Tulsa to Host Oklahoma State on Wednesday Night

Wednesday, December 5

Reynolds Center

7 PM

Tulsa

Oklahoma State

Buy Tickets

Tulsa to Host Oklahoma State on Wednesday Night

12/4/2018 8:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

GAME #9: TULSA GOLDEN HURRICANE (5-3) vs OKLAHOMA STATE COWBOYS (4-3)
Date/Time:	Wednesday • Dec. 5 • 7 p.m.
Site:	Reynolds Center (8,355) • Tulsa, Okla.
Coaches:	Tulsa – Frank Haith (Elon '88), 5th year Oklahoma State – Mike Boynton Jr. (South Carolina '04), 2nd year
TV:	CBS Sports Network (Dave Ryan and Steve Wolf)
Radio:	Big Country 99.5 FM (Bruce Howard and J.R. Rollo)
Live Stats:	Live Stats
Series:	Oklahoma State leads, 74-38
Twitter:	@TUMBasketball \| @TulsaHurricane
Instagram:	TulsaMBasketball
Game Notes:	Tulsa \| O klahoma State
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 return home for a week that features home games against a pair of Big 12 Conference opponents, beginning with a 7 p.m. matchup against Oklahoma State on Wednesday, Dec. 5 at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

• The Cowboys lead the all-time series, 74-38, but 21 of TU's 38 wins in the series have come at home. Tulsa's last win over OSU in the Reynolds Center came on Dec. 2, 2009.

• Tulsa is coming off a 69-64 setback at Utah on Saturday afternoon. Jeriah Horne led the way with a season-high 15 points, all of which came in the second half, in the loss.

• In Tulsa's 72-58 win over UT Arlington last week, DaQuan Jeffries (10-of-11) 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 44 assists this season, Sterling Taplin has moved to 10th place on the program's all-time charts with 319. Taplin needs three more assists to move up to No. 9 on the list.

• Martins Igbanu leads the team in scoring and rebouding at 12.8 points and 5.5 rebounds per game this season.

• Tulsa's .711 free throw shooting percentage ranks second in The American, while its 143 makes and 201 attempts rank among the top 40 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.

Notes

The Game

• Tulsa will return home for a pair of matchups against Big 12 Conference opponents this week, beginning with a 7 p.m. contest against Oklahoma State on Wednesday, Dec. 5.

• The game can be seen on the CBS Sports 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 Cowboys

• Oklahoma State was picked to finish 10th in the Big 12 Conference as the team returns a pair of starters and four letterwinners from last year's squad, which went 21-15 and advanced to the NIT quarterfinals.

• The Cowboys enter Wednesday's game coming off an 83-76 loss to Minnesota at U.S. Bank Stadium (home of the Minnesota Vikings) last Friday night in Minneapolis.

• The team's last four games have been played at a neutral site and OSU is 2-2 in those contests. The Cowboys went 2-1 at the Advocare Invitational in Orlando, Fla., with wins over Memphis and then-No. 19 LSU, with its loss coming against defending national champion Villanova.

• Five players average in double-figures, led by Cameron McGriff's 15.9 ppg. He also is the team's leading rebounder at 6.9 boards per game.

The Series

• Wednesday's matchup marks the 113th all-time meeting between Tulsa and Oklahoma State. The Cowboys lead the series, 74-38, and OSU has won five of the last six contests.

• The Golden Hurricane is 21-27 against the Cowboys in Tulsa. The teams have split their only two meetings in the Reynolds Center.

• Wichita State (128 games) and Drake (119 games) are the only programs that TU has faced more than OSU.

A Tulsa Win Would ...

• Improve Tulsa's record to 6-3 on the season.

• Give Tulsa its first win over Oklahoma State since a Dec. 2, 2015, victory in Stillwater.

• Give Tulsa its first win over Oklahoma State at home since a Dec. 2, 2009, victory at the Reynolds Center.

• Improve Tulsa's home record to 6-0 this season and give the team its 21st win in its last 23 games at home.

Last Time Out

• Jeriah Horne scored a season-high 15 points, but Utah went on a late 10-2 run and then held on for a 69-64 win over visiting Tulsa last Saturday afternoon at the Huntsman Center.

• Horne went 6-of-12 from the floor, hit three 3-pointers and scored all 15 of his points in the second half for the Golden Hurricane. Sterling Taplin added a dozen points, while Lawson Korita finished with 11 points.

• TU was held to a season-low 36.2-percent shooting, but outscored the Utes, 30-20, in the paint and held a 45-38 advantage on the glass.

Haith Enters Fifth Season at TU

• Head coach Frank Haith is in his fifth season at Tulsa, where he has compiled an 82-55 record and led the Golden Hurricane to a pair of postseason appearances during his tenure. Overall, he has an on-court record of 287-184 (.609) 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).

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 in last Saturday's game at Utah. He is currently tied with Antonio Reed (1999-2003) with 319 assists and can pass Jason Parker (2000-04) with four assists in Wednesday's game against Oklahoma State.

• 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.

• Wednesday's game also will mark the 100th game of Taplin's career. In 99 contests at TU he is averaging 8.2 points, 3.2 assists and 2.7 rebounds per game.

• With 811 points, Taplin needs 189 points to become the 38th player in TU history to reach 1,000 career points.

DaQuan Does It All

• Senior DaQuan Jeffries is averaging 10.4 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game while shooting 54.3-percent in his 33 contests at TU. This season, Jeffries is averaging 12.6 ppg, 5.5 rpg and 1.1 bpg, while shooting 54.4-percent.

• 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 27th on the program's blocks list with 45 swats. He has nine blocks this season, including a season-high three rejections in the win over Little Rock (Nov. 19).

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.

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 153 points (19.1 ppg) so far this season, led by 58 points (7.3 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.

Up Next

• TU will close the week with a 3:30 p.m. matchup against No. 16 Kansas State on Saturday, Dec. 8 at the Reynolds Center. Tulsa defeated the Wildcats, 61-54, last season at INTRUST Bank Arena in Wichita in the first of a three-game series with Kansas State.

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