A three-game winning streak to start the SWAC season was a terrible tease for Texas Southern fans, excited about the return of SWAC Hall of Fame coach Robert Moreland, who returned in an interim role after an offseason of turmoil surrounding the TSU athletic program when Ronnie Courtney was fired last July. After starting out 3-0, the Tigers lost their next six games. Only a three-game winning streak in midseason and a two-game streak in February allowed TSU to qualify for the tournament, winning a tiebreaker over Alcorn State and Prairie View. TSU suffered a serious setback when preseason first-team All-SWAC selection Jacques Jones, a senior, injured his shoulder in the third game and was lost for the season. Jones averaged 14.3 points last year and 6.1 rebounds. TSU lost its only leadership when Jones went down and when things started going bad, no one was there to pick the team up.

The Tigers lost two tough overtime games to close out the regular season and had nothing left for high-flying Alabama State in the first round of the SWAC tournament.

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