KANSAS CITY, MO - Coming off a 69-45 win over Houston Baptist this past week, TCU (1-0) is heading to Kansas City to face off Tulsa (0-0) in the first round of the Hall of Fame Classic on Saturday night.
This will be the 35th time these two teams will go head to head. Tulsa holds a 22-12 series lead over TCU, but they are 3-3 when playing at neutral sites.
The Golden Hurricanes have won 11 out of the last 15 games, but the Horned Frogs have won the last two meetings.
Despite having 11 underclassmen and being the 4th youngest team in the country, TCU is not playing like it. The Horned Frogs are coming off a great team win this past week against Houston Baptist. TCU collectively shot 45 percent from the floor and nine TCU players got on the board.
The horned frogs were lights out on defense leaving the Huskies scoreless for the fisrt seven minutes of play, and only giving up 45 total points.
In order for TCU to advance to the next round in this tournament they will have to shut down the four seniors on this Tulsa team - Elijah Joiner, Darien Jackson, Emmanuel Ugboh and Brandon Rachel.
Rachel is going to be a key factor in this game. He was named the 2020-21 preseason all-AAC team, after averaging 12.1 points, 5.8 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.5 steals last season.
TCU will have to play solid defense on him as he has scored in the double digits 20 times and led his team last seaon in rebounds (174), blocks (18), and steals (45).
Tulsa is coming off a great last season. They went 21-10 and 13-5 in conference play. The Golden Hurricanes shared the American Athletic Conference regular season Title with Cincinatti and Houston.
The Goldden Hurricanes are debuting three transfers that had to sit out of the 2019-20 season due to the NCAA transfer rules. Keyshawn Embery-Simpson, transfer out of Arkansa. Curtis Haywood II, transfer out of Georgia Tech. Ryan Gendron, transfer out of Oklahoma State.
The game will be Saturday, Nov 28 at 6:30 p.m.
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