The SMU men’s basketball team will look for its first win in conference play when they take on the Tulsa Golden Hurricane at Moody Coliseum on Saturday at 7 p.m. SMU (6-9, 0-2) has yet to win in 2008. They will have their chance against Tulsa (8-6, 0-2), who is similarly winless in conference play.
Last time out, the Mustangs lost to the University of Houston amid a barrage of three-point shots from the Cougars. However, the team never gave up and some individual players achieved personal bests. Jon Killen posted a career-high 12 assists, while Papa Dia scored a career-high 21 points.
Killen has been an iron-man so far this season. He is averaging over 34 minutes per game and played every second of the game against the Cougars. He is averaging 11.2 points, 4.67 assists and four rebounds per game this season.
The Mustangs played without the service of senior guard Derrick Roberts on Wednesday against the Cougars. Roberts was sidelined because of an injury to his hamstring. Roberts will rejoin the SMU lineup for the game against Tulsa.
The Golden Hurricane comes to Dallas with a two-game losing streak. Tulsa lost to Central Florida and Tulane, both conference opponents, in games that went into overtime.
Sophomore guard Ben Uzoh leads the Golden Hurricane this year in scoring. He averages over 16 points per game while grabbing 6.4 rebounds per game. He shoots the three-point ball at a high percentage of 44.3 percent.
The Mustangs match up well against Tulsa in terms of size. The Golden Hurricane features seven- footer Jerome Jordan from Kingston, Jamaica. His inside presence should be a true test of Bamba Fall and Dia’s interior defense. Jordan averages 8.4 points per game and 8.9 rebounds per game.
The shift of Dia and Fall down to the post will represent a change from the strategy used to defend Houston. The Cougars lived by the three-point shot and transition basketball. The outside barrage forced one of the big men to come out and defend the perimeter.
A win on Saturday night will snap the Mustangs’ four-game losing skid. The Mustangs had a similar streak at the beginning of the season. However, they answered that by going on a four-game winning streak that evened their record.
