Tennessee State Fightin’ Oprahs Breakdown

The Tennessee State Tigers enter tonight’s game at Rupp with a 3-6 record and have lost four of their last five.  Their lone victories on the season have come at home against Northern Illinois and Miles and at Southeast Missouri State. In their last game they lost at Alabama 75-66.

The Cats and Tigers have met three times in their history with Kentucky winning all three games.  The last time they played was on December 30, 2002 and the Cats won 115-87.

Last season the Fightin’ Oprahs (Oprah Winfrey graduated from TSU) finished with a 15-17 record but ended the year strong, winning five of their last seven en route to an appearance in the OVC Tournament Championship game. It was the first time that TSU had made it to the OVC championship since 1998.

Head Coach Cy Alexander is in his sixth season at the helm and has compiled a 64-96 record. He spent the previous 16 seasons as the head man at South Carolina State, leading them to the NCAA Tournament in 2003.

Alexander hopes that despite losing eight players from a year ago that the Tigers can build on their late success. To do so, they will have to rely on their three returning starters; sophomore Gerald Robinson Jr. (6-0, guard), sophomore Darius Cox (6-7, forward) and senior Jerrell Houston (6-8, forward).

The strength of this TSU team is their frontcourt and Cox, Houston and senior Stephen Evans (6-8, center) are a big reason why. At 6-8, 6-8 and 6-7 they have the biggest frontline in the OVC and combine for 37 points and 22 rebounds a game.

Houston, a member of the All-OVC preseason team, has already been named OVC player of the week for his effort during the week of December 8-14th. His lone game during that week was at Alabama A&M but he finished with 25 points on 11-15 shooting. On the young season he is averaging 14.6 points, 7.4 rebounds (2nd in OVC) and shooting 87-percent from the line

Cox, who has been nearly as good as Houston so far this season, along with the improved play of the senior Evans has really solidified the Tigers underneath. Cox is averaging 13.3 points and 7.2 rebounds. Evans, who only scored 35 points the entire season last year, is averaging 9.3 points, 7.1 rebounds and nearly two blocks per game. He posted a career-high five blocks against Belmont on December 1st. Both players are shooting 52-percent from the field as well, which is good for seventh in the OVC.

A missed shot is almost as good as a pass for the Tigers as they are an extremely effective offensive rebounding team. Houston and Cox are both averaging just over three offensive boards a game.

Despite the strength of their frontline the Tigers best overall player is probably Robinson. He led the Tigers in scoring as a freshman with 15.2 a game and along with Houston is a member of the All-OVC preseason team. He has also been nominated for the Basketball Hall of Fame’s Bob Cousy Award, which is given to the top collegiate male basketball point guard.

In his sophomore campaign Robinson is leading the Tigers in scoring again, this time with 18.7, which ranks fourth in the OVC conference. He is not a great shooter from deep but he can get hot on you. Robinson is only shooting 19-percent from beyond the arc on the season but he has knocked down three threes in two games. Earlier this season in a 109-92 victory over Miles, he finished with 36 points, shot 13-18 from the floor, 3-5 from deep, 7-8 from the line, recorded five rebounds, eight assists and two steals. That is a line folks. Still, expect Robinson to try to get into the lane and finish or feed his big men. He is also leading the team in assists with 4.2 a game, which ranks fifth in the conference.

Look for junior Jeremiah Crutcher (5-11, guard), who is not a scoring threat at all, to start at the other guard for the Tigers. Crutcher has only 24 points on the season and 15 of them came in the Miles game, which was played at a break-neck pace.

Senior Emmanuel Gaiter (6-5, forward) and freshman Parker Smith (6-3, guard) will see plenty of time off the bench. Smith is the Tigers three-point specialist. He is shooting 14-42 on the season.

I don’t expect the Cats to have many problems with this Tennessee State team. Yeah, their frontline is going to cause problems against some OVC opponents but I don’t see it having the same effect on Kentucky. In fact, it will be good for Patrick Patterson to have to battle against some size underneath.

The key will be containing Robinson and not letting him get going because when he gets in a grove he can keep the Tigers in the game by himself. But, on a whole this is not a very good shooting team so if you can contain penetration and make it tough for them to feed the post they are going to struggle. You also have to block out defensively because this team can hurt you on the offensive glass.

Now a little bit about Tennessee State University. It is located in Nashville, was founded in 1912 and is the only state-funded historically black university in Tennessee. TSU projects itself to its students, faculty, and alumni and to the citizens of the State through the school’s charge “Enter to learn, go forth to serve.” and its motto, “Think, Work, Serve.”

Joining Oprah Winfrey as a notable TSU alum are former Dallas Cowboy Ed “Too Tall” Jones and former New York Knick Anthony Mason.