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• TSU women's basketball returns to action after a seven-day hiatus as they'll face Baylor on Wednesday night in Waco, Texas live on ESPN+ at 7 p.m.
• This marks the third season for TSU head coach Vernette Skeete. This season also marks the first time the roster will be upperclassman heavy after fielding underclassmen-heavy rosters the past two years. Five newcomers were added via the transfer portal and two via the JUCO ranks.
• TSU returns three starters and six letterwiners as the Tigers also underwent a change in their coaching staff as they added a pair of assistant coaches and an operations director in the offseason.
• TSU will face Baylor for the first time since the first round of the 2017 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament. Both teams will meet for the 11th time.
• Baylor Associate head Coach Tony Greene spent three seasons as an assistant at Texas Southern (2012-15) under former head coaches Cynthia Cooper and Johnetta Hayes as he helped lead TSU to a pair of SWAC Regular Season championships for the first time in school history and three straight NIT appearances.
• TSU will face two consecutive Big 12 teams in Baylor on Wednesday before returning home to host UCF on Saturday afternoon in Houston.
• Junior forward Jaida Belton was named to the 2024 Southwestern Athletic Conference Preseason All-SWAC Second Team. A native of Baltimore, Md., Belton was TSU's top rebounder with seven boards per game while also averaging 8.2 points per contest. She has emerged as one of the top shot blockers in the SWAC with 48 blocks last season.
• TSU was picked to finish ninth in the SWAC's Preseason Poll.
• TSU will square off against five NCAA D-1 conferences this year as they'll face teams from the Big 12 (3), American (2), WAC (2), SEC (1), Southland (2).
• TSU head coach Vernette Skeete has yet to win a game in the month of December. Skeete and Baylor head coach Nikki Collen both have ties to Marquette as Skeete coached at Marquette while Collen played at Marquette. Both also coached in the state of Florida as Skeete was head coach at Gulf Coast State College and Collen was an assistant at Florida Gulf Coach.
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Source: https://tsusports.com/news/2024/12/4/womens-basketball-returns-to-action-tonight-at-baylor.aspx