• Texas Southern inches towards the close of non-conference play with its non-conference road finale at Abilene Christian on Saturday afternoon in Abilene, Texas.
• Despite both schools located in Texas and having storied basketball histories, this mark the first meeting between both schools.
• Even though Johnny Jones has spent 24 years as a head coach, he has never faced Abilene Christian. Against the current lineup of WAC teams, Jones has only faced UTA (2-4) and Tarleton State (0-1) for an all-time mark of 2-5. As a university, TSU is 2-3 as they've faced UTA (2-2) and Tarleton State (0-1).
• 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.
• ACU is 3-0 all-time against the SWAC with games against Jackson State (1966), UAPB (2014) and Florida A&M (2015).
• TSU will play a WAC team for the second straight year as they played Tarleton State in the CIT last season. TSU guard Kavion McCain also returns to ACU after spending the 2023-24 campaign there where he averaged 6.2 points per contest.
• 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 90-61 all-time in the month of December and 12-21 at TSU.
