REYNOLDS CENTER . . .
• Since joining the American Athletic Conference for the 2014-15 season, Frank Haith's Hurricane teams have compiled an overall 19-5 home record against league opponents in its three seasons.
• Tulsa posted a 7-2 mark in the 2014-15 campaign, an 8-1 record last year and is 4-2 this year.
• Three of the four home losses have come against nationally-ranked teams, including #23 SMU in 2014-15, #18 SMU in 2015-16 and #14 Cincinnati this season . . . the other losses were to an unranked Cincinnati in 2014-15 and an unranked, but receiving votes to place 27th, SMU team this season.
• Tulsa won 12 straight AAC home games before 2-point loss vs. #14 Cincinnati on Feb. 1, 2017.
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 55-34 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 Tulsa made the NIT in 2014 and NCAAs in 2015.
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 8 different starting lineups through 23 games this year.
• Ten players have made their Tulsa debuts this season . . . they have accounted for 65.8 percent of Tulsa's total points, scoring 1,027 of Tulsa's 1,559 points thru 23 games.
• Tulsa has out-rebounded 13 of its 23 opponents this season, winning 8 of those games . . . among those 13 games, Tulsa has had 7 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 21 opponents to a 67.3 scoring average.
LOOKING AT NUMBERS . . .
• Tulsa held the then14th-ranked Cincinnati to 21.5 points below its season scoring average.
• The Hurricane also shot 40.5 percent from the field against Cincinnati, the nation's second-ranked field goal defensive team.
• Tulsa's 77 points in its win over UCF was the most points allowed this season by UCF, bettering the previous high of 74.
• Tulsa shot 42.6% against a UCF team that came into the contest leading the nation for FG% defense, allowing opponents to just 34.8%.
• Junior TK Edogi is shooting .661 from the field on 59 attempts, while shooting .647 from the free throw line on 34 attempts.
• Edogi has made 15 of his last 21 free throws for a .714 percentage.
• Tulsa is shooting 72.7-percent from the free throw line at home and .731 on the road.
• The Hurricane has a .430 field goal percentage at home, while hitting .406 on the road.
• Sterling Taplin has a 1.4 assist-to-turnover ratio overall this year, and has a 2.3 ratio in home games.
• Tulsa leads the American Athletic Conference in league games with a free throw percentage of .777, and is second for all games at 72.5 percent.
• The last time Tulsa lost three straight games came in the 2013-14 season when the Hurricane lost Games #2, 3 and 4 of the season.
CHARITY STRIPE HAS BEEN KIND TO TULSA . . .
• After the first 3 games, Tulsa was shooting just 55.2-percent from the free throw line (37-of-67).
• In Tulsa's last 20 games, Tulsa is shooting 75.2 percent from the line (333-of-443), improving its season average from .552 to .725.
• Tulsa has hit 78.0 percent of its free throws (238-of-305) in the last 13 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 has hit over 75-percent from the charity stripe in 12 games, including 7 of those games over 80-percent and twice 90+ percent.
TULSA IN ITS' 19TH SEASON AT THE DONALD W. REYNOLDS CENTER . . .
• The 2016-17 season is the 19th for Tulsa in the Donald W. Reynolds Center.
• The Hurricane has posted an overall 224-69 record in their home arena for a .765 winning percentage.
• Tulsa won its 100th game at the Reynolds Center on Jan. 27, 2007 with a 70-66 win over SMU.
• TU won its 200th game at the Reynolds Center on Feb. 18, 2015 with a 69-58 victory over East Carolina.
• In Tulsa's 224 wins, 144 have been by double digits.
• Tulsa has a 103-29 non-conference record for a .780 winning percentage.
• Tulsa has won 139 of its last 172 home games at the Reynolds Center.
• The Hurricane had a Reynolds Center-best 28-game non-conference home-court winning streak snapped on December 30, 2008 against BYU . . . the loss also snapped an overall 18-game home winning streak.
• Tulsa won 23 straight home games from the 2008-09 season beginning with a 69-50 win over Marshall on Jan. 17, 2009 until the 2009-10 season when the streak was snapped with a 93-86 loss against Memphis on Feb. 13, 2010.
JUNIOR LEADING HURRICANE . . .
• Junior Etou, a junior who sat out last year after transferring from Rutgers, has been a key component to the Tulsa team.
• Etou averages 12.7 points and 6.9 rebounds to rank first on the team in both categories.
• Etou scored a new career-high with 31 points and added 12 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season at East Carolina on Jan. 25.
• His previous career-high was 23 points agaisnt Memphis, while he also turned in a career-best 13 rebounds in that game.
• His earlier career-high was 22 points, while knocking down 13-of-14 free throws, against Illinois State at the Diamond Head Classic.
• Etou has raised his free throw percentage to 79.6 percent . . . after his 13-of-14 performance against Illinois State, his free throw percentage improved from .667 to his current percentage.
• In the last 13 games, Etou has connected on 89.2 percent of his free throws (66-of-74).
• He has scored in double-figures in 14 games and has 4 double-doubles.
• Against Illinois State in the first meeting, Etou had 15 points, including a layup at 2:29 that gave Tulsa its first second-half lead, and added 3 rebounds.
• Against OSU, Etou's layup with 0:40 on the clock tied the game at 67-67.
• Etou began the year with a 20-point, 10-rebound performance against Jacksonville State.
TULSA BENCH OUT-SCORING OPPOSITION BY 10.5 . . .
• Tulsa's bench has averaged 24.7 points (567) in 23 games this season, while the opponents average 14.2 points (327) off the bench.
• The bench is scoring 36.4-percent of Tulsa's points, while the opposition has 20.7 percent scoring from 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).
• Against UCF, the Hurricane bench tied its season-high with 42 of Tulsa's 77 points.
• Tulsa's bench has scored over 30 points 8 times this year –– 33 vs. Jacksonville State, 35 vs. New Orleans, 35 at ORU, 30 at Little Rock, 34 vs. Texas State, 42 vs. Stephen F. Austin, 37 at USF and 42 vs. UCF.
• 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.
Players Mentioned
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/ Men's Basketball
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