• Texas Southern starts its final homestand of the first half of SWAC play against Alabama A&M Saturday at 2:35 p.m. live on HBCUGO TV.
• Picked sixth in the preseason poll, AAMU is tied for fourth with a 3-2 league mark and the first team to record double figure wins. They're the SWAC's top defensive team yielding 71.7 ppg / 43.3 percent field goal percentage and also rank second in the SWAC in rebounds (35.8). Led by former Grambling State head coach Donte' Jackson, former GSU standout Kintavious Dozier is the top scorer with 15.7 points per game while PJ Eason (8.2) and Koron Davis (5.8) rank 3-7 in rebounding. Eason also ranks second in blocked shots with 1.6 per game.
• TSU head coach Johnny Jones is 13-0 lifetime against Alabama A&M. TSU has dominated the series against Alabama A&M recently as the Tigers have won 22 straight and 33 of the past 34 match-ups. AAMU's last win over TSU was on Feb. 1, 2014.
• TSU assistant coach Otis Hughley spent the past three years at Alabama A&M as its head coach while assistant coach Jero Chun-Chieh Yang was also on the staff.
• 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.
• Senior Troy Hupstead made his TSU debut on Nov. 6 and has averaged 15.2 points and 9.2 rebounds per game. TSU graduate guard Bryce Roberts surpassed 1,000 career points a few weeks ago which spans from his two years in junior college and three seasons on the NCAA Divison I and II levels.
• 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 102-90 all-time in the month of January and 33-22 at TSU.
