Texas Southern has played as a 16 seed in each of the last three NCAA Tournaments as champion of the SWAC, and won games in the “First Four” in 2021 and 2022 (losing in the next round to a Michigan team that advanced to the Elite Eight, and a Kansas team that won the national title). Last year, they upset Arizona State 67-66 in overtime at home, as part of the Pac-12/SWAC Legacy Series — the same ASU team that then upset Creighton a month later.
The Tigers lost their first SWAC games a year ago, four of them by four points or fewer. Then they turned their season around, going 7-6 the rest of the way, and knocked off Alcorn State and Grambling State, the SWAC’s co-regular season champs, to clinch the SWAC’s automatic bid for the third year in a row. Coach Johnny Jones has built a winning culture, and while they play the same buy-game-heavy schedule in November and December that everyone in the SWAC does, they don’t back down from anyone — they’ve won at least one buy game every year since Jones took the job.
In 2018 they opened the season with a win at Baylor and later picked up wins at No. 18 Oregon and Texas A&M. In 2019 they won at Northern Kentucky and took Wichita State to the final minute in a 69-63 loss. In 2020 they led Washington State in the second half before falling 56-52, and knocked off Wyoming in Laramie a couple of weeks later. In 2021 the Tigers defeated No. 20 Florida, and made Saint Mary’s (67-58 loss decided in the final four minutes), Washington (72-65 loss where they led at the half) and NC State (65-57 loss where they also led at half) sweat much harder than expected. And last year, after the upset of Arizona State, they trailed Auburn by just two at the half before falling 72-56, and hung around much longer than you’d figure in losses at Kansas and at Houston.
With that said, this year’s team has the look of a rebuilding project, despite the presence of preseason SWAC Player of the Year PJ Henry. They’ve averaged 46.6 points through three games — losses at New Mexico (92-55), Arizona State (63-52) and Virginia (62-33). They’ve made a horrendous 13-of-69 (18.8%) from three-point range, and 41-of-113 from everywhere else (36.2%). Yikes.
Of 362 teams in D1, they rank 358th in effective field goal percentage (33.2%), 346th in turnover percentage (giving it away on 24.4% of possessions), 343rd in three-point percentage, 350th on two-point percentage, 340th on percentage of shots that have been blocked (17.7%) and 354th on percentage of possessions that end in a steal.
Double yikes.
If they’re to continue their streak of winning at least one buy game every year that Jones has been the head coach, it’s hard to see where — after Saturday’s game in Omaha they play at Oral Roberts, Drake and (gulp) Purdue.
The aforementioned PJ Henry, a 5’10”, 177-pound fifth-year senior, is tied for the team lead in scoring at 9.5 points per game. He’s had a rough time shooting the ball through three games, making 25.0% of his shots inside the arc (7-of-28) and 20.0% of his threes (4-of-20). His game at Arizona State was particularly eye-opening — in a bad way — as he shot 5-of-24 from the field. Five for Twenty-Four! He made three 2’s and two 3’s, and attempted 12 of each to get there.
To be fair to Henry, his track record is significantly better than that, including in games against high-major opponents. For example, he hung 22 on that same Arizona State team a year ago, making 4-of-9 inside and 4-of-7 outside. But through three games this year, he’s been in a slump, to be charitable.
6’1″, 160-pound senior Jonathan Cisse is tied with him at 9.5 points per game. He’s struggled just as much, albeit with fewer shot attempts (4-of-19 inside the arc, 4-of-12 outside). He, too, has a better track record than that. Playing for Incarnate Word a year ago, he shot 41.2% on two-pointers and 37.3% on threes (44-of-118), and scored in double figures in the last 19 games he played in — with 20+ in eight of them.
Inside, a pair of transfers — Kenny Hunter from Louisiana Tech and Jahmar Young from SMU — bulk up the frontline. Hunter was a handful in C-USA, and has the tools to dominate in the SWAC. At 6’8″, 235 pounds, Hunter took up a lot of space in the paint for La Tech, shooting 63.4% on two’s a year ago (85-of-134) in averaging 6.0 points and 5.1 rebounds a game. He’s a good shot blocker, a good defensive rebounder, and a great offensive rebounder (he grabbed 13.0% of his team’s missed shots a year ago, 57th best in all of D1).
6’11”, 240-pound senior Jahmar Young has been their most productive player at 6.6 points and 5.0 rebounds per game. With all the missed shots they’ve had, there’s been a lot of chances for offensive boards, and Young has grabbed 9.4% of his team’s misses while he’s been on the floor. In three seasons at SMU, he showed similar prowess on the offensive glass in a smaller role.
Another name that jumps off the stat sheet is Shaqir O’Neal — yes, Shaq Jr., the son of NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal. The younger Shaq stands 6’8″ and 200 pounds, and made his first career start against Arizona State. He has 11 total points and eight rebounds through three games.
Speaking of struggling guards, Creighton’s Steven Ashworth had a rough night on Tuesday against Iowa. In 22 minutes, he was held scoreless on 0-for-3 shooting. One of the questions about him as he moved up in competition from the Mountain West to the Big East was what would happen when high-major guards got physical with him to try and disrupt his shot. Drawing conclusions after one game is a mistake, especially because — like Texas Southern’s guards — his track record is better than that.
“He got a couple good looks at three and missed them,” Greg McDermott said after Tuesday’s game. “But still, you know, he did some good things. He fights out there. He had three assists and one turnover when he was out there. There’s a lot of things that keep me up at night. He’s not one of them, he’s gonna be just fine.”
- Tip: 7:30pm
- Venue: CHI Health Center Omaha
- TV: FS2
- Announcers: Matt Schumacker and Nick Bahe
- In Omaha: Cox channel 216 (SD), 1216 (HD); CenturyLink Prism channel 621 (SD), 1621 (HD)
- Outside Omaha: FS2 Channel Finder
- Satellite: DirecTV channel 618, Dish Network channel 397
- Cable Cutters: Available on all major streaming platforms
- Streaming on the Fox Sports app and website
- Radio: 1620AM, 101.9FM
- Announcers: John Bishop and Taylor Stormberg
- Streaming on 1620TheZone.com and the 1620 The Zone mobile app
- Simulcast on SiriusXM channel 992
- Texas Southern and Creighton are two of the 19 teams in the nation to have appeared in each of the last three NCAA Tournaments. One of the other teams was the Iowa team that Creighton defeated on Tuesday.
- Texas Southern opens up the season with seven straight road games. With two neutral floor games to follow, their home opener won’t come until December 21 against Samford.
- Isaac Traudt is the first freshman to make multiple 3-pointers in each of Creighton’s first 3 games of a season since Ryan Sears in 1997-98. Meanwhile, Baylor Scheierman’s the first Bluejay to make 3 or more 3-pointers in Creighton’s first 3 games since Ty-Shon Alexander in 2018-19.
- Creighton’s bench has scored 91 points through three games, the most points by CU reserves through three games since the 2017-18 team had 104 at this time. That’s also the last season CU averaged 20 or more points per game (24.42) off the bench. If you’re wondering, the most they’ve averaged in the McDermott Era is 27.21 points per game in 2014-15. If they keep up this pace, they’ll be the most productive bench since the 2007-08 team got an unbelievable 36.91 points per game — outscoring the starting five (34.61).
- Trey Alexander finished Tuesday’s win vs. Iowa with 23 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists, finishing just shy of becoming CU’s first player in history to record a traditional points/rebounds/assists triple-double. Alexander had six of his nine assists in the first 12:21 of the second half, but CU’s only basket in the final 7:39 was a score by Alexander himself.
Creighton is 1-0 all-time against Texas Southern, defeating the Tigers 93-70 on Nov. 14, 2015. That game saw five Bluejays score in double-figures, led by 18 points in the collegiate debut of Khyri Thomas. Creighton head coach Greg McDermott is 2-0 all-time against Texas Southern.
On November 18, 2016 the Jays opened the Paradise Jam by burying Washington State with an avalanche of offense in a 103-77 win. Creighton assisted on 25 of their 40 made baskets, and Mo Watson tied a Paradise Jam tournament record with 13 assists (in just 21 minutes).
But with CU set to honor the 1963-64 team at halftime Saturday, let’s take a second to talk about that team who advanced to the Sweet 16. They finished 22-7, starting the season 9-0, including a one-point win over fourth-ranked Arizona State, a double-overtime win over Utah State that was followed by an overtime win at Iowa, and a victory over Gonzaga. CU also defeated Notre Dame twice and Marquette once while averaging 84.2 points per game, which was helped by 124-point showing at Miami (Fla.) that remains a single-game program record.
Individually, Paul Silas averaged 19 points and 22 rebounds per game while Chuck Officer, Fritz Pointer and Charlie Brown also averaged in double-figures. Silas grabbed 57 rebounds in three NCAA Tournament games, including 27 in a win over Oklahoma City as the Bluejays advanced to the Sweet 16.
The Bottom Line:
KenPom predicts a 24-point win, and ESPN’s BPI gives Creighton a 96.9% chance of victory. There was no Vegas line at the time we published. Creighton rolls in this one, and whatever the line ends up being, they’re likely to be over.
Creighton 88, Texas Southern 54
