Men's Basketball Faces Host Memphis in First Round of Conference Championship

Thursday, March 14

Memphis, Tenn.

2 PM

Tulane University

(5) Memphis

Men's Basketball Faces Host Memphis in First Round of Conference Championship

Mar 13, 2019 | Men's Basketball

GAME 31: No. 12 TULANE Green Wave (4-26, 0-18 AAC) at No. 5 MEMPHIS Tigers (19-12, 11-7 AAC)
When:	Thursday, March 14, 2019 \| 2 p.m. (CT)
Where:	Memphis, Tenn. \| FedEx Forum
Watch:	ESPNU \| WatchESPN app
Commentators:	Mike Corey (PxP) & Tim Welsh (Color)
Radio:	1280 AM New Orleans \| Listen Online
Radio Talent:	Todd Graffagnini (Play-By-Play)
Live Scoring:	Statbroadcast
Notes:	Tulane \| Memphis \| American Athletic Conference
Social Media:	@GreenWaveMBB \| #RollWave

MEMPHIS - Seeded 12th, the Tulane men's basketball team begins play in the 2019 Air Force Reserve American Athletic Conference Championship with a first round matchup against host and No. 5 seed Memphis on Thursday, March 14. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m., at FedEx Forum.

The game will be televised nationally on ESPNU and available on the WatchESPN app. Mike Corey will deliver play-by-play of the action, while Tim Welsh provides color commentary.

STARTING FIVE
1. In its fifth American Athletic Conference Championship appearance, No. 12 seed Tulane takes on the No. 5 seed and host Memphis in what will be the Green Wave's 10th conference tournament in program history to take place in Memphis, dating back to its first in the 1977 Metro Confrence Tournament. The Wave will face the Tigers in a postseason tournament game for the ninth time in history and the first since 2013.
2. Thursday's game marks the 66th all-time meeting between the Green Wave and Tigers, and the 33rd in Memphis. Tulane's last road victory over the Tigers came in a 74-66 triumph on January 3, 2015.
3. In two meetings this season, Memphis escaped New Orleans with an 83-79 victory on January 13, before posting a 102-76 home win on February 20. Kevin Zhang scored a season-high 25 points, while Blake Paul posted a double-double with 15 points and 13 rebounds in the first matchup, while Caleb Daniels led the way with 25 points and Moses Wood chipped in 17 points in the second contest.
4. Last time out, the Green Wave suffered a heartbreaking 82-79 home defeat to Wichita State in Saturday's regular-season finale. Caleb Daniels had a a career night, scoring a career-high 36 points while establishing personal bests in field goals made (11) and free throws made (12). He added seven rebounds in what was his 10th game with at least 20 points this season. Samir Sehic added 20 points and eight rebounds in his fifth 20-point performance of the year.
5. Caleb Daniels and Samir Sehic have played arguably their best basketball of the year over the last five games. Daniels is averaging 21.6 points, 6.8 rebounds and 4.0 assists on 47 percent shooting, while Sehic is shooting 63 percent overall with 19.6 points and 8.0 rebounds per game during that span.

WITH A WIN...
• Tulane advances to Friday's quarterfinal round against No. 4 seed UCF. Tipoff will be at 1 p.m., and the game will be televised on ESPN2.
• It will be Tulane's second in its last five trips to FedEx Forum.
• The Green Wave will reach the quarterfinals for the second time in four seasons.

BY THE NUMBERS
• 9 – Redshirt junior forward Samir Sehic has posted nine double-doubles this season and has 11 in his career after compiling two last year.
• 28 –Redshirt senior guard Jordan Cornish has scored 972 points in three plus seasons (two at UNLV, second at Tulane) and needs just 28 more to eclipse 1,000 for his career.
• 173 - Tulane has made at least one 3-point field goal in 173 consecutive games. The last time the Green Wave failed to do so came on Jan. 16, 2014 at home against Louisiana Tech when they went 0-for-14 from outside.

SCOUTING MEMPHIS
• The Tigers (19-12, 11-7 AAC) enter Thursday's game with wins in four of their last five outings, and own an impressive 15-2 record this season on their home court.
• Memphis ranks first in The American in scoring (81.3) and assists per game (15.6), second in field goal percentage (.412) and steals per game (4.7) and third in rebounding (37.7).
• Senior guard Jeremiah Martin is tied for the conference lead in scoring (19.7 ppg), ranks second in steals (2.2 spg) and fourth in assists (4.5 apg).
• Senior forward Kyvon Davenport is fifth in the league in rebounding (6.9 rpg) and eighth in field goal percentage (.498).

PAUL CLIMBING ALL-TIME BLOCKS LIST
• Senior forward Blake Paul became one of the 10 greatest shot blockers in program history with one rejection at Memphis on February 20:

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.         Blake Paul (2015-19)      104
9.         Linton Johnson (1998-2002)     99
10. Anthony Reed (1989-93)           95

20-POINT PERFORMANCES
• Tulane has had six different players score at least 20 points in a game this season, the most among any American Athletic Conference program:
• Caleb Daniels (10) - vs. Coastal Carolina, South Dakota State, at South Alabama, Texas Southern, at UConn, Temple, at Memphis, at Tulsa, USF, Wichita State
• Samir Sehic (5) - vs. Texas Southern, SMU, ECU, at Temple, Wichita State
• Kevin Zhang (3) - vs. Florida State, Georgia State, Memphis (1/13)
• Jordan Cornish (1) - vs. UL Lafayette
• Shakwon Barrett (1) - vs. UT-Martin
• Connor Crabtree (1) - vs. East Carolina

USA BASKETBALL STARDOM
• Tulane alum Cameron Reynolds recently completed his second tour with USA Basketball, competing in a pair of World Cup qualifying games February 22 and 25 in Greensboro, N.C., under head coach Jeff Van Gundy.
• In the first game against Panama, Reynolds set USA Men's World Cup Qualifying Team single-game records with 26 points and six 3-pointers made, leading the Red, White and Blue to 111-80 win.

REYNOLDS GETS FIRST NBA CONTRACT
• After going undrafted in 2018, Cameron Reynolds signed his first NBA deal, reaching a 10-day contract agreement with the Minnesota Timberwolves on February 25.
• Reynolds has spent his first season as a professional with the Sacramento Kings' G-League affiliate in Stockton. There, he has compiled some impressive numbers in 33 games, making nine starts while averaging 16.0 points, 4.2 rebounds per game.

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.

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 hosted 15 home games and competed in five neutral-site contests. The Wave played just one true road tilt in the non-conference slate at South Alabama on Dec. 8.

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.