Tulsa Men Set to Open the 2018-19 Season on Tuesday Night

Tuesday, November 6

Reynolds Center

7 PM

Tulsa

Alcorn State

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Tulsa Men Set to Open the 2018-19 Season on Tuesday Night

11/5/2018 12:36:00 PM | Men's Basketball

GAME #1: TULSA GOLDEN HURRICANE (0-0) vs ALCORN STATE BRAVES (0-0)
Date/Time:	Tuesday • Nov. 6 • 7 p.m.
Site:	Reynolds Center (8,355) • Tulsa, Okla.
Coaches:	Tulsa – Frank Haith (Elon '88), 5th year Alcorn State – Montrez Robinson (North Georgia), 4th year
TV:	ESPN3 (Chad McKee and Bryndon Manzer)
Radio:	Big Country 99.5 FM (Bruce Howard and J.R. Rollo)
Live Stats:	Live Stats
Series:	Tulsa leads, 1-0
Twitter:	@TUMBasketball \| @TulsaHurricane
Instagram:	TulsaMBasketball
Game Notes:	Tulsa \| Alcorn State
Tickets:	918-631-GoTU \| Buy Online

TULSA, Okla. — The University of Tulsa men's basketball team will open its 108th season of play when it hosts Alcorn State at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 6 at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

Under the direction of fifth-year head coach Frank Haith, who ranks seventh on the program's all-time wins list, Tulsa returns three starters and eight letterwinners from last year's squad. The Hurricane won 19 games and finished fourth in the American Athletic Conference a season ago.

In its first action of the fall, TU defeated Division II Northeastern State, 95-60, last Friday night as the program improved to 67-2 all-time in exhibition contests. Curran Scott led the way with 16 points off the bench. Scott paced nine Hurricane players who scored at least eight points, including sophomore newcomer Simon Falokun, who was perfect from the field (4-for-4) and free-throw line (6-for-6) on his way to 14 points.

Alcorn State did not play any exhibition games prior to the start of the regular-season. The Braves were picked to finish seventh in the SWAC Preseason Poll and return one starter from last season's team, which went 11-21 overall and 7-11 in conference play.

TU claimed the only previous meeting in the series, 92-79, back on Dec. 29, 1984 in Tulsa.

Tuesday's season-opener can be seen on ESPN3 with Chad McKee and Bryndon Manzer calling the action. Additionally, 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 on tulsahurricane.com or by using the TuneIn app.

Fast Break Points
• Tulsa is in its 108th season of basketball and fifth season in the American Athletic Conference.
• TU will open the regular-season at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 6, when it hosts Alcorn State at the Donald W. Reynolds Center. The Hurricane and Braves will meet for just the second time. TU took the only other meeting, 92-79, back on Dec. 29, 1984, in Tulsa.
• Tulsa improved to 67-2 and won its 38th consecutive exhibition game with a 95-60 win over Division II Northeastern State last Friday night at the Reynolds Center. Curran Scott led the way with 16 points off the bench.
• Tulsa is 67-40 all-time in season openers, including a 50-20 mark when opening the season at home.
• 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.
• Senior point guard Sterling Taplin is the team's top returning scorer. The East Amherst, N.Y., native averaged 11.8 points, 4.4 assists and 3.7 rebounds per game (all career highs) last season. Taplin also logged career bests with a .462 shooting percentage and 38 3-pointers made.
• TU has five scholarship newcomers eligible to make their debut this season. Of those five, three players have previous Division I experience, while one other redshirted at a DI school prior to arriving in Tulsa.
• Tulsa will play 13 games in 2018-19 against opponents that participated in the postseason last year. Seven of those matchups will come at home, including back-to-back contests against Oklahoma State (Dec. 5) and K-State (Dec. 8).
• 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.

Notes
The Game
• Tulsa will host Alcorn State at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 6 in the regular-season opener for both squads.
• The game can be seen on ESPN3, 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 on tulsahurricane.com or by using the TuneIn app.

Scouting the Braves
• Alcorn State was picked to finish seventh in the SWAC Preseason Poll. The Braves return one starter and seven letterwinners from a year ago, when the team went 11-21 overall and 7-11 in conference play.
• Junior Maurice Howard comes back as the top returning scorer for the Braves, averaging 10.3 points from a year ago. Howard broke the program's single-season record for most three-pointers made with 74.
• The Braves helped reload the roster with five JUCO transfers this year including 7-footer Alonzo Campbell. Alcorn State also brought in junior forward Deshaw Andrews who was an NJCAA Division I All-American.

The Series
• TU won the only other meeting between the teams, 92-79, back on Dec. 29, 1984, in Tulsa. Steve Harris led the way with 26 points, while Herbert Johnson added another 25 in the victory.

A Tulsa Win Would ...
• Improve TU's record in season-openers to 68-40, including a 51-20 mark at home.
• Move Tulsa's all-time series record against Alcorn State to 2-0.
• Give TU its first season-opening victory since the 2015-16 campaign.

Last Time Out
• Curran Scott scored 16 points off the bench to lead a balanced scoring effort that saw nine Tulsa players tally at least eight points as the Golden Hurricane rolled to a 95-60 win over Northeastern State in exhibition play on Friday.
• 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.

Haith Enters Fifth Season at TU
• Head coach Frank Haith is entering his fifth season at Tulsa, where he has compiled a 77-52 record and led the Golden Hurricane to a pair of postseason appearances during his tenure. Overall, he has an on-court record of 282-181 (.609) in 14 seasons.
• Haith's 77 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 faces 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 comes against preseason No. 7 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 are receiving 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. 19 on the program's career-assists charts with 275.

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.

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.

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 totaled 38 points in the team's exhibition win over Northeastern State (Nov. 2), led by 14 points from Simon Falokun.

Up Next
• Tulsa will host South Carolina State at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 10 at the Reynolds Center as the Hurricane continue its season-opening four-game homestand.

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