• Texas Southern closes out its brief road trip with a trip to Nashville, Tenn. to face Vanderbilt on Thursday night at 6 p.m.
• TSU will face Vanderbilt for the first time ever and its second and final SEC opponent of non-conference play as they traveled to Texas A&M on Nov. 6.
• 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.
• Vanderbilt is 18-1 all-time against current members of the Southwestern Athletic Conference as Grambling State is the only team to have defeated them. Vandy defeated Arkansas-Pine Bluff 104-75 on Saturday. The Commodores like to score as they average 101.5 points per game.
• In head coach Johnny Jones' 25-year career, he's 47-71 all-time against the current group of SEC teams. He is 5-1 lifetime against Vandy with the last meeting occurring in 2016 while serving as LSU's head coach.
• Senior Troy Hupstead made his TSU debut on Nov. 6 and has averaged 19.7 points and 8.3 rebounds per game. He's the reigning SWAC Player and Newcomer of the Week.
• Senior guard Zaire Hayes made his 2025-26 debut last week against Samford as he averages 14 points per contest. Hayes is a 2025-26 Preseason All-SWAC Selection.
• 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 61-70 all-time in the month of November and 8-40 at TSU.
