• Texas Southern hits the road once again for a trip to Tallahassee, Fla. for a match-up at Florida A&M on Saturday at 5 p.m.
• Picked eighth in the SWAC Preseason Poll, FAMU won five of its first six SWAC games but hit a bump recently as they're on a three-game slide. The Rattlers rank third in the SWAC in defense (76.5 ppg) and rank fourth in rebounding (35.3 rpg). Jaquan Sanders leads FAMU in scoring with 12.2 points and 60 assists followed by Tyler Shirley's 11.4 points. Micah Octave leads the team in rebounding with 7.3 rebounds.
• This marks the lone meeting this season between both teams due to the SWAC's unbalanced schedule as TSU has faced FAMU only four times since 1980. TSU leads the all-time series 4-3.Â
• TSU head coach Johnny Jones is 2-2 lifetime against Florida A&M.
• TSU's Troy Hupstead and FAMU's Tuscan Onuoha were teammates at UT Arlington last season.
• 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 15.0 points and 9.4 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 102-86 all-time in the month of February and 34-16 at TSU.
