Men's Basketball Challenges UCF at Home in Blackout Game

GAME 18: TULANE Green Wave (4-13, 0-5 AAC) vs. UCF Knights (14-3, 4-1 AAC)
When:	Wednesday, January 23 \| 7 p.m. (CT)
Where:	New Orleans \| Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse
Watch:	ESPN3 \| WatchESPN
Commentators:	Tim Grubbs (PxP) & Victor Howell (Color)
Radio:	1280 AM New Orleans \| Listen Online
Radio Talent:	Todd Graffagnini (Play-By-Play)
Live Scoring:	Statbroadcast
Notes:	Tulane \| UCF \| American Athletic Conference
Tickets:	Purchase Online
Social Media:	@GreenWaveMBB \| #RollWave

NEW ORLEANS - The Tulane men's basketball team hosts preseason American Athletic Conference favorite UCF in its annual "Blackout Game" on Wednesday, January 23. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m., at Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse.

The game will be broadcast on the WatchESPN app, as Tim Grubbs delivers play-by-play commentary and Victor Howell provides color analysis.

STARTING FIVE
1. Tulane faces its third of four American Athletic Conference opponents that the Green Wave will only face once during the regular season when UCF takes the court in New Orleans. The Green Wave played at Cincinnati and UConn, while the Knights and Houston (Feb. 17) will be played at Fogelman in Devlin.
2. Green Wave head coach Mike Dunleavy Sr.'s son, Mike Jr., played at Duke from 2000-02 when UCF head coach Johnny Dawkins was an assistant under Mike Krzyzewski. They won the national championship in 2001.
3. Last time out, Tulane dropped an 87-71 road contest at UConn on Saturday afternoon in its seventh consecutive setback. The Green Wave established season lows in 3-pointers made (3), free throws attempted (11), but also matches a season high in assists (19) while committing their fewest fouls in a game this season (8).
4. After shooting over 70 percent at the free throw line in just two of the first 12 games of the season, Tulane has made at least 70 percent of its tries from the charity stripe in four of the first five conference games. The Green Wave have also outrebounded their opponents in three of five league contests.
5. After winning The American's Team Academic Excellence Award in 2018, the Green Wave posted a 3.14 GPA during the fall 2018 semester, the highest in program history. Nine of 14 players posted at least a 3.0 GPA, including each international player on the team.

BY THE NUMBERS
• 6 – Redshirt junior forward Samir Sehic has posted six double-doubles this season and two in the last three games. He has eight in his career after compiling two last year.
• 7 – Tulane has used seven different starting lineups in its first 17 games this season. The Green Wave have deployed a unique starting five in each of their last three contests. Samir Sehic is the only Tulane player to start every game.
• 123 - Redshirt senior guard Jordan Cornish has scored 877 points in three plus seasons (two at UNLV, second at Tulane) and needs just 123 more to eclipse 1,000 for his career.

SCOUTING UCF
• The Knights (14-3, 4-1 AAC) were picked to win the American Athletic Conference according to a preseason poll of the league's head coaches.
• UCF leads The American in both field goal percentage (.475) and 3-point percentage (.358), while ranking second in field goal percentage defense (.390) and third in scoring defense (63.8).
• The Knights are led by redshirt senior guard B.J. Taylor, who was named The American's Preseason Player of the Year. He ranks 10th nationally in free throws attempted (146) and 16th in free throw makes (110). Taylor has scored 1,382 career points and is averaging 17.1 per game this season.

20-POINT PERFORMANCES
• Tulane has had five different players score at least 20 points in a game this season, the most among any American Athletic Conference program:
• Caleb Daniels (5) - vs. Coastal Carolina, South Dakota State, South Alabama, Texas Southern, UConn
• Kevin Zhang (3) - vs. Florida State, Georgia State, Memphis (1/13)
• Samir Sehic (2) - vs. Texas Southern, SMU (1/4)
• Jordan Cornish (1) - vs. UL Lafayette
• Shakwon Barrett (1) - vs. UT-Martin

CLEANING UP IN THE CLASSROOM
• The Green Wave compiled a 3.14 team GPA for the 2018 Fall semester, the highest recorded in program history.
• Buay Koka posted a perfect 4.0 GPA
• Nine of 14 players had at least a 3.0 GPA
• 10/14 players have a cumulate GPA of at least 3.0
• All five international players had at least a 3.0
• Tulane was named the recipient of the American Athletic Conference's Team Academic Excellence Award for the 2017-18 season, an honor given annually to one of the conference's 12 institutions sponsoring men's basketball that achieves the highest cumulative grade point average.

DUNLEAVYS LONE FATHER-SON HEAD-COACHING DUO
• In his third season as head coach, Mike Dunleavy Sr., is the only head coach with a son who is also a head coach at the NCAA Division I level.
• His son, Baker Dunleavy, is in his second season at the helm of Quinnipiac's program.

CONGRATS GRAD!
• Redshirt junior forward Samir Sehic earned his bachelor's degree in finance in May of 2018 with two years of eligibility remaining. He is currently pursuing his MBA at Tulane.

PAUL CLIMBING ALL-TIME BLOCKS LIST
• Senior forward Blake Paul is on the verge of becoming one of the 10 greatest shot blockers in program history:
1.         John Williams (1981-85)           192
2.         Lawrence Nelson (1994-98)      181
3.         Quincy Davis (2002-06)             165
4.         Jerald Honeycutt (1993-97)       163
5.         David Gomez (2004-08)            145
6.         Donnie Stith (2004-08)              142
7.         Robinson Louisme (2004-09)     117
8.         Linton Johnson (1998-2002)     99
9.         Anthony Reed (1989-93)           95
10.       Paul Thompson (1979-83)         92
11.        Blake Paul (2015-19)            88

ZHANG'S ARRIVAL MARKS RARE FOREIGN IMPORT
NCAA Division I men's basketball players hailing from China are rare, as freshman swingman Kevin Zhang is one of just five players nationally who can stake that claim along with CS Fullerton sophomore Johnny Wang, CS Northridge freshman Michael Ou, Cal-Berkley freshman James Zhao and UPenn frosh Michael Wang.

STRENGTH WITHIN THE SCHEDULE
• Tulane will play a minimum of 11 regular-season games against nine teams that earned postseason bids in 2018, including seven opponents that played in the NCAA Tournament (Cincinnati, Florida State, Georgia State, Houston, South Dakota State, Texas Southern and Wichita State). Temple and Southeastern Louisiana made NIT appearances.
• The Green Wave will host 15 home games and will head out to compete in five neutral-site contests. The Wave will play just one true road tilt in the non-conference slate at South Alabama on Dec. 8.

OLDEST ARENAS
• Tulane's home arena, Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse, is one of the oldest active arenas in college basketball:

1. Matthews Arena – Northeastern – April 16, 1910
2. Rose Hill Gym – Fordham – Jan. 16, 1925
3. Lavietes Pavilion – Harvard - 1926
4. The Palestra – Penn – Jan. 1, 1927
5. Edmundson Pavilion – Washington – Dec. 27, 1927
6. Williams Arena – Minnesota – Feb. 4, 1928
7. Hinkle Fieldhouse – Butler – March 7, 1928
8. Payne Whitney Gym – Yale – Dec. 10, 1932
9. Fogelman in Devlin – Tulane – Dec. 15, 1933
10. Haas Pavilion – California – Jan. 13, 1933

FOLLOW ON SOCIAL MEDIA
For behind-the-scenes coverage, follow Tulane men's basketball (@GreenWaveMBB) on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

WE ARE NOLA BUILT
Tulane University is located in the city of New Orleans. It is a city built on tradition and resiliency. The lessons Green Wave student-athletes have learned through their connection with this university and city have BUILT doctors, lawyers, business leaders, conference champions, all-conference players, All-Americans, professional athletes and NCAA tournament teams. The city of New Orleans has shaped us into who we are today. We are One City. We are Tulane. We are NOLA BUILT. Check out our story at NolaBuilt.com.

Men's Basketball Challenges UCF at Home in Blackout Game

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Players Mentioned

Shakwon Barrett

Jordan Cornish

Caleb Daniels

Buay Koka

Blake Paul

Samir Sehic

Kevin Zhang

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Tulane University Athletics

Men's Basketball Challenges UCF at Home in Blackout Game

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Shakwon Barrett

Jordan Cornish

Caleb Daniels

Buay Koka

Blake Paul

Samir Sehic

Kevin Zhang

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