Tulsa Back in the Reynolds Center for Thursday Matchup with New Orleans

Thursday, December 13

Reynolds Center

7 PM

Tulsa

New Orleans

Buy Tickets

Photo by: Dave Crenshaw

Tulsa Back in the Reynolds Center for Thursday Matchup with New Orleans

12/12/2018 10:40:00 AM | Men's Basketball

GAME #11: TULSA GOLDEN HURRICANE (7-3) vs NEW ORLEANS PRIVATEERS (4-3)
Date/Time:	Thursday • Dec. 13 • 7 p.m.
Site:	Reynolds Center (8,355) • Tulsa, Okla.
Coaches:	Tulsa – Frank Haith (Elon '88), 5th year New Orleans – Mark Slessinger (Aurora '96), 8th 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 \| N ew Orleans
Tickets:	918-631-GoTU \| Buy Online

Fast Break Points
• Tulsa is in its 108th season of basketball and fifth season in the American Athletic Conference.
• TU will play its final home non-conference game at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 13, when it hosts New Orleans. Tulsa won the only previous meeting with the Privateers, 77-68, back on Nov. 16, 2016, at the Reynolds Center.
• DaQuan Jeffries was named the American Athletic Conference Player of the Week after he helped lead the team to wins over Oklahoma State and then-No. 15/16 Kansas State last week.
• Tulsa has won 13 consecutive home games and 22 of its last 24 contests at the Reynolds Center dating back to last season. The winning streak is tied for the second-longest streak since the Reynolds Center opened in 1998.
• TU is coming off a 47-46 win over then-No. 15/16 Kansas State on Saturday. Curran Scott scored a game-high 14 points as Tulsa notched the program's first win over a ranked opponent since 2016.
• At 7-3, Tulsa has tied the best 10-game start under head coach Frank Haith. The 2015-16 team also started 7-3 and would go on to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
• With 55 assists this season, Sterling Taplin has moved to ninth place on the program's all-time charts with 330. Taplin needs six more assists to pass Eric Coley (1996-2000) and move up to No. 8 on the list.
• DaQuan Jeffries leads the team in scoring at 12.5 ppg and he is second on the squad with 5.2 rebounds per outing.
• Tulsa's .719 free throw shooting percentage leads The American, while its 166 makes (37th) and 231 attempts (47th) rank among the top 50 in the nation.
• 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 New Orleans at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 13 in what will be the final home non-conference game for the Golden Hurricane.
• The game can be seen on the 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 by using the TuneIn app.

Scouting the Privateers
• New Orleans was picked to finish third in the Southland Conference as the team returns three starters and nine letterwinners from last year's squad, which went 16-17 and was selected to play in the CBI.
• The Privateers have alternated wins and losses all season and the squad is coming off a three-game homestand where it went 2-1 with wins over Governor's State and South Alabama.
• Five players average at least 8.0 ppg, led by forwards Ezekiel Charles (14.0 ppg/5.1 rpg) and Scott Plaisance Jr. (10.3 ppg/5.1 rpg). The squad averages 77.6 ppg and is shooting 47-percent.
• Charles has done most of the team's damage from behind the arc, where he is shooting 53.3-percent (16-of-30). As a team, the Privateers average just 15 3-point attempts per game.

The Series
• Thursday's matchup marks just the second all-time meeting between Tulsa and New Orleans. TU claimed the only other meeting, 77-68, back on Nov. 19, 2016, in the Reynolds Center.

Last Meeting
• TK Edogi led four players in double-figures with his first career double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds as Tulsa defeated New Orleans on Nov. 19, 2016, in the Reynolds Center.
• Jaleel Wheeler and Junior Etou each had 15 points as well, while Sterling Taplin finished with 10 points, five boards and four assists.
• TU shot 54-percent in the contest and went on a 10-2 run early in the second half to take the lead for good.
• Christavious Gill led the Privateers, who would go on to win the Southland Conference Tournament and participate in the NCAA Tournament First Four, with 23 points in 35 minutes off the bench.

A Tulsa Win Would ...
• Improve Tulsa's record to 8-3 on the season, which would be the program's best 11-game start under Frank Haith.
• Improve Tulsa's home record to 8-0 this season and give the team its 23rd win in its last 25 games at home.
• Extend Tulsa's home winning streak to 14 games dating back to last season.
• Improve Tulsa's all-time record against New Orleans to 2-0.

Last Time Out
• Curran Scott scored a season-high 14 points and Tulsa held No. 15/16 Kansas State scoreless over the final 2:24 to defeat the Wildcats, 47-46, last Saturday afternoon at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.
• Scott went 6-of-10 from the floor for the Golden Hurricane, who tied its best 10-game start under head coach Frank Haith. With the win, Tulsa also picked up its first win over a ranked opponent since 2016.
• TU held the Wildcats to a season-low 30.5-percent shooting and the lowest scoring output by the program since 2015.
• Tulsa led for most of the second half, but K-State took a 46-45 lead after back-to-back 3-pointers by Xavier Sneed. Martins Igbanu provided the go-ahead points on a hook shot with 1:53 left and TU survived a late K-State possession for the win.

Trending
• Tulsa is undefeated (5-0) when DaQuan Jeffries scores in double-figures. The squad is 2-3 when he does not.
• Jeriah Horne has hit a 3-pointer in nine of the 10 games this season. He leads the team with 14 triples during the campaign.
• DaQuan Jeffries is shooting 77.5-percent (31-of-40) inside the arc this season, which ranks ninth in the country according to kenpom.com.
• Tulsa allowed an opponent season-high of 56.8-percent shooting in its loss to Southern Illinois. In the four games since, TU opponents are shooting just 38.9-percent (89-of-229) from the floor.

Haith Enters Fifth Season at TU
• Head coach Frank Haith is in his fifth season at Tulsa, where he has compiled an 84-55 record and led the Golden Hurricane to a pair of postseason appearances during his tenure. Overall, he has an on-court record of 289-184 (.612) in his 15th season.
• Haith's 84 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).

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).

Climbing the Charts
• Senior point guard Sterling Taplin is climbing the career assists charts at TU and he entered the program's all-time top 10 with three assists against Utah on Dec. 1. He currently ranks ninth with 330 assists and needs six assists to pass Eric Coley (1996-2000) and move to eighth place.
• Taplin had a career-high 10 assists in TU's win over South Carolina State (Nov. 10). With that effort, he became the 14th TU player to have at least 10 assists in a game and he was the first to do so since Ben Uzoh had 10 on Feb. 13, 2010.
• With 822 points, Taplin needs 178 points to become the 38th player in TU history to reach 1,000 career points.

DaQuan Does It All
• Senior DaQuan Jeffries is averaging a team-leading 12.5 ppg to go along with 5.2 rpg and 1.1 bpg, while shooting 53.7-percent. He is shooting shooting 77.5-percent (31-of-40) inside the arc, which ranks ninth in the country.
• Jeffries had one of the best outings of his career on Nov. 27 against UT Arlington, when he went 10-of-11 from the floor to tie a career high with 24 points. He 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.
• In addition, Jeffries ranks 24th on the program's blocks list with 45 swats. He has 11 blocks this season, including a season-high three rejections in the win over Little Rock (Nov. 19).
• Jeffries was named the American Athletic Conference Player of the Week on Dec. 10 after helping TU to wins over Oklahoma State (Dec. 5) and then-No. 15/16 Kansas State (Dec. 8).

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.

Free Fallin'
• Tulsa's .719 free-throw percentage is tied with Temple for tops in the American Athletic Conference.
• The Hurricane rank second in the league in both free throws made (166) and attempted (231) behind ECU (170-of-249). Tulsa ranks 37th in the nation in free throws made, while it ranks 47th in attempts.
• The squad is averaging 23 attempts per game with a season high of 40 in the win over California Baptist (Nov. 16).
• Martins Igbanu leads the team at nearly five free-throw attempts per game, while Chris Barnes (.824/14-of-17) leads the team in free-throw percentage.

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 246-72 (.773) in its 20+ seasons, including a 7-0 mark this season.
• The building has seen 42 sellouts and 1,885,926 fans have witnessed Tulsa basketball at the Reynolds Center.
• The Hurricane has won 22 of its last 24 games in the Reynolds Center, including 13 straight victories.
• Tulsa's 13-game home winning streak is tied for the second-longest streak since the Reynolds Center opened in 1998. The longest home winning streak in the building is 23 games, from Jan. 17, 2009 to Feb. 13, 2010.

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 opened the season ranked or receiving votes in the AP Top 25. The Hurricane will host No. 16 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.

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 176 points (17.6 ppg) so far this season, led by 79 points (7.9 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.

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.

Season Tickets Available Now
• Season tickets for Tulsa's full home schedule are on sale now, including the new Gold E-Ticket option, which guarantees access to all 17 home games at the Reynolds Center.
• A five-game Mini-Plan also is available, which features some of the most exciting home games on the schedule this season (Dec. 5 vs. Oklahoma State; Dec. 8 vs. Kansas State; Jan. 10 vs. Cincinnati; Jan. 30 vs. Memphis; Feb. 20 vs. Wichita State).
• Additionally, discounted group tickets are available to groups of 15 or more and fans also can purchase an All-Sport FlexBook, which allows flexibility in attending games for basketball, football and ticketed Olympic sports.
• Fans can purchase tickets in person at the TU Athletics Ticket Office in the Reynolds Center or by calling 918.631.GoTU (4688).

Up Next
• TU will participate in the Basketball Hall of Fame Holiday Showcase presented by Citi with a 2:30 p.m. (CT) matchup against Dayton on Sunday, Dec. 16 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn.

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