• Texas Southern starts a two-game road trip beginning at Minnesota on Sunday at 12 p.m.
• This marks the first meeting between both teams since 1994 as current Minnesota head coach Niko Medved was a student manager at the time for the Gophers. TSU plays a team from the Big 10 for the first time since 2023.
• Texas Southern fell in the first round of the 2025 SWAC Tournament to Alabama State.
• In head coach Johnny Jones' 25-year career, he has only faced five Big Ten teams. He's 0-6 all-time against the current lineup of Big Ten teams as he's 0-2 versus Indiana, 0-1 versus Nebraska and 0-1 versus Michigan, 0-1 versus Purdue and 0-1 versus Southern Cal.
• 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.
• Senior Troy Hupstead made his TSU debut on Nov. 6 and has averaged 15.8 points and 8.3 rebounds per game. Bryce Roberts made his 2025 debut on Nov. 26 and averages 14.5 points.Â
• Minnesota is officially 13-0 all-time against current members of the Southwestern Athletic Conference. Due to NCAA sanctions, several games from the 1990s were vacated which includes the 1995 contest against the Tigers. Minnesota has played Bethune-Cookman the most as they hold a 6-0 mark. Minnesota was picked to finish 16th in the Big 10 Preseason poll.
• Graduate guard Zaire Hayes made his 2025-26 debut three weeks ago against Samford as he averages 10.2 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 91-59 all-time in the month of December and 12-19 at TSU.
