Men's Basketball Seeks Season Split at SMU

GAME 19: TULANE Green Wave (4-14, 0-6 AAC) at SMU Mustangs (11-7, 3-3 AAC )
When:	Jan. 26, 2019 \| 5 p.m. (CT)
Where:	Dallas, Texas \| Moody Coliseum
Watch:	ESPNU \| WatchESPN
Commentators:	Matt Schick (Play-by-Play) & Sean Harrington (Color Analyst)
Radio:	1280 AM New Orleans \| Listen Online
Radio Talent:	Todd Graffagnini (Play-By-Play)
Live Stats:	SIDEARM
Notes:	Tulane \| SMU \| American Athletic Conference
Social Media:	Twitter: @GreenWaveMBB \| #RollWave

NEW ORLEANS - The Tulane men's basketball team heads to Dallas, Texas in search of its first American Athletic Conference victory of the season in a matchup at SMU on Saturday, January 26. Tipoff is set for 5 p.m. (CT) at Moody Coliseum, and the game will be televised nationally on ESPNU.

STARTING FIVE
1. Tulane looks for its second win in its last three meetings with SMU in its only trip to the Lonestar State during the regular season.
2. Tulane and SMU meet for the second time in just over three weeks time, as the Mustangs will be the Green Wave's first conference opponent they'll face for the second time this season. The Wave made a late charge inside the final five minutes to cut their deficit to just six, but could not draw closer. Redshirt junior Samir Sehic led the way for the Green Wave finishing with 20 points and a career-high 15 rebounds to record his fifth of six double-doubles this season.
3. Tulane director of basketball operations Kevin Dunleavy is in his second season with the Green Wave after joining the team in August 2017 as the program's video coordinator following a two-year stint as a graduate assistant at SMU. The Green Wave's first-year video coordinator Cannen Cunningham is also an SMU alum. Dunleavy and Cunningham lettered four years (2011-15) for the Mustangs.
4. Senior forward Blake Paul has emerged in the last three games, averaging 12.0 points, 10.3 rebounds and 2.0 assists while making 63 percent of his shots from the floor in those contests. He has two double-figure scoring performances, two double-digit rebounding games and one double-double during the span.
5. Sophomore Caleb Daniels has scored at least 20 points five times this season, and the Green Wave owns a 3-2 record in those games.

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.
• 8 – Tulane has used eight different starting lineups in its first 18 games this season. The Green Wave have deployed a unique starting five in each of their last four contests. Samir Sehic is the only Tulane player to start every game.
• 119 - Redshirt senior guard Jordan Cornish has scored 881 points in three plus seasons (two at UNLV, second at Tulane) and needs just 119 more to eclipse 1,000 for his career.

SCOUTING SMU
• The Mustangs (11-7, 3-3 AAC) enter Saturday's matchup with losses in three of their last five games since their last matchup with the Green Wave on Jan. 4 in New Orleans.
• SMU ranks second in the conference and 16th nationally in offensive rebounds per game (13.6).
• Senior guard Jahmal McMurrary ranks fourth in The American in 3-point field goal percentage at 38 percent, and sixth in the league in points per game (17.7).

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.

AAC WEEKLY HONORS
• Sophomore guard Caleb Daniels was selected to the American Athletic Conference Weekly Honor Roll on December 10, while freshman swingman Kevin Zhang was selected to the first listing of the 2018-19 season on November 12.
• Daniels averaged 20 points and nine rebounds per game while shooting 16-for-23 (.696) from the field in two games, as he registered his first career double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds on 7-for-11 shooting in the 87-74 win over UT-Martin, before tallying his third 20-point performance of the season with 23 points and eight boards on 9-for-12 shooting at South Alabama.
• Starting in his college debut against 17th-ranked Florida State, Zhang scored a game-high 24 points and grabbed seven rebounds with two assists and just one turnover in 35 minutes. The Shenyang, China native shot 9-for-13 overall, including 4-for-5 from 3-point range, while 17 of his 24 points came in the second half.

AROUND THE GLOBE
Tulane's 2018-19 roster comprises players born on four continents with Ray Ona Embo, a French guard (Europe), South Sudanese post players Bul Ajang and Buay Koka (Africa), Chinese freshman Kevin Zhang (Asia) and nine from North America (U.S. and Canada).

Most continents represented on NCAA Division I men's basketball programs:
1. Maine.................... 5
    Virginia ............... 5
2. Bradley................. 4
    Illinois-Chicago...... 4
    UNLV.................... 4
    Oklahoma.............. 4
    Portland ............... 4
    Sacramento State.. 4
    UT Arlington.......... 4
    Tulane................. 4
    Utah State……………4

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.

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Players Mentioned

Bul Ajang

Shakwon Barrett

Jordan Cornish

Caleb Daniels

Buay Koka

Ray Ona Embo

Blake Paul

Samir Sehic

Kevin Zhang

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