Tulsa to Host No. 17/17 Houston on Sunday Afternoon

Sunday, January 27

Reynolds Center

1 PM

Tulsa

Houston

Buy Tickets

Photo by: Bill Powell

Tulsa to Host No. 17/17 Houston on Sunday Afternoon

1/26/2019 9:59:00 AM | Men's Basketball

GAME #21: TULSA GOLDEN HURRICANE (12-8, 2-5) vs HOUTSTON COUGARS (19-1, 6-1)
Date/Time:	Sunday • Jan. 27 • 1 p.m.
Site:	Reynolds Center (8,355) • Tulsa, Okla.
Coaches:	Tulsa – Frank Haith (Elon '88), 5th year Houston – Kelvin Sampson (UNC Pembroke '78), 5th year
TV:	ESPNEWS (Drew Fellios and Mark Adams)
Radio:	Big Country 99.5 FM (Bruce Howard and J.R. Rollo)
Live Stats:	Live Stats
Series:	Tulsa leads, 27-26
Twitter:	@TUMBasketball \| @TulsaHurricane
Instagram:	TulsaMBasketball
Game Notes:	Tulsa \| Houston
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.
• Tulsa will continue American Athletic Conference play at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 27 when it will host No. 17/17 Houston at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.
• Tulsa leads the all-time series, 27-26, but the Cougars have won five of the last six meetings. The Hurricane own a 15-8 advantage in games played at TU.
• The TU coaching staff will wear sneakers as part of the Coaches vs. Cancer Suits & Sneakers Weekend. The game also will serve as the start of Tulsa's participation in the Coaches vs. Cancer 3-Point Challenge to raise money for the American Cancer Society. Coach Haith will match all donations to Coaches vs. Cancer made by fans on Sunday.
• Darien Jackson has provided a spark off the bench for the Hurricane recently as he is averaging 6.7 ppg in the last three contests. His 20 points in that span are nearly equal to the 22 points he scored in his first 29 games at TU.
• With 91 assists this season, Sterling Taplin has moved to sixth place on the program's all-time charts with 366. Taplin needs 23 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 rebounding at 5.7 rpg. Jeffries has led the team in scoring nine 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 is tied with Houston for third-most behind only Cincinnati (63) 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 1 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 27 when it will host No. 17/17 Houston at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.
• The game can be seen on ESPNEWS, 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 Cougars
• Houston was picked to finish third in The American as the team returns three starters and seven letterwinners from last year's squad, which went 27-8 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
• The Cougars come into Sunday's game tied atop The American standings with a 6-1 league mark. Houston started the season 15-0 before a 73-69 setback at Temple on Jan. 9 for its only loss of the campaign.
• Houston ranks among the top 10 in the nation in several defensive categories, including field goal percentage defense (2nd, .361), 3-point percentage defense (2nd, .259) and scoring defense (6th, 60.0 ppg).
• During conference play, Corey Davis Jr. (14.4 ppg), Armoni Brooks (13.7 ppg) and freshman Nate Hinton (10.0 ppg) all average in double-figures. UH has outscored its opponents by an average of 14.3 ppg in league contests.

The Series
• Sunday's matchup marks the 54th all-time meeting between Tulsa and Houston. The Hurricane hold a slim 27-26 lead in the all-time series, including a 15-8 record in Tulsa.
• The Cougars have won the last four matchups and five of the last six contests overall. UH took a 74-56 win over the Hurricane on Jan. 2 in the American Athletic Conference opener for both teams.

Last Meeting
• Corey Davis Jr. hit six 3-pointers and scored a game-high 21 points as then-No. 19/17 Houston defeated visiting Tulsa, 74-56, in the American Athletic Conference opener for both squads on Jan. 2 at the Fertitta Center.
• Martins Igbanu led the Golden Hurricane with 18 points and eight rebounds and he was joined in double-figures by
10 points from DaQuan Jeffries. Tulsa was held to a season-low 30.9-percent shooting.
• Jeffries got Tulsa started in the opening minutes with a pair of 3-pointers. The Golden Hurricane defense forced 10
straight missed shots and a pair of turnovers from the Cougars, went scoreless for nearly the first six minutes.
• However, a 7-0 run minutes later gave Houston its first lead and it would not trail the rest of the night.

A Tulsa Win Would ...
• Improve Tulsa's record to 13-8 on the season and improve its conference record to 3-5.
• Improve Tulsa's all-time record against Houston to 28-26 overall and 16-8 in Tulsa.
• Snap a four-game losing streak against Houston.
• Give head coach Frank Haith his 90th win on the TU bench.
• Give Tulsa its second win over a ranked team this season (then-No. 16/15 Kansas State on Dec. 8). It would be the
first time since the 2015-16 season that TU has won two games against ranked opponents.

Last Time Out
• Jarron Cumberland led all scorers with 23 points as Cincinnati defeated visiting Tulsa on Thursday night, 88-64, at Fifth Third Arena.
• Sterling Taplin led five players in double-figures with a dozen points for the Golden Hurricane. DaQuan Jeffries added 11 points, while Martins Igbanu, Curran Scott and Darien Jackson each finished with 10 points.

TU To Participate in Coaches vs. Cancer 3-Point Challenge
• Making 3-point shots this basketball season takes on even more meaning for head coach Frank Haith, who serves on the Coaches vs. Cancer Council, and The University of Tulsa men's basketball team. The Golden Hurricane will square off against teams across the nation to fight cancer as part of the American Cancer Society's Coaches vs. Cancer 3-Point Challenge.
• Fans can pledge a donation for each 3-point shot that TU makes over the final 11 games of the regular-season to support American Cancer Society research, education and patient programs at: pledgeit.org/cvc19-tulsa.
• Fans also have the option of making a fixed donation to Coaches vs. Cancer. Haith will help start the Golden Hurricane campaign by matching all donations made by fans at the Tulsa vs. Houston game on Jan. 27.

Nothing But NET
• Tulsa entered conference play with an NCAA NET ranking inside the top 100 and had a ranking of 99th as of Jan. 25. 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. 33) during the stretch along with matchups against UCF (No. 35), Memphis (No. 66), UConn (No. 86) and USF (No. 90).
• All nine of Tulsa's opponents in that span are ranked in the top 125 as SMU is No. 123.

Haith Enters Fifth Season at TU
• Head coach Frank Haith is in his fifth season at Tulsa, where he has compiled an 89-60 record and led the Golden Hurricane to a pair of postseason appearances during his tenure. Overall, he has an on-court record of 294-189 (.609) 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 366 assists and needs 23 assists to pass Shea Seals (1993-97) and into the top five.
• 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 924 points, Taplin needs 76 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 points 5.7 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game, while shooting 51.7-percent, which ranks 12th 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 is tied for 20th on the program's career blocks list with 59 swats. He has 23 blocks this season, including a season-high three rejections against Little Rock (Nov. 19) and UCF (Jan. 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).

Trending
• Darien Jackson is averaging 6.7 ppg over his last three contests. The sophomore has scored 20 points in those games, which nearly doubled his point total over his first 29 games at Tulsa (22 points).
• The number 70 has been important for TU this season as the team is 10-1 when it scores at least 70 points in a game, while its record is 7-2 when holding opponents to fewer than 70 points.
• TU has improved its 3-point shooting since the start of conference play. The Hurricane shot 32.5-percent behind the arc and averaged 6.3 treys per game in its 13 non-conference games, while it has shot 39.7-percent (1st in AAC) and is averaging 7.7 3-pointers made during league contests.

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 is tied with Houston for third in the circuit during that time.
• Only Cincinnati (63 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 free throw attempts (487) and third in free throws made (336). Those marks rank 14th and 22nd in the nation, respectively.
• The squad is averaging 24.4 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 13 times this season. The Hurricane has shot more than 30 free throws in a game seven times.
• Martins Igbanu leads the team at 5.5 free-throw attempts per game, while Jeriah Horne (.813/26-of-32) 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.

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 305 points (15.3 ppg) so far this season, led by 172 points (8.6 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 be back in the Reynolds Center on Jan. 30 for a 7 p.m. matchup with Memphis.
• The Hurricane will then take to the road for three of its next four games to start the month of February, beginning with a 1 p.m. contest on Saturday, Feb. 2 at Wichita State.

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