Texas Southern Starts NCAA Basketball Tournament Tonight

HOUSTON, TX — The Texas Southern University men's basketball program will probably have more eyes on their game tonight than any other time in school history when they take on North Carolina Central. In what would probably be an otherwise nondescript game, tonight's tilt between two teams with mediocre records will have a national audience and the only NCAA Tournament on TV at the time.

Tipoff of tonight's NCAA Tournament first round game will be at 5:30 p.m. on TruTV. All four first round games — that began on Tuesday night — are played in Dayton, Ohio. The winner of tonight's game moves on as a No. 16 seed to the second round to face Xavier, the top seed of the West Region.

TSU lost its first 13 games of the 2017-18 season before winning three straight against Southern, Alcorn State and Prairie View in SWAC play. But they got hot at the end of the season and are on a seven-game winning streak, including sweeping its way to a SWAC Tournament title.

TSU (15-19) is led on offense by Donte Clark, who's averaging 18.6 points and 2.6 assists per game. Trayvon Reed is the defensive leader with 8.8 rebounds and 3 blocks a game.

Among the losses in the 13-game streak to start the season were against tournament teams Gonzaga, Ohio State, Syracuse, Kansas, Clemson and TCU.

NCCU, the MEAC tournament champion, is 19-15 on the season.

(Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)