Tulane Men’s Basketball rematch with No. 6 Houston set for Thursday night on ESPN

NEW ORLEANS – The Tulane men’s basketball team hosts sixth-ranked Houston in American Athletic Conference play on Thursday, January 28. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. at Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse.

The game will be televised nationally on ESPN and streamed on ESPN+, as John Schriffen delivers play-by-play of all the action and Brooke Weisbrod provides color analysis.

STARTING FIVE
1. Tulane returns to the court for just its fourth game in the month of January and first in 12 days to host Houston in the second game of the regular-season series between the programs.
2. The sixth-ranked Cougars will be the highest-ranked team to enter Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse since No. 1 Memphis came to town on Feb. 20, 2008.
3. Last time out, the Green Wave suffered a 65-57 home defeat against Temple on Saturday afternoon in league play. Jaylen Forbes led all Tulane scorers with 14 points, as Sion James finished with a season-high 13 points to complement five rebounds and a team-high four assists while committing no turnovers. As a team, Tulane committed a season-low five turnovers to the Owls’ 14 mishaps and owned a 23-9 scoring advantage off the bench. However, Temple owned a 48-32 rebounding advantage and held the Green Wave without a field goal for the first 10 minutes of the second half.
4. Tulane has won the turnover battle in nine of its 10 contests this season while also forcing opponents into at least 15 mishaps on six occasions. Last season, the Green Wave committed equal or fewer turnovers than its opponents in 28 of 30 contests while ranking in the top 15 nationally in turnover margin (+4.3).
5. Tulane currently ranks first in The American in free throw percentage (.770), turnover margin (+4.7) and fewest turnovers per game (11.3). On the national scale, the Green Wave rank in the top 100 in turnover margin, turnovers per game and fewest fouls per game (16.5).

TULANE-HOUSTON CONNECTIONS
» Tulane associate head coach Ray McCallum served as an assistant coach under Kelvin Sampson at Oklahoma (2004-06) and Indiana (2006-08).
» McCallum served as Houston’s head coach for four seasons from 2000-04, leading the Cougars to the 2002 NIT in his second year at the helm. He owns a 287-281 (.505) career record as a head coach.
» Tulane head coach Ron Hunter and Kelvin Sampson have coached against one another four total times, the first coming in Dec. 2006 in Indianapolis when Hunter coached at IUPUI and Sampson at Indiana. The second came in the first round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament in Tulsa when Hunter was at Georgia State. The last two were regular-season matchups in Houston in 2020 and 2021.
» A New Orleans native, Houston assistant coach Quannas White held the same position at Tulane from 2014-16.
» Houston’s roster possesses two New Orleans natives, including Brison Gresham and DeJon Jarreau.

SCOUTING HOUSTON
• The Cougars own a 25-18 lead in the all-time series against the Green Wave and have won four straight meetings.
• Houston enters Thursday’s contest riding a six-game winning streak with its most recent victory coming on the road at Temple, 68-51, on Jan. 23.
• Houston is led by junior guard Quentin Grimes who ranks second in The American in scoring (17.6 PPG), while sophomore guard Marcus Sasser is fourth (16.3 PPG). Redshirt senior forward Justin Gorham ranks first in the league in rebounding (9.4), as redshirt senior guard Dejon Jarreau ranks seventh in assists per game (3.9).
• As a team, the Cougars lead the conference scoring margin (+17.5), 3-pointers made per game (8.3) and rebounds per game (42.1) while standing second in scoring (73.8), turnover margin (+3.7) and steals per game (8.4).
• Houston’s last loss in New Orleans came on Jan. 17, 2018 in an 81-72 win by Tulane.

BY THE NUMBERS
• 9 – Tulane’s leading scorer Jaylen Forbes (15.2 PPG) has scored in double-figures a team-leading nine times this season and in six consecutive games.
• 214 – Tulane has made at least one 3-point field goal in 214 consecutive games. The last time the Green Wave failed to do so occurred on January 16, 2014 at home against Louisiana Tech when they shot 0-for-14 from outside.
• 362 – Tulane scored 2,050 total points last season but return just 362 of those from one year ago. That means more than 82.3 percent of the Green Wave’s total offense will be replaced in 2020-21 and that is the seventh most among NCAA Division I programs this season.

LAST TIME THEY MET – JANUARY 9, 2021
Tulane suffered a 71-50 setback to the No. 11-ranked Houston Cougars. Redshirt junior Jordan Walker led all Tulane scorers with 13 points, as he connected on 4-of-11 shots from the field including 3-of-6 from beyond the arc. Ten of Walker’s 13 points came in the second half, and sophomore Jaylen Forbes tallied 11 points. Redshirt freshman Tylan Pope pulled down a team-high six rebounds. Marcus Sasser led the way for the Cougars with a game-high 28 points, connecting on eight 3-pointers. Quentin Grimes scored 14 points, and Justin Gorham grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds.

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