UNO GAME NOTES
NEW ORLEANS – The University of New Orleans men's basketball team's four-game road swing continues on Wednesday with a notably shorter commute as the Privateers will head across town to take on the Tulane Green Wave at 7 p.m. inside Avron B. Fogelman Arena in Devlin Fieldhouse.
The game will be broadcast live on
ESPN3 and Privateer fans can also catch all the action on the at
www.UNOPrivateers.com via the
UNO Showcase. The game at Tulane marks the third time so far during the 2015-16 season that UNO will play on ESPN3 and the Privateers are 1-1 in those contests.
"We're excited to go uptown and renew a great rivalry that goes back to the program's inception," head coach
Mark Slessinger said. "I've gotten texts today from great people like [former UNO head coach] Tim Floyd that know how much this game means, not only to our faculty, staff and students, but to our 35,000 alumni here in the metro area, as well as all the players and coaches who have been here before.
"This is the championship for the city and one that is big, again, for our alumni, our whole student body and everyone associated with the University of New Orleans. It's an important game to have back on our schedule and hopefully we can keep the rivalry renewed."
The Privateers head uptown 2-3 on the year and looking to bounce back from a 90-63 loss to Northwestern on Saturday night in Evanston, Illinois. Prior to that, UNO had won its previous two games with a 94-57 victory over Pensacola Christian on Nov. 19 and a 64-51 road decision at Bradley on Nov. 25.
As a team, New Orleans is averaging 71.4 points, 36.8 rebounds, 13.0 assists, 8.0 steals and 2.4 blocks per game. Junior guard
Christavious Gill leads a balanced Privateer offense with 11.6 points per game while junior guard
Nate Frye follows with a 10.6 average and the duo of sophomore wing
Michael Zeno and junior forward
Erik Thomas sport identical 9.8 averages.
Senior forward
Kevin Hill paces the team with 7.6 rebounds per game and sophomore
Travin Thibodeaux headlines the defense with five blocked shots. Gill leads the Privateers with 2.8 assists and 2.4 steals per contest.
New Orleans is connecting at a .402 clip from the field, hitting 115-of-286 shots from the floor, and 29-of-67 tries from beyond the 3-point arc (.433), while allowing opponents to shoot .468 overall (124-of-265) and .333 from 3-point land (86-of-127). Privateer foes are averaging 74.4 points, 35.4 rebounds, 15.0 assists, 6.8 steals and 5.6 blocks so far in 2015-16.
"We've played really, really well in stretches and our bad stretches have been bad so we've had to go back and reteach," Slessinger said. "Our young kids are getting a ton of minutes and experience, and we're seeing those guys turn the corner at a high rate. We're exciting to see that type of development continue again tomorrow night when we head to the other side of town."
Tulane enters the midweek matchup 4-3 on the season and riding the crest of a two-game winning streak after deating Stephen F. Austin, 60-59 on Nov. 27, and Liberty, 72-51 on Nov. 29, in the final two games of the Music City Challenge in Nashville, Tennessee.
As a team, the Green Wave are averaging 71.0 points, 38.7 rebounds, 14.1 assists, 7.3 steals and 3.4 blocks per game. Louis Dabney leads three Tulane players averaging double figures offensively with 13.1 points per game while Malik Morgan has 10.3 and Dylan Osetkowski follows at 10.1. Osetkowski paces the team with 9.0 rebounds per game and Jernard Jarreau has seven of the team's 24 blocked shots. Morgan headlines the squad with 3.9 assists and 1.7 steals per outing.
Tulane is hitting 44.3 percent of its shots from the field, connecting on 172-of-388 field goal attempts, including a 51-of-138 showing from beyond the 3-point line (.370). The Green Wave defense has allowed opponents to post a 41.0 shooting percentage (162-of-395) and a 32.4 clip from 3-point land (47-of-145). Tulane opponents are averaging 65.9 points, 31.9 rebounds, 11.0 assists, 7.6 steals and 1.6 blocks per game.
"It's a great matchup," Slessinger added. "Both of us have a lot of local players from the metro area that know each other very, very well. It's going to a game of familiarity. Their coaching staff and ours get along very well. It'll be a matchup of different styles, and that will be fun to watch. It should be a very entertaining game."
Wednesday's game between New Orleans and Tulane marks the 48
th time the two teams will meet on the hardwood and the Green Wave hold a slight 24-23 lead in the all-time series.
The Privateers are 6-9 when playing in Tulane's on-campus facility, including a 72-53 loss on Nov. 26, 2011, in the last meeting between the two programs. Tulane has won the last two contests in the series with a 57-53 decision in Lakefront Arena on Dec. 14, 2010. UNO's last win against Tulane came on Dec. 2, 2009, when the Privateers capped a four-game streak in the head-to-head battle with a 49-39 home victory.
Following the game at Tulane, UNO will close out its four-game road swing on Dec. 5 at Ball State before returning to Lakefront Arena Saturday, Dec. 12, for a 6:15 p.m. showdown against Williams Baptist. Tickets to that game and future Privateer sporting events can be purchased by clicking
HERE or by calling the UNO Athletics Ticket Office at (504) 280-GAME (4263).
