It has been a year since the world was hit with a global pandemic that caused everything to come to a halt. Ok. Maybe halt is putting it lightly. Say you are driving on the freeway and then all of a sudden, a vehicle comes from three lanes over and slams on the brakes. Your natural reaction is to slam on your brakes as well causing your vehicle to make an abrupt violent stop. That is what happened in March 2020 and the world is still trying to recover from it.

The sudden change could not have come at a worse time for the NCAA as it was set to officially begin what some sports fans believe to be the greatest three weeks of the year which is dubbed, “March Madness.” The Men’s and Women’s NCAA basketball tournament was cancelled by President Mark Emmet and the board of governors to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. It was the first time the tournament would not be held since 1939.

On Thursday, the NCAA will get back to some sort of normalcy as its First Four round of the 2021 Men’s basketball tournament begins and the opening game will feature one of two Houston schools to reach the “Big Dance.” Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament Champions Texas Southern (16-8) will face Mount St. Mary’s (12-10) who also made it to the NCAA tournament by winning the Northeast Conference Tournament.

Texas Southern, winners of nine straight games including back-to-back victories over SWAC Regular Season Co-Champions Prairie View A&M and Jackson State in the conference tournament will be making their ninth appearance in the NCAA Tournament. In 2018 they advance to the field of 64 with a victory over North Carolina Central by a score of 64-46. They would have their season come to an end in the next game by the West Region No. 1 seeded Xavier.

The Tigers are no strangers to scoring this year as they led the SWAC in that category at 74.8 ppg., but their biggest strength is cleaning up the glass as they also were first in the conference in rebounding averaging 41.5 per contest which qualified them for 10th in the nation amongst Division 1 schools. Pearland native Karl Nicholas leads the team with seven boards per game.

Oklahoma State transfer Michael Weathers has shined this year for the Tigers. The First Team All-SWAC and 2021 Newcomer of the Year averaged 16.5 points per game this season and was an intricate part in leading TSU to victory in the SWAC Tournament as he was named Tournament MVP.

In order for TSU to advance, they will have to stop the tenacious Mountaineers point guard Damian Chong Qui who at 5’8 can get to the basket with ease while also being able to hit from beyond the arc shooting 34% from three-point range on the season.

Chong Qui was a First Team All-NEC selection in 2021. Another tough task the Tigers face on Thursday is the presence of conference Defensive Player of the Year Nana Opoku. The redshirt junior from Woodbridge Va. averaged 16.0 points, 6.0 boards, and 4.0 blocks in the conference tournament.

Tip-off is at 4:10 p.m. (CST) and will be televised on TruTV.