Tulsa Hosts SMU in AAC Showdown Saturday

TULSA BASKETBALL

Tulsa Hosts SMU in AAC Showdown Saturday
It's a BLACK OUT. Wear BLACK.

GAME #22 ... TULSA GOLDEN HURRICANE (12-9, 6-3 AAC) vs. SMU (19-4, 9-1 AAC)
Date/Time:	Saturday • February 4, 2017 • 6:05 p.m. (CT)
Site:	Donald W. Reynolds Center (8,355), Tulsa, Okla.
Coaches:	Tulsa – Frank Haith (Elon '88), 3rd year SMU – Tim Jankovich (Kansas State '82), 1st year
TV:	ESPNews (Wayne Randazzo and Stephen Howard)
Radio:	Big Country 99.5 FM (Bruce Howard and J.R. Rollo)
Live Stats:	Live Stats
Series:	Tulsa leads 31-17
Twitter:	@TUMBasketball \| @TulsaHurricane
Instagram:	TulsaMBasketball
Game Notes:	Tulsa I SMU

THE GAME . . .
•   The Tulsa Golden Hurricane (12-9, 6-3 AAC) plays its final game of a three-game homestand as the SMU Mustangs (19-4, 9-1 AAC) come to the Donald W. Reynolds Center.
•   Tulsa dropped a 57-55 decision against the 14th-ranked Cincinnati Bearcats on Wednesday night, while SMU is coming off of an 86-46 home win over East Carolina.

THE SERIES . . .
•   This is the 49th meeting between Tulsa and SMU.
•   Tulsa leads the series 31-17, including an 11-9 record in Tulsa, 19-7 mark in Dallas and the series is tied 1-1 at a neutral site.
•   Over the last 10 games in the series, SMU has won the last five games in Tulsa, while Tulsa has a 4-1 mark in Dallas.
•   Tulsa's last win at home was a 58-55 victory on March 3, 2010.
•   Last year, Tulsa lost to #18 SMU by a score of 81-69 at the Reynolds Center, while the Hurricane defeated the #16 Mustangs, 82-77, in Dallas.

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 32-13 record in its third season of American play, which in the last three years is the third best league mark behind SMU (37-9) and Cincinnati (34-11).
•   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 . . . so far Tulsa has defeated teams picked above them –– UConn (2nd), Memphis (5th), Temple (6th) and UCF(8th).

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 55-32 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.

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 19-4 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 4-1 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 loss was to an unranked Cincinnati in 2014-15.
•   Tulsa won 12 straight AAC home games before Wednesday's 2-point loss vs. #14 Cincinnati.

QUICK HITTERS . . .
• 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 7 different starting lineups through 21 games this year.
• Ten players have made their Tulsa debuts this season . . . they have accounted for 65.5 percent of Tulsa's total points, scoring 957 of Tulsa's 1,462 points thru 21 games.
• Tulsa has out-rebounded 12 of its 21 opponents this season, winning 8 of those games . . . among those 12 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 19 opponents to a 68.3 scoring average.

LOOKING AT NUMBERS . . .
•   Tulsa held 14th-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 .6867from the field on 54 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 71.4-percent from the free throw line at home and .734 on the road.
•   The Hurricane has a .450 field goal percentage at home, while hitting .414 on the road.
•   Sterling Taplin has a 1.4 assist-to-turnover ratio overall this year, and has a 2.4 ratio in home games.
•   Tulsa leads the American Athletic Conference in league games with a free throw percentage of .778, and is tied with Temple for all games at 72.3 percent.
•   Tulsa ranks third in league games for scoring offense with an average of 71.0 points, behind SMU's 74.5 and Cincinnati's 71.8 points.

LAST TIME OUT . . .
•   Cincinnati's Troy Caupain knocked down a 10-foot jumper at the 0:04 mark to give the 14th-ranked Bearcats a 57-55 comeback victory over Tulsa Wednesday night.
•   Tulsa was led by Jaleel Wheeler's 13 points, followed by 10 points each by Junior Etou and Martins Igbanu. TK Edogi added 8 points and had a career-high 13 boards in 17 minutes of play.
•   Tulsa shot 40.5 percent from the field against the nation's second-ranked field goal defensive team, while holding Cincinnati to 35-percent shooting.
•   The Hurricane held Cincinnati to 21.5 points below its season scoring average, and out-rebounded the Bearcats by 10 boards, 38-to-28.
•   Sterling Taplin's layup with 6:01 left in the game put the Hurricane ahead by 11 points, 52-41.
•   Tulsa led by 9 points after Etou's two free throws with 5:13 remaining on the game clock made the score 54-45, but an experienced Bearcats squad used a 12-1 run over the final 3:28 to grab the victory.

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 12.6 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 78.5 percent . . . after his 13-of-14 performance against Illinois State, his free throw percentage improved from .667 to a current percentage of .785.
•   In the last 11 games, Etou has connected on 88.2 percent of his free throws (60-of-68).
•   He has scored in double-figures in 13 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.

BENCH SCORING . . .
•   Tulsa's bench has averaged 25.9 points (544) in 21 games this season, while the opponents average 14.9 points (312) off the bench.
•   Against UCF, the Hurricane bench tied its season-high with 42 of Tulsa's 77 points.
•   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 37.2-percent of Tulsa's points, while the opposition has 21.7 percent scoring from the bench.
•   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.

TK IS OKAY . . .
•   Junior TK Edogi has played a vital role for the Hurricane this season in a reserve role.
•   On the year, Edogi is shooting an impressive 68.5-percent from the field, connecting on 37-of-54 field goals
•   Over the last seven games, Edogi is shooting .727 percent from the field (16-22).
•   In the last two games, Edogi averaged 9.0 points and 10.0 rebounds . . . he had 10 points and 7 rebounds vs. UCF, and tallied 8 points and a career-best 13 rebounds against Cincinnati.

Tulsa Hosts SMU in AAC Showdown Saturday

Players Mentioned

Pat Birt

TK Edogi

Junior Etou

Martins Igbanu

Sterling Taplin

Jaleel Wheeler

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