Live Audio            Tournament Central
Live Stats            Samford Game Notes

DENTON, Texas -- The Samford University basketball team will begin an arduous, mettle-proving, seven-game road stretch this week at the 2015 Mean Green Showcase, as the Bulldogs are slated to face Troy, North Texas and Idaho in the three-day, four-team competition to be held at The Super Pit on the campus of the University of North Texas.
               
Samford (2-1) will open the competition Monday at 5 p.m. (CST) against the Troy Trojans. The in-state foes are traveling 677 and 729 miles, respectively, to meet on the hardwood for the first time since 2003. The Bulldogs trail in the all-time series, 16-18.
 
Samford dropped its season opener at Louisville on Nov. 13, 86-45, but have since rattled off back-to-back wins over Auburn-Montgomery, 94-79, and Kennesaw State, 77-65.
 
SCOUTING THE COMPETITION
Troy (2-1) opened its 2015-16 campaign with wins over USF, 82-77, and Reinhardt, 97-82, but recently lost at home against UAB, 79-63, on Thursday. The Trojans are averaging a stellar 80.7 points per game this season, but are allowing its opposition to score 79.3 points per outing.
 
Jordon Varnado is pacing Troy this season with 23.7 points and 9.3 rebounds per contest, while Wesley Person follows with 16.3 points per game.
 
Varnado, a 6-foot-6 true freshman forward, is the younger brother of former Mississippi State star Jarvis Varnado. Person, a 6-foot-3 sophomore guard from Brantley, Ala., is the nephew of former Auburn star and NBA standout Chuck Person.
 
SAMFORD VERSUS TROY - - THE ALL-TIME SERIES
In-state opponents Samford and Troy, separated by just 137 miles, haven't faced each other since Jan. 26, 2003, when the teams were members of the Atlantic Sun Conference. The Trojans earned the victory in the matchup held at Troy, Ala., 66-48. The next season, Samford joined the Ohio Valley Conference. Troy leads the all-time series, 18-16.
 
SAMFORD VERSUS NORTH TEXAS - - THE ALL-TIME SERIES
On Tuesday, the Bulldogs will square off against North Texas for the ninth time in school history. The Mean Green currently own a 6-2 advantage in the all-time series, but the teams haven't met on the hardwood since Nov. 29, 1996, at the Union Planters Classic in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
 
Samford won the most recent matchup between the teams by a score of 78-71 in its final season under the direction of Head Coach John Brady. The Bulldogs and Mean Green met for the first time on Dec. 5, 1968, when North Texas State, as it was named at the time, defeated Samford, 86-51.
 
SAMFORD VERSUS IDAHO - - THE ALL-TIME SERIES         
Samford and Idaho have never met on the hardwood and Wednesday's contest will be the first between the teams. The University of Idaho is the state's oldest public university and is located in the city of Moscow in the northern portion of the state.
 
Idaho boasts 11,534 students and recently left the Western Athletic Conference to become members of the Big Sky Conference in 2014-15.
 

WHAT'S TRENDING . . .
• Samford boasts four players shooting 50 percent or above from the field this season.
• Sophomore center Eric Adams leads the way at 60 percent, while senior guard Darius Jones-Gibson, senior guard Iman Johnson and true freshman center Wyatt Walker are all shooting exactly 50 percent from the floor.
• Freshman Matt Rose has scored in double figures in all three of his collegiate games.
• Aside from its opening game at Louisville, Samford is out-rebounding opponents, 93-66.
 
THE SAMFORD YOUTH MOVEMENT
Eight of the Bulldogs' 15 members of the 2015-16 roster are underclassmen. Samford boasts four true freshmen this season in Dakota Quinn, Rose, Tanner Tapp and Walker, as well as talented redshirt freshman Gerald Smith.
 
Additionally, the Bulldogs' roster includes an impressive sophomore class comprised of forward Adams, point guard Christen Cunningham and center Alex Peters. Only three of Samford's 15 players were born before April 25, 1995, and the average age of a member of the Bulldogs' basketball team is 19 years and three months old.
 
BOASTING A BIG-TIME BACKCOURT
Samford continues play in its 2015-16 campaign with a pair of returning starters at the guard position in Cunningham and Jones-Gibson. Cunningham, the Bulldogs' talented sophomore point guard from Georgetown, Kentucky, has never missed a start in his young up-and-coming college career.
 

As a true freshman last year, Cunningham started at the point guard position in all 32 of the team's games and averaged 10.3 points, 3.9 assists and 2.4 rebounds per contest. He also logged a team-high average of 30.1 minutes per outing and finished second on the squad with a 79.1 free-throw percentage.
 
Jones-Gibson returned this season as the Bulldogs' top returning scorer. Last year, Jones-Gibson paced the squad with 12.2 points per game and also pulled down an average of 3.1 rebounds per contest.
 
Since transferring to Samford from Barton County Community College prior to the 2014-15 campaign, Jones-Gibson has started in every outing as a Bulldog, and has shared backcourt duties with Cunningham in all 35 games of Padgett's tenure.
 
TRANSITIONING OFFENSE - 'DOGS TAKE IT TO HYPERDRIVE
Samford fans will continue to enjoy a much faster paced offense this season. With plenty of depth and a roster chalk-full of young talent, the Bulldogs are expected to get up and down the court in 2015-16 and create easy buckets in transition.
 
Last season, Head Coach Scott Padgett implemented his full-court, fast-paced offensive attack and Samford averaged 69.2 points per game.
 
THE LAST TIME OUT
Samford jumped out to an early 13-point lead in the first half Saturday and used its relentless defensive pressure to cruise to a 77-65 home triumph against the Kennesaw State Owls in an early-season, non-conference contest held in the Pete Hanna Center.
 
Samford tallied its second straight victory and concluded its two-game homestand with a perfect 2-0 record. On Monday, the Bulldogs battled to a 94-79 win against Auburn-Montgomery.
 
Samford finished Saturday's 77-65 victory over Kennesaw State with four players scoring in double figures. Jones-Gibson tallied a team-high 15 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the field, while Iman Johnson and Marcus Johnson both finished with 12 points apiece.
 
Rose added 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the floor to keep his double-digit scoring streak alive. Samford's highly-touted true freshman from Lexington, Kentucky, Rose has scored in double digits in all three games of his young collegiate career.
 
As a team, the Bulldogs shot 47.5 percent from the field and outscored Kennesaw State, 38-24, in the paint. Samford also forced the Owls into 20 turnovers and garnered a 21-10 advantage in points-off turnovers.
 
The Owls only led for a total of 21 seconds Saturday following a jumper from Nigel Pruitt to make the score 3-2 in the early minutes of the contest. Samford's Walker then connected on a free throw and senior Jamal Shabazz knocked down a deep 3-pointer to give the Bulldogs the lead for good.
 

JONES-GIBSON NAMED TO PRESEASON ALL-SOCON TEAM
Samford's Jones-Gibson was honored by the Southern Conference on Oct. 22, as the Bulldogs' senior guard was one of 10 players named to the 2015 Preseason All-Conference Team, it was announced by the league office.
 
Jones-Gibson, Samford's leading scorer from a year ago, averaged 12.2 points per game last season and earned Third-Team All-SoCon honors. He started all 32 games for the Bulldogs in 2014-15 and averaged 26.8 minutes per game.
 
Jones-Gibson also turned in a 48.5-percent shooting mark from the field last season and averaged 14.4 points and 3.3 rebounds per contest in SoCon play.
 
WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?
Following Monday's tournament-opening showdown with former arch-rival Troy, the Samford University basketball team will next be in action Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs square off against the homestanding North Texas Mean Green in a pivotal non-conference showdown to be held at The Super Pit.
 
For quick score updates, breaking news and links to all of your favorite articles featuring the Bulldogs, please follow @SamfordHoopsFOE and @Samford_Sports on Twitter.

Live Audio            Tournament Central
Live Stats            Samford Game Notes