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AUSTIN, Texas -- The Samford University basketball team will play its sixth game away from home in 12 days Friday as the Bulldogs face one of their toughest matchups of the 2015-16 campaign at 8 p.m. (CST) versus the Texas Longhorns in a non-conference contest to be held at the Frank Erwin Center (16,540).
 
Friday's game will be broadcast live on the Longhorn Network.
 
Samford (6-2) enters the meeting with a full head of steam after topping in-state rival Jacksonville State on the road Tuesday, 77-71. With the win, the Bulldogs, victors in six of their last seven outings, extended their winning streak against Jacksonville State to six consecutive games and moved to 13-3 against in-state opponents since 2006.
 
SCOUTING THE COMPETITION
Texas (3-3), under the direction of first-year head coach Shaka Smart, has suffered hard-fought losses to Washington, 77-71, Texas A&M, 84-73, and Michigan, 78-72, this season, but is coming off an 80-73 overtime home victory against an upstart UT Arlington squad on Tuesday.           
 
Texas guard Isaiah Taylor is the Longhorns' leading scorer this season with an average of 16 points per game. Taylor, a junior native of South Hayward, California, enters Friday's game ranked 10th in the nation with 46 free throws made. Texas' playmaker has also handed out a team-high 30 assists this season and is ranked No. 13 in the country in free-throw attempts (61).
 
As a team, the Longhorns are averaging 15 offensive rebounds per game, which ranks 26th in the nation. Cameron Ridley is nearly averaging a double-double this season with 11 points and 9.7 rebounds.
 
THE ALL-TIME SERIES
The Bulldogs will face Texas for only the second time in school history Friday. The inaugural meeting between the teams occurred Nov. 16, 2005, in the final matchup of the Guardians of the Game Classic held in Austin, Texas. The No. 2-ranked Longhorns won in lopsided fashion, 77-33, behind a double-double (13 points and 10 rebounds) from current San Antonio Spur Lamarcus Aldridge.
 
IN THE LAST MEETING BETWEEN THE TEAMS
On Nov. 16, 2005, P.J. Tucker had 22 points and eight rebounds as No. 2 Texas got a near-record defensive performance in a 77-33 win over Samford in the second round of the Guardians of the Game Classic.
 
Texas' Aldridge scored 13 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Longhorns, who just missed having three players record double-doubles. Brad Buckman finished with nine points and nine rebounds.
 
Travis Peterson scored 12 to lead Samford, which scored just 13 points in the first half, matching the second-fewest points allowed in a half by Texas since the 1949-50 season. The Texas record is 12, a mark accomplished twice, most recently in last season's 97-52 win over Centenary. The Longhorns also outrebounded Samford, 54-15.
 
REBOUNDING IS KEY FOR THE BULLDOGS
Samford currently boasts a plus-2.1 rebounding margin through eight games this season. The last time that the Bulldogs finished a campaign with a positive rebounding margin was 16 years ago in 1999-2000 when they finished at plus-0.7. Also that season, Samford finished the year with a 21-11 overall record and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.
 

SAMFORD'S SHABAZZ RETURNS HOME TO TEXAS
The Bulldogs' Jamal Shabazz will be returning to his home state of Texas for the second time in two weeks Friday. Shabazz, a native of Pflugerville, helped lead Samford to a 3-0 record and the championship title of the 2015 Mean Green Showcase last week, which was hosted by the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas.
 
This week, the Bulldogs' senior wingman will be even closer to his hometown located just 17 miles northeast of Austin.
 
WHAT'S TRENDING . . .
• At 6-2, Samford is off to its best start to a season since the 1996-97 campaign when the Bulldogs opened the year with a 7-1 record. Samford finished the season with a 19-9 mark.
• Samford is ranked third in the nation in free throws made (155) and seventh in free-throw attempts (211).
• The Bulldogs' Darius Jones-Gibson is ranked fourth in the country in free-throw attempts (71) and eighth in the nation in free throws made (51) this season.
 
BOASTING A BIG-TIME BACKCOURT
Samford continues play in the 2015-16 campaign with a pair of returning starters at the guard position in Christen 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, Samford's senior guard from Lexington, Kentucky, 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 40 games of Head Coach Scott Padgett's tenure.
 
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, Matt Rose, Tanner Tapp and Wyatt Walker, as well as talented redshirt freshman Gerald Smith.
 
Additionally, the Bulldogs' roster includes an impressive sophomore class comprised of forward Eric Adams, 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.
 
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, Padgett implemented his full-court, fast-paced offensive attack and Samford averaged 69.2 points per game.
 
THE LAST TIME OUT
Samford defeated the Jacksonville State Gamecocks for a sixth consecutive time Tuesday as the Bulldogs earned a difficult 77-71 decision in a battle of former Ohio Valley Conference rivals held at Pete Mathews Coliseum.
 
With the victory, Samford moved to 6-0 in its last six meeting against in-state opponents. The Bulldogs haven't been defeated by an in-state rival since Dec. 16, 2009.
 
Since 2006-07, Samford owns a 13-3 record against in-state opponents. The Bulldogs are currently in the midst of a six-game winning streak versus in-state opponents, which also includes victories against Auburn, 79-68, and Troy, 83-79.
 
Samford finished with three players in double figures and was paced by Jones-Gibson's 21 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field. The Bulldogs' senior guard from Lexington, Kentucky, also finished a near-perfect 10-of-11 from the free-throw line and handed out four assists.
 
As a team, Samford was brilliant from the charity stripe shooting 87.5 percent. The Bulldogs connected on 28-of-32 attempts from the line, their best performance of the 2015-16 campaign.
 
Samford's Shabazz turned in his second straight top-notch offensive performance Tuesday as he finished with 13 points, four rebounds and a steal. The Bulldogs' native of Pflugerville, drained a key 3-point basket and finished 6-of-7 from the free-throw line.
 

Peters came off the bench and turned in his best performance of the 2015-16 season. In only 18 minutes of playing time, Peters tallied 10 points and two rebounds, while notching a perfect 6-of-6 shooting performance from the charity stripe.
 
WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?
Following Friday's non-conference road test at Texas, the Samford University basketball team will next be in action Dec. 12 at 6 p.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs conclude their seven-game, early-season road stretch in Tallahassee, Florida, against the Florida A&M Rattlers in a contest to be held at the Alfred Lawson, Jr. Multipurpose Center (9,639).
 
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