Tulsa Set for Road Test at Utah on Saturday

Saturday, December 1

Salt Lake City, Utah

4 PM

Tulsa

Utah

Photo by: Sam Lazarus

Tulsa Set for Road Test at Utah on Saturday

11/30/2018 9:44:00 AM | Men's Basketball

GAME #8: TULSA GOLDEN HURRICANE (5-2) vs UTAH UTES (3-3)
Date/Time:	Saturday • Dec. 1 • 4 p.m. (CT)
Site:	Huntsman Center (15,000) • Salt Lake City, Utah
Coaches:	Tulsa – Frank Haith (Elon '88), 5th year Utah – Larry Krystkowiak (Montana '96), 8th year
TV:	Pac-12 Network (Drew Goodman and Eldridge Recasner)
Radio:	Big Country 99.5 FM (Bruce Howard and J.R. Rollo)
Live Stats:	Live Stats
Series:	Utah leads, 4-2
Twitter:	@TUMBasketball \| @TulsaHurricane
Instagram:	TulsaMBasketball
Game Notes:	Tulsa \| U tah

Fast Break Points
• Tulsa is in its 108th season of basketball and fifth season in the American Athletic Conference.
• TU will head west again for its first true road game of the 2018-19 season, as it will face Utah at 4 p.m. (CT) on Saturday, Dec. 1 at the Huntsman Center.
• The Utes lead the all-time series, 4-2, but Tulsa won the last meeting on March 24, 2008, at the Reynolds Center. That matchup came in the quarterfinals of the CBI and Tulsa would go on to win the tournament.
• Tulsa is coming off a 72-58 win over UT Arlington on Tuesday night at the Reynolds Center. DaQuan Jeffries led the way and tied a career high with 24 points on 10-of-11 shooting from the field.
• Jeffries had the best shooting percentage for a TU player who made at least 10 field goals since Charlie Davis went 11-of-12 (.916) against SMU on Jan. 19, 2002.
• With 41 assists this season, Sterling Taplin has moved to 12th place on the program's all-time charts with 316. Taplin needs three more assists to move into the program's top 10.
• Martins Igbanu leads the team in scoring and rebouding at 13.7 points and 5.6 rebounds per game this season.
• Tulsa's .717 free throw shooting percentage leads The American, while its 134 makes and 187 attempts rank among the top 20 in the nation.
• The Hurricane return three starters and eight letterwinners from last year's team, which went 19-12 overall and 12-6 to finish fourth in The American.
• TU has notched 46 league wins since joining The American, which ranks third behind only Cincinnati (57) and SMU (51) during that span (2014-present).
• Tulsa was picked to finish ninth in The American Preseason Poll. TU has finished better than its preseason prediction in all four seasons under head coach Frank Haith.

The Game
• Tulsa will head back west for its first true road game, a 4 p.m. (CT) matchup at Utah on Saturday, Dec. 1.
• The game can be seen on the Pac-12 Network, while fans in the Tulsa area can tune to Big Country 99.5 FM with Bruce Howard and former Hurricane player J.R. Rollo on the call. Live audio from the game also can be found by using the TuneIn app.

Scouting the Utes
• Utah was picked to finish eighth in the Pac-12 Conference as the team returns a pair of starters and seven letterwinners from last year's squad, which went 23-12 and finished as the runner-up in the NIT.
• The Utes enter Saturday's game at 3-3 after a 1-2 trip to the Wooden Legacy in Fullerton, Calif. The squad fell to Hawaii and Northwestern, sandwiched around a win over Grand Canyon.
• Utah is led by 6-foot-2 senior guard Sedrick Barefield's 13.5 ppg, while 6-foot-7 sophomore forward Donnie Tillman is averaging 12.0 points and 7.3 rebounds per outing.
• Barefield's .952 free throw percentage ranks sixth in the nation and the Utes are shooting 73.8-percent as a team. Utah averages 15.5 made freebies per game.

The Series
• Saturday's matchup will mark just the seventh meeting between the programs. Utah leads the all-time series, 4-2, including a 2-0 record against the Hurricane in Salt Lake City.
• Tulsa won the first meeting between the teams, 56-51, back on Dec. 19, 1953, in Tulsa. The Hurricane also won the last matchup, 69-60, in the quarterfinals of the CBI, which Tulsa would go on to win.

A Tulsa Win Would ...
• Improve Tulsa's record to 6-2 on the season, which would be the best eight-game start under head coach Frank Haith and the best start for TU since the 2009-10 team opened at 7-1.
• Improve Tulsa's all-time record against Utah to 3-4.
• Give Tulsa its first road win over a Pac-12 program since a 77-76 overtime win at UCLA on Nov. 20, 1996. TU defeated current Pac-12 member Colorado in Boulder, 81-68, on Jan. 7, 2008, when it was a member of the Big 12 Conference.

Last Time Out
• DaQuan Jeffries tied a career high with 24 points and Tulsa shot 61.5-percent in the second half en route to a 72-58 win over UT Arlington on Tuesday night at the Donald W. Reynold Center.
• Jeffries went 10-of-11 from the field and 4-of-5 from behind the arc to tie his career mark, which was set in last season's win over Memphis. It was the best single-game shooting performance for a TU player who made at least 10 field goals since 2002.
• Elijah Joiner had 11 points, while Martins Igbanu and Lawson Korita each chipped in with 10 points.
• TU led throughout the second half and went on a 14-0 run midway through the period to put the game away. Jeffries had eight points during the game-deciding run.

Haith Enters Fifth Season at TU
• Head coach Frank Haith is in his fifth season at Tulsa, where he has compiled an 82-54 record and led the Golden Hurricane to a pair of postseason appearances during his tenure. Overall, he has an on-court record of 287-183 (.611) in his 15th season.
• Haith's 82 wins on the TU bench rank seventh in program history as he passed former Golden Hurricane coaches Bill Self (74), Tubby Smith (74), Francis Schmidt (73), Chet Benefiel (65) and John Phillips (61) on the charts last season.
• Haith's 19.3 wins per season at TU rank fifth among those who coached more than one season for the Hurricane.

Haith in Exclusive Coaching Company
• Head coach Frank Haith is the one of just two active Division I head coaches to take teams in four of the Power 6 conferences to the NCAA Tournament (Houston's Kelvin Sampson is the other). 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 24 active coaches that have taken at least three different programs to the NCAA Tournament.
• Haith and the Hurricane will face two other members of that list this season, when the team takes on Bruce Weber and Kansas State (Dec. 8) before two matchups with Sampson and Houston (Jan. 2 and Jan. 27).

The Schedule
• Tulsa will play 13 games in 2018-19 against opponents that participated in the postseason last season. Seven of those matchups will come at home, including back-to-back contests against Oklahoma State (Dec. 5) and Kansas State (Dec. 8).
• TU also will have six games against teams that open the season ranked or receiving votes in the AP Top 25. The first came against preseason No. 6 Nevada (Nov. 22) on a neutral floor in Las Vegas. The Hurricane will host No. 12 Kansas State, while it will have matchups against UCF (Jan. 19) and Cincinnati (Jan. 10, Jan. 24), who each received votes to start the year.

Taplin Leads the Way
• Senior point guard Sterling Taplin has developed into one of the top point guards in The American and he was named preseason second-team all-conference in a vote by the league's head coaches.
• The East Amherst, N.Y., native is the team's leading returning scorer after he registered a career-best 11.8 ppg last season. He also set career bests with 3.7 rpg and 4.4 apg, which also ranked fourth in The American.
• Taplin's 11.8 ppg last season ranks 11th among returners in The American. In all, he set career highs last season in field goals (127), 3-pointers (38), points (354), rebounds (112) and assists (132).
• In addition, he has climbed to No. 12 on the program's career-assists charts with 316.

Tulsa's Success in The American
• Since joining the American Athletic Conference prior to the 2014-15 season, the Golden Hurricane has posted 46 league wins, which ranks third in the circuit during that time.
• Only Cincinnati (57 wins) and SMU (51 wins) have earned more victories than Tulsa's 46.
• TU has finished better than its preseason prediction in each of Haith's four seasons. Tulsa is the first program in The American history to finish better than its preseason prediction in four consecutive seasons. The Golden Hurricane was picked to finish ninth in the conference prior to the 2018-19 season.

Home Cookin'
• After hosting the first TU men's basketball game on Dec. 29, 1998, the Golden Hurricane is in its 21st season in the Donald W. Reynolds Center this year.
• Tulsa has posted an overall record of 244-72 (.771) in its 20+ seasons, including a 5-0 mark this season.
• The building has seen 42 sellouts and 1,873,062 fans have witnessed Tulsa basketball at the Reynolds Center.
• The Hurricane has won 20 of its last 22 games in the Reynolds Center, including 11 straight victories.

Earning Degrees
• Frank Haith has made achievement in the classroom as much of a priority as success on the basketball court over his nearly 15 years as a head coach.
• During head coaching tenures at Miami, Missouri and Tulsa, 54 of the 58 (93.1-percent) seniors that have come through his programs have earned a degree.
• Since arriving at Tulsa, 14 of the program's 15 seniors (93.3-percent) have graduated, including Corey Haith, Corey Henderson Jr., Jaleel Wheeler and Junior Etou from last year's team.
• Additionally, Tulsa has had at least two student-athletes recognized on the American Athletic Conference All-Academic Team in each of Haith's four seasons. Last year, both Alex Foree and Curran Scott made the team, which honors student-athletes with at least a 3.0 GPA.

Dialing Long Distance
• Tulsa lit it up from behind the arc last season and totaled 247 3-pointers, which was the program's highest output since the 2007-08 campaign.
• Along with the most 3-pointers made in the Frank Haith era, TU also posted its best 3-point shooting percentage at .348. That mark was the best for the Hurricane since the 2011-12 team connected at a .384 clip.
• After hitting 188 treys in 2014-15, which was TU's first under Haith, the squad has seen an increase in 3-pointers made each season (2014-15/188; 2015-16/219; 2016-17/234; 2017-18/247).
• The Hurricane will be without its top two 3-point shooters from a season ago after the graduations of Corey Henderson Jr. (73) and Junior Etou (42).

Look Who's Back
• Tulsa returns eight letterwinners, including three starters, from last year's team, which went 19-12 and finished fourth in The American with a 12-6 league mark.
• Returning starters include senior point guard Sterling Taplin (30 starts), junior forward Martins Igbanu (23) and junior guard Lawson Korita (17).
• Other returners include senior guard/forward DaQuan Jeffries, senior forward Alex Foree, junior guard Curran Scott and sophomore guards Elijah Joiner and Darien Jackson.
• In all, Tulsa returns 56.3-percent of its scoring, 56.7-percent of its minutes, 48.9-percent of its rebounding, 69.5-percent of its assists and 59.7-percent of its steals.

Roster Experience
• Despite having seven newcomers on the roster for 2018-19, Tulsa features 11 players with Division I experience.
• Those 11 players have totaled 18 years of Division I experience, led by three years from senior Sterling Taplin.
• Even with the influx of newcomers, Tulsa is one of just seven Division I programs without a scholarship freshman on the roster. TU's only freshman is walk-on George Christopolous, who is redshirting this season.
• Counting walk-ons, TU is one of just seven Division I programs to have one or fewer total freshmen on its roster.

New Faces
• Along with the eight returning letterwinners, Tulsa has seven newcomers in addition to Jeriah Horne, who sat out the 2017-18 season after transferring from Nebraska.
• The newcomers eligible to make their debut for the Hurricane this season are Chris Barnes, Zeke Moore, Peter Hewitt, Jeriah Horne, Simon Falokun and walk-on Lindsay Deline Jr. Reggie Jones will sit out the 2018-19 campaign after transferring from Western Michigan and walk-on George Christopoulos will redshirt, as well.
• Of the six eligible to make their debut for TU, three student-athletes have Division I experience (Chris Barnes/UTEP, Jeriah Horne/Nebraska, Zeke Moore/Saint Louis), while Peter Hewitt redshirted at UC Davis in 2016-17.
• TU newcomers have totaled 130 points (21.6 ppg) so far this season, led by 43 points (6.1 ppg) from Jeriah Horne.

Exhibition Excellence
• Tulsa improved to 67-2 all-time in exhibition games with a 95-60 win over Division II Northeastern State on Nov. 2 in the Reynolds Center. It also marked the 38th straight exhibition victory for the Golden Hurricane.
• Curran Scott scored 16 points off the bench to lead a balanced scoring effort that saw nine Tulsa players tally at least eight points.
• Newcomer Simon Falokun was the only other player in double-figures with 14 points on 4-of-4 shooting and a 6-for-6 effort from the free-throw line. Falokun also had six rebounds and a pair of blocks.
• The Hurricane jumped out to a 30-5 lead and led by as much as 40 points midway through the second half.

Tulsa Signs Isaiah Hill to NLI
• Isaiah Hill, a 6-foot point guard from Bakersfield, Calif. (Liberty HS), signed a National Letter of Intent on Nov. 14, the first day of the early signing period, to join The University of Tulsa men's basketball program for the 2019-20 season.
• Hill is the highest-rated high school recruit in TU history, according to 247sports.com, which lists Hill as a three-star prospect and the No. 25 point guard recruit in the nation.
• He averaged 22 points, eight rebounds and six assists per game as a junior en route to first-team All-Area honors from the Bakersfield Californian.
• Hill played AAU ball for the Compton Magic, which is the same program that current TU guard Chris Barnes came out of.
• In addition, Hill was the starting quarterback for the Liberty HS football team as a sophomore and junior. He did not play as a senior to focus on his basketball career.

Up Next
• TU will return home to host a pair of Big 12 Conference opponents next week, beginning with a 7 p.m. contest on Wednesday, Dec. 5 against Oklahoma State. The Hurricane then will welcome No. 12 Kansas State to the Reynolds Center on Saturday, Dec. 8.

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