TU on the Road to Face UCF on Saturday

Saturday, January 19

Orlando, Fla.

11 AM

Tulsa

UCF

Photo by: Bill Powell

TU on the Road to Face UCF on Saturday

1/18/2019 9:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

GAME #19: TULSA GOLDEN HURRICANE (12-6, 2-3) vs UCF KNIGHTS (13-3, 3-1)
Date/Time:	Saturday • Jan. 19 • 11 a.m.
Site:	CFE Arena (10,000) • Orlando, Fla.
Coaches:	Tulsa – Frank Haith (Elon '88), 5th year UCF – Johnnie Dawkins (Duke '86), 3rd year
TV:	ESPNU (Mike Corey & Mark Wise)
Radio:	Big Country 99.5 FM (Bruce Howard & J.R. Rollo)
Live Stats:	Live Stats
Series:	Tulsa leads, 13-7
Twitter:	@TUMBasketball \| @TulsaHurricane
Instagram:	TulsaMBasketball
Game Notes:	Tulsa \| UCF

Fast Break Points
• Tulsa will continue conference play with an 11 a.m. (CT) matchup at UCF on Saturday, Jan. 19 at CFE Arena in Orlando, Fla.This will be the only regular-season game between UCF and Tulsa this season.
• Tulsa is in its 108th season of basketball and fifth season in the American Athletic Conference.
• The Hurricane lead the all-time series against UCF, 13-7, and TU has won five of the last six matchups with the Knights. However, UCF has won seven of the 10 games played in Orlando.
• Tulsa is coming off an 89-83 win over UConn on Wednesday night at the Donald W. Reynolds Center. Jeriah Horne led the way with a career-high 27 points as TU shot 53.7-percent and reached a season high in points.
• Horne is averaging 9.2 ppg, which is tops in the conference among players who have come off the bench in every game this season. The sophomore is averaging 12.8 ppg during league play and 11.2 ppg in his last 11 contests.
• With 82 assists this season, Sterling Taplin has moved to sixth place on the program's all-time charts with 357. Taplin needs 32 assists to pass current TU assistant coach Shea Seals (1993-1997) and move into the top five on the list.
• DaQuan Jeffries leads the team in scoring at 13.4 ppg and he is second in rebounding at 5.4 rpg. Jeffries has led the team in scoring eight times, including a season-high 24 points in a win over UT Arlington (Nov. 27). The Edmond native also averages a team-leading 13.0 ppg during conference play.
• TU has notched 48 league wins since joining The American, which ranks third behind only Cincinnati (61) and SMU (54) 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.
• With a 10-3 non-conference record, Tulsa had its best start under head coach Frank Haith. The Hurricane registered 10 wins before the start of league play for the first time since 2009-10.

Notes
The Game
• Tulsa will continue American Athletic Conference play at 11 a.m. (CT) on Saturday, Jan. 19 when it will head to Orlando, Fla., for a matchup with UCF at CFE Arena.
• The game can be seen on ESPNU, 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 Knights
• UCF was picked to win The American as the team returns four starters and nine letterwinners from last year's squad, which went 19-13 and finished sixth in the conference with a 9-9 league mark.
• The Knights, who are receiving votes in both major polls, come into Saturday's game following a 75-67 setback at Wichita State on Wednesday night. It was the first conference loss for UCF after the team defeated Temple, UConn and ECU to open league action.
• B.J. Taylor leads the way at 17.2 ppg this season, which ranks seventh in the conference. His 103 free throws made ranks second in the league and 13th in the nation.
• Aubrey Dawkins has paced the squad in conference games at 18.3 ppg. Meanwhile, Tacko Fall is averaging 10.2 ppg during the season and he leads the league with a .787 field goal percentage.

The Series
• Saturday's matchup marks the 21st all-time meeting between Tulsa and UCF. The Hurricane leads the series, 13-7, and TU has won five of the last six games against the Knights.
• UCF is 7-3 against Tulsa all-time in Orlando. Tulsa's last win at CFE Arena came on Feb. 21, 2016.

Last Meeting
• DaQuan Jeffries came off the bench to score 19 points and Tulsa used a late 12-2 run to pull away for a 70-61 victory over UCF on Feb. 21, 2018, at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.
• Jeffries went 6-of-8 from the floor to go along with three rebounds, two assists and two blocks. Junior Etou added 17 points and five rebounds as Tulsa shot 53.5-percent and became the first UCF opponent to shoot better than 46-percent during the 2017-18 season.
• A tight game throughout, the score was tied at 53 with 7:38 remaining, but TU did not allow a basket for the next five minutes and went on a 12-2 run during that time to pull away for the 70-61 win.

A Tulsa Win Would ...
• Improve Tulsa's record to 13-6 on the season and even its conference record at 3-3.
• Improve Tulsa's all-time record against UCF to 14-7 overall and 4-7 in Orlando.
• Give head coach Frank Haith his 90th win on the TU bench.

Last Time Out
• Jeriah Horne scored a career-high 27 points to lead Tulsa to a season high in points and an 89-83 win over visiting UConn on Wednesday night at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.
• Horne went 8-of-11 from the field, including 3-of-4 behind the arc, and hit all eight of his free throw attempts for the highest scoring game from a Tulsa player this season. The sophomore had 17 points by halftime and he led four players in double-figures for the Golden Hurricane.
• Tulsa stretched a five-point halftime lead to double-digits with an 8-2 run to open the second half. Minutes later, the Hurricane took its largest lead of the night, 61-44, following a 9-0 spurt.
• UConn made a push late in the game, but TU hit 13 free throws in the final four minutes to seal the victory.

Trending
• Tulsa is 10-2 when DaQuan Jeffries scores in double-figures. The squad is 2-4 when he does not.
• Tulsa allowed an opponent season-high of 56.8-percent shooting in its loss to Southern Illinois. In the 12 games since, TU opponents are shooting just 39.2-percent (293-of-747) from the floor.
• Jeriah Horne is averaging 17.3 ppg over his last three games and 11.2 ppg over his last 11 contests. The sophomore has scored in double-figures in three straight games, including a career-high 27 points against UConn (Jan. 16).
• Lawson Korita has 24 assists this season and 12 of those have come in the last four games. Korita had a career-best five assists against Cincinnati (Jan. 10).

Nothing But NET
• Tulsa entered conference play with an NCAA NET ranking inside the top 100 and had a ranking of 104th as of Jan. 17. The Golden Hurricane will face a tough stretch to start play in The American, as the first half of its 18-game league schedule will see the team play eight games against teams currently ranked in the top 100.
• The Hurricane will get two games against Houston (No. 7) and Cincinnati (No. 35) during the stretch along with matchups against UCF (No. 38), Memphis (No. 70), UConn (No. 90) and USF (No. 98).
• All nine of Tulsa's opponents in that span are ranked in the top 115 as SMU is No. 111.

Haith Enters Fifth Season at TU
• Head coach Frank Haith is in his fifth season at Tulsa, where he has compiled an 89-58 record and led the Golden Hurricane to a pair of postseason appearances during his tenure. Overall, he has an on-court record of 294-187 (.611) in his 15th season.
• Haith's 89 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 sixth with 357 assists and needs 32 assists to pass Shea Seals (1993-97).
• 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 898 points, Taplin needs 102 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 13.4 ppg to go along with 5.4 rpg and 1.0 bpg, while shooting 52.5-percent, which ranks 11th in The American.
• 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 22nd on the program's career blocks list with 53 swats. He has 18 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. 16/15 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 48 league wins, which ranks third in the circuit during that time.
• Only Cincinnati (61 wins) and SMU (54 wins) have earned more victories than Tulsa's 48.
• 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'
• The Hurricane rank second in the league in both free throws made (311) and attempted (445). Those marks rank 15th and 13th in the nation, respectively.
• The squad is averaging 24.7 attempts per game with a season high of 40 in the win over California Baptist (Nov. 16). TU has shot more than 20 free throws in a game 12 times this season. The Hurricane has shot more than 30 free throws in a game seven times.
• Martins Igbanu leads the team at 5.7 free-throw attempts per game, while Jeriah Horne (.800/24-of-30) 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 249-73 (.773) in its 20+ seasons, including a 10-1 mark this season.
• The building has seen 42 sellouts and 1,901,661 fans have witnessed Tulsa basketball at the Reynolds Center.
• The Hurricane has won 25 of its last 28 games in the Reynolds Center.
• Tulsa's recent 15-game home winning streak was 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.

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.

In Memory of Bob Patterson
• Tulsa will wear a "30" patch on its home uniforms this season to honor Bob Patterson (1951-55), who passed away in November. Patterson was Tulsa's first All-American and was the first TU player to be selected in the NBA Draft.
• A member of the TU Athletic Hall of Fame, Patterson still owns Tulsa single-season records for rebounds (370; 1954-55), free throws made (229; 1954-55) and free throws attempted (297; 1954-55).
• Patterson was the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year as a senior and led the Hurricane to an MVC title and its first NCAA Tournament appearance. He also was named to the NCAA Western Regional Team that season.

Roster Experience
• Despite having seven newcomers on the roster for 2018-19, Tulsa features 10 players with Division I experience.
• Those 10 players have totaled 17 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, 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 five eligible to make their debut for TU, two student-athletes have Division I experience (Chris Barnes/UTEP and Jeriah Horne/Nebraska), while Peter Hewitt redshirted at UC Davis in 2016-17.
• TU newcomers have totaled 294 points (16.3 ppg) so far this season, led by 166 points (9.2 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
• Tulsa will travel to Cincinnati for a 6 p.m. (CT) matchup on Thursday, Jan. 24 against the Bearcats at newly renovated Fifth Third Bank Arena.
• The Hurricane then will be back in the Reynolds Center for a Jan. 27 matchup with No. 21/17 Houston and close the month with a home game against Memphis on Jan. 30.

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