Gonzaga entertains well-traveled Texas Southern Tigers in season opener

TV Schedule: Friday, November 10, 9:00 p.m. ET, ROOT

 SPOKANE, Washington -- The college basketball season is here and that means one thing for Texas Southern:

Gentlemen, pack your bags for a few months.

The Tigers are the sport’s road warriors, tackling a non-conference schedule that begins with Gonzaga on Friday and will take them to Washington State, Ohio State, Syracuse, Kansas, Clemson, Oakland, Toledo, Oregon, Baylor, Wyoming, TCU and BYU before playing their first home game on Jan. 1.

They do it every year, but there’s a method to coach Mike Davis’ road madness.

“I have total control of my schedule,” Davis said, “and so the reason I do it is because I know the important thing for us is winning our conference. The key thing about being a good player and a good team is how fast you can recover from bad situations.

“Playing all these really good teams, they’re going to make runs on us. Do we start playing pick-up basketball or stay with the game plan? We’re never going to face anybody like we do (in the non conference) so when we get into conference we can recover fast.”

Last year’s slate included Arizona, Louisville, Cincinnati, LSU, TCU and Baylor. The Tigers’ home opener came on Jan. 14.

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