STEPHENVILLE, Texas — Tarleton State Men's Basketball will play a pair of games this week with the opportunity for a pair of season sweeps starting with Abilene Christian on Thursday night at 7 p.m. in Moody Coliseum.
 
The game will be streamed on ESPN+ with Matt Pedersen and Austyn Iven with sideline reporter Kendra Sheehan. Kyle Crews will have the radio call on 90.5 KTRL. Live Stats will be provided by StatBroadcast and can be found on TarletonSports.com. For highlights and live score updates follow @tarletonmbb on Twitter and Instagram.
 
Last week, the Texans split a pair of home games against Southern Utah and Utah Tech. After digging an early first half hole, Tarleton was unable to fully tilt the scales in their favor dropping a heartbreaker, 73-70 to the Thunderbirds on Thursday night. The Texans turned their fortunes around on Saturday with big performance taking an 86-68 victory. Jakorie Smith led the charge with 28 points tying Lue Williams for the most points by a Texan in a WAC game.
 
The Texans are looking to improve their perfect record against Texas schools, first against Abilene Christian. Tarleton is currently 7-0 against Texas-based teams. TSU will face a pair of Texas schools this week before wrapping up Texas competition on Feb. 15 with a road bout at UT Arlington for the chance to potentially finish the slate a perfect 10-0 against Texas programs.
 
Tarleton has been consistent with their starting lineup, featuring the same five starters for the last 18 games this season. Currently it is tied for the fifth active longest streak in the country. The Texans are one of 20 schools in the country to use three or less starting lineups this season.
 
The Purple and White are 6-3 in the WAC play, and 13-7 overall. The Texans remain second in the WAC Resume Seeding, meaning that if the season ended today, Tarleton would own the second overall seed in the conference tournament in Vegas. The WAC has adopted the resume system to determine seeding, but based on conference winning percentage, the Texans are tied for second with California Baptist who is also 6-3.
 
The Texans are in their fourth year of reclassification into NCAA Division I. The Texans' played its 100th game as a Division I institution last Thursday at California Baptist. Men's basketball joins baseball, softball and volleyball as the fourth program to reach the century mark in total games played. Tarleton is the sixth men's basketball reclassifying program since 2010 to win at least 50 games in its first 100. The Texans have the eighth-best winning percentage of all 31 reclassifying programs since 2010. Tarleton owns the second highest winning percentage among the 11 current reclassifying schools this season.
 
KiAndre Gaddy leads the league in offensive rebounds (82). The senior would rank sixth in the nation with 4.1 offensive boards per game. Gaddy ranks in the top seven in five different statistical categories in the conference. Gaddy was named the WAC Player of the Week on Jan. 2 for the final week of 2023.
 
Joseph Jones will be standing on the Texan sideline for the thirteenth time this season. Jones has been filling in for coach Billy Gillispie since Nov. 19 who has not been with the team due to medial circumstances. Jones was named the acting head coach on Dec. 19. He holds an 8-4 record during his time on the sidelines.
 
Texans held off Abilene Christian, 79-71 in their first meeting of the season on Jan. 18 in Wisdom Gym. Jakorie Smith was a standout performing posting 25 points and five boards. He also connected on four of eight from deep. With the win, Tarleton improved its all-time series record against ACU to 37-34. The Texans are 15-9 in Abilene heading into Thursday's contest.
 
Abilene Christian will only play one game this week, with an off day on Saturday. Last week, the Wildcats split the week with a victory over Utah Tech on Thursday and a loss to Southern Utah on Saturday. Leonardo Bettiol posted a double-double in both games last week. The Wildcats are led by Brette Tanner who is in his third season at the helm of the program and holds a 46-40 record.
 
Tarleton will close out the week looking for its second possible series sweep of the week with a revenge match against Stephen F. Austin. The Texans held off the Lumberjacks after a big first half for a 68-66 victory last November in the first WAC game of the season. The Jacks will come to town for a 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon tip on Military Appreciation Night. Early arriving fans will receive a free Tarleton camo koozie.