Golden Hurricane and Shockers Meet Saturday

GAME #16: TULSA (4-11, 0-4 AAC) at Wichita State (8-8, 1-3 AAC)
Date/Time:	Saturday • Jan. 14, 2023 • 3:00 p.m. (CT)
Site:	Charles Koch Arena (10,506) • Wichita, Kan.
Coaches:	Tulsa – Eric Konkol (Wisconsin-Eau Claire, '00), 1st Season Wichita State - Isaac Brown (Louisiana-Monroe, '95) 3rd Season
TV:	ESPN+ \| Shane Dennis (PxP) and Bob Hull (Analyst)
Radio:	Big Country 99.5 FM (Bruce Howard & J.R. Rollo)
Live Stats:	Live Stats
Series:	138th Meeting \| Wichita State leads 74-63
Twitter:	@TUMBasketball \| @TulsaHurricane
Instagram:	TulsaMBasketball
Game Notes:	Tulsa (PDF) \| Wichita State (PDF) \| The American (PDF)

WICHITA, Kan. — The University of Tulsa men's basketball team continues its series with one of its oldest rivals as the Golden Hurricane travels to Wichita, Kan. to take on the Wichita State Shockers Saturday afternoon.

Tipoff for the American Athletic Conference matchup is set for 3 p.m. and will air on ESPN+. Shane Dennis and Bob Hull will bring fans the action. Bruce Howard and JR Rollo will broadcast the radio call on Big Country 99.5 FM and The Varsity Network app.

The Hurricane (4-11, 0-4 The American) and Shockers (8-8, 1-3 The American) meet for the 138th time on Saturday, the most for any Tulsa opponent, with many of those battles happening in the 51 years the two shared in the Missouri Valley Conference. Wichita State holds the all-time series lead 74-63 and have won 17 of the past 20 in the series, enjoying a 9-2 record as the American members. Tulsa is 23-42 as the road team and has not won in at Wichita since Dec. 8, 2001, dropping the past 10 matchups.

The pair met three times last season, with Wichita State coming away with the win in both regular season meetings. However, it was Tulsa who go the last laugh as the Hurricane ended Wichita State's season in the first round of The American Championship with a 73-67 win.

On Saturday, both teams will wear uniforms which harken back to the 1980's, when the two schools often fought for supremacy in the Missouri Valley Conference. Wichita State will sport its MTXE replica uniforms, a callback to the trademark slogan of then head coach Gene Smithson (Mental Toughness eXtra Effort). While Tulsa will wear its regular away blues, an homage to the early 80's of Tulsa basketball under legendary coach Nolan Richardson.

Tulsa heads to Wichita seeking its first conference win of the season after falling to 0-4 in a close battle against Temple in the Donald W. Reynolds Center on Tuesday. The Hurricane battled back from a 20-point deficit with a minute left in the first half, helped by a 22-0 run that spanned the halves, but ultimately came up just short, 76-72.

Bryant Selebangue picked up his sixth double-double of the season, scoring a game-high 19 on 7-of-8 shooting alongside 12 rebounds and three assists. Sam Griffin added 16, and Anthony Pritchard scored 13 and dished out four assists in the loss. As a team, Tulsa shot decent from the field, hitting nearly 42 percent of its shots, but only connected on six triples at a 22-ercent clip, while Temple enjoyed shooting percentages of 44.1 from the field and 33.3 from deep.

Griffin and Selebangue pace Tulsa in scoring, averaging 15.1 and 12.9, respectively. Selebangue has been close to automatic around the basket, hitting 67.5 percent of his shots, which not only leads the conference, but also is the sixth-best percentage in the nation. He's been particularly efficient in conference play, averaging 18.8 points and 10.8 rebounds while shooting 80 percent from the floor.

His rebounding all season has been one of the best in the conference. The big man pulls down 8.7 rebounds per game, which leads The American and is 54th in the nation. He's second in the conference for offensive rebounds, 3.1, and first on defense, 5.6.

Griffin and Brandon Betson have been Tulsa's weapons from deep. Betson leads the conference with a 47.9 percent clip from deep. In his previous 10 games, Betson is hitting above 50 percent from 3-point range and has made multiple 3-pointers in eight of them. He and Griffin have combined for 74 deep balls, which makes up 61.7 percent of the team's three-pointers.

Wichita State is also off to a slow start in conference play, beginning 0-3 before a come-from-behind victory at South Florida on Sunday, 70-66. The Shockers had gone into the matchup after dropping games at home to Cincinnati and ECU, and on the road against UCF.

It's a new-look team for third-year head coach Isaac Brown as he's had to look to replace over 80 percent of its scoring from last season, including Tyson Etienne. Fifth-year senior Craig Porter, Jr. has been someone the team has looked to this season as he's paced the squad with 12.2 poitns per game. Porter missed the meeting in The American Championship at the end of last season.

Defensively, the Shockers are a tough nut to crack. Wichita State ranks second in the conference and 27th in the nation for scoring defense, allowing only 61.9 points per game. When teams miss shots against this Shockers defense, they often don't get a second look as WSU leads the conference with 26.6 defensive rebounds a game.

Following Saturday's game, the Golden Hurricane will return home for a pair of games against SMU on Wednesday, the 18th, and Tulane on Saturday, the 21st. Tipoff for the game against SMU is set for 7 p.m. on ESPN+. The Tulane game will also tip at 7 because ESPNU will carry the action. Saturday is also Legend's Night as the University of Tulsa welcomes back former members of the program to the Reynolds Center.

Golden Hurricane and Shockers Meet Saturday

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Players Mentioned

Brandon Betson

Sam Griffin

Anthony Pritchard

Bryant Selebangue