• Texas Southern hits the road for a contest Texas State Saturday afternoon in San Marcos.
• TSU will face Texas State for the second straight year and third time since 2010. This marks TSU's first trip to San Marcos since Dec. 15, 1999. TSU leads the all-time series 7-6 as the series began in 1985.
• Outside of Texas State last year, TSU has not played a team from the Sun Belt Conference since the 2019 CIT as they traveled to Louisiana-Monroe and won. TSU is 11-15 all-time against the league with games against Texas State (7-6), Louisiana (1-3), ULM (2-0), James Madison (1-0), Southern Miss (0-2) and South Alabama (0-4).
• Texas Southern fell in the first round of the 2025 SWAC Tournament to Alabama State.
• TSU returns two starters from last season and 10 letterwinners as they lost five lettermen. The Tigers added seven newcomers to its roster in the offseason as five were added via the transfer portal. Senior guard Zaire Hayes was named to the 2025-26 Preseason All-SWAC basketball team after a career junior campaign which saw him finish second on the team with 10.3 points per game while finishing second on the team with 47 three-pointers made. He also shot 46 percent from the field and 84 percent from the free throw line.
• Texas State is 27-11 all-time against current members of the Southwestern Athletic Conference. TSU is the only team they do not have a winning record against.
• In head coach Johnny Jones' 24-year career, he's 59-40 all-time against the current group of Sun Belt teams as most games took place while at former league foe North Texas. Jones has faced Arkansas State (12-10), Louisiana (12-12), ULM (13-2), ODU 1-1, South Alabama (8-9), Troy (8-3), Texas State) and Southern Miss (2-2).
• Senior Troy Hupstead made his TSU debut on Nov. 6 and has averaged 20 points and eight rebounds per game. He last played Texas State on Dec. 29, 2024 and played nine minutes while scoring four points with two rebounds.
• TSU, which is led by eighth-year head coach Johnny Jones, enters the 2025-26 season looking to earn its eighth NCAA Tournament bid over the past 13 years. TSU finished fourth in the SWAC last season and picked to finish fifth this year.
• TSU made its fifth consecutive postseason under Jones in 2024 and participated in three straight NCAA Tournaments from 2021-23. Head coach Johnny Jones went 24-14 in his inaugural year as head coach with three Power 5 conference wins. TSU fell in the finals of the 2019 SWAC Tournament and advanced to the semifinals of the CIT in 2019. In 2019-20, the Tigers made it back to the semifinals of the SWAC Tournament after a third-place regular season finish but saw the season end abruptly due to COVID-19. TSU won the SWAC Tournament and First Four contest in 2021 and was the first SWAC team to beat a ranked opponent from the SEC in 2021 at Florida. TSU claimed another Power 5 non-conference win against Arizona State in 2022.
• Jones is 61-69 all-time in the month of November and 8-39 at TSU.
