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• Texas Southern starts the tournament season Thursday afternoon in the first round of the SWAC Tournament against Alabama State at 2 p.m.• TSU clinched the fourth seed after its win over Prairie View A&M on Saturday. TSU defeated ASU in its lone meeting in January.
• Texas Southern fell in the finals of the 2024 SWAC Tournament last season and participated in the CIT as they fell to Tarleton State in the opening round.
• TSU returns two starters from last season and eight letterwinners as they lost seven lettermen. The Tigers added seven newcomers to its roster in the offseason as six were added via the transfer portal. The TSU men's basketball duo of Grayson Carter and Kenny Hunter were named to the 2024-25 Preseason All-SWAC Second Team. Hunter was also tabbed the league's Preseason Defensive Player of the Year.
• This time of the year is TSU's time to shine. TSU has not lost in the first round of SWAC Tournament play since 2009 and has played in the title game the past six of seven years as 2020 was canceled due to COVID-19.
• TSU has dominated the series against Alabama State recently as the Tigers have won 25 of the past 27 match-ups. TSU's last loss to ASU was on Feb. 3, 2020 in Montgomery as prior to that TSU held a 15-game winning streak dating back to 2014. TSU head coach Johnny Jones is 10-1 lifetime against Alabama State. TSU last played ASU in postseason play during the 2019 season as TSU won 80-66 in the semifinal round in Birmingham, Ala.
• Picked sixth in the SWAC Preseason poll, ASU has three of the top 11 scorers in the SWAC in Amarr Knox (16.5 ppg), CJ Hines (14.2 ppg) and TJ Madlock (12.9 ppg). Madlock leads the team and ranks fourth in the SWAC with 6.9 rebounds per game. • TSU, which is led by seventh-year head coach Johnny Jones, has won three-of-the-past four SWAC Tournament Championships and enters the 2024-25 season looking to earn its eighth NCAA Tournament bid over the past 12 years.
• TSU made its fourth consecutive postseason under Jones and third straight NCAA Tournament appearance in 2022-23. 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 62-39 all-time in the month of March and 32-13 at TSU.
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Source: https://tsusports.com/news/2025/3/1...nament-run-thursday-afternoon-in-atlanta.aspx