Ahead of the 2022-2023 HBCU men’s basketball season, Texas Southern head basketball coach Johnny Jones spoke to media members at SWAC media day about his team as they prepare for yet another championship defense.
“We’ve got five guys that will be returning that played significant minutes last year,” Jones said in regards to players returning to Texas Southern from their championship team last season.
Highlighting the returning cast for Texas Southern this season will be reigning SWAC tournament MVP and point guard PJ Henry.
In three SWAC tournament games, Henry averaged 14.0 and 4.7 rebounds connecting on ten three-pointers.
Jones also emphasized the new recruits and redshirts that he hopes will have an impact on his team this upcoming season while also speaking about players no longer with the team.
Additional players that will not be returning for the Tigers are last year’s leading scorer John Walker III and All-SWAC tournament team selection Brison Gresham.
Coach Jones also expressed excitement for the team’s upcoming schedule saying, “we’ll have four home games, something we haven’t done since 2002 … prior to conference play. We couldn’t be more excited about that.”
Texas Southern has won each of the last two SWAC tournament championships and four of the last five overall.
No team has won three consecutive SWAC tournaments since Alcorn State did it from 1987-1989.