Men's Basketball To Open SLC Tourney Action On Friday

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KATY, Texas – With a regular-season title and both the conference Player and Coach of the Year honors already in hand, the University of New Orleans men's basketball team will open play in the 2017 Southland Conference Tournament on Friday, March 10, when the top-seeded Privateers square off against Sam Houston State in a semifinals matchup at 5 p.m. in the Leonard E. Merrell Center.

UNO enjoyed a double-bye, courtesy of the SLC regular-season championship, and played spectator during the opening round on Wednesday as it did again on Thursday when the fifth-seeded Bearkats defeated No. 4 seed Houston Baptist, 63-59. The winner of the SLC Tournament will receive the league's automatic bid in the NCAA Tournament – an event the Privateers are looking to participate in for the first time since 1996. If the Privateers should falter over the next two days, they are guaranteed a spot in the upcoming NIT.

"We set some clear goals before the season, and that was to win the league, go the NCAA Tournament and win some games," Southland Conference Coach of the Year Mark Slessinger said. "We've got to get through two more games to be able to check that goal off the list. The guys are very resolved, they've got tremendous attention to detail and we're excepted to have the chance to go do that. There's not a lot of teams still playing right now. With each day, the amount of teams still playing gets fewer and fewer. We know that. It's a very precious thing and we're very blessed to still be playing basketball at this time."

The Privateers enter the 2017 SLC Tournament, 18-11 on the year, winners of the league's regular-season title courtesy of a 13-5 in conference mark and fresh off a 74-64 win at Nicholls on March 4.

As a team, New Orleans is averaging 73.2 points, 36.0 rebounds, 16.1 assists, 7.7 steals and 3.2 blocks per game. Senior forward Erik Thomas leads the Privateers offensively with 19.7 points per game, followed by senior guards Christavious Gill at 11.6 and Nate Frye with a mark of 10.3. Thomas also paces the team with 7.9 rebounds and 1.5 steals a night with junior forward Travin Thibodeaux leading the squad with 3.4 assists per game. Junior forward Makur Puou headlines the defense with 1.3 blocked shots per contest.

New Orleans is connecting at a .472 clip from the field, hitting 752-of-1594 shots from the floor and 132-of-404 tries from beyond the 3-point arc (.327), while allowing opponents to shoot .440 overall (722-of-1640) and .309 from 3-point land (185-of-598). Privateer averaged 69.7 points, 32.- rebounds, 12.7 assists, 8.7 steals and 3.2 blocks during the 2016-17 regular season.

UNO is the No. 1 seed in a conference tourney for the first time since 1997 when the Privateers were members of the Sun Belt Conference. The Privateers are 3-1 against teams in its side of the bracket – going 2-0 vs No. 8 Central Arkansas (which has already been eliminated), 1-0 vs No. 4 Houston Baptist, 0-1 vs No. 5 Sam Houston State – and holds a 4-2 mark against teams on the other side of the bracket with showings of 1-0 vs No. 2 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and No. 6 Lamar, 1-1 vs No. 3 Stephen F. Austin and No. 7 Southeastern Louisiana (which lost on Wednesday).

"We know we're going to have to come out and play really, really hard and with great energy," Slessinger said. "We've had a great week of training and preparation. The staff has done an amazing job of continuing to get these guys ready for whichever opponent we have. Whether it be Houston Baptist or Sam Houston State, we know we have our work cut out for us."

After being ineligible for the Southland Conference Tournament its first year in 2013-14 – the Privateers' first in the league – New Orleans has now qualified for the event in each of the last three seasons and is 1-2 all-time in the tourney. In 2015, UNO opened with an 82-73 win over Nicholls before falling to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the semifinals, 61-58. Last season, the Privateers dropped an opening-round contest to Southeastern Louisiana, 84-74.

The Southland Conference is the third league that the Privateers have been a member of since starting varsity athletics in 1969 and have qualified for each conference's postseason championship. UNO is 24-25 all-time in conference tournament play, sporting a 5-3 record in the American South Tournament from 1988-91 and going 18-20 in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament from 1977-80 and again from 1992-2010 in addition to the 1-2 mark in SLC action.

UNO has advanced to a conference tournament championship game on nine occasions, winning the American South title in 1990 and claiming Sun Belt championships in 1978 and 1996.

"We're going to have to defend at a high level," Slessinger added. "We're going to have to continue to rebound the ball very well. We're going to have to take care of the ball and not turn it over. We've continued to shoot the ball at a high percentage all season, and we've shared the ball very, very well. We just can't turn it over and we have to rebound it and guard at a high rate."

Each of the first three rounds of the SLC Tournament will be broadcast live on ESPN3, and Saturday's championship game will be carried by ESPN2. For fans planning on attending the games in the Merrell Center, click HERE for ticket information.