Tennessee State Tigers basketball
| Tennessee State Tigers basketball | |||||||||||
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| University | Tennessee State University | ||||||||||
| Head coach | Nolan Smith (1st season) | ||||||||||
| Location | Nashville, Tennessee | ||||||||||
| Arena | Gentry Complex (capacity: 9,100) | ||||||||||
| Conference | Ohio Valley | ||||||||||
| Nickname | Tigers | ||||||||||
| Colors | Reflex blue and white | ||||||||||
| NCAA Division I tournament runner-up | |||||||||||
| 1970*, 1973* | |||||||||||
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| NAIA tournament champions | |||||||||||
| 1957, 1958, 1959 | |||||||||||
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| Conference tournament champions | |||||||||||
| 1993, 1994, 2026 | |||||||||||
| Conference regular-season champions | |||||||||||
| 1993, 1995, 2026 | |||||||||||
* at Division II level | |||||||||||
The Tennessee State Tigers basketball team represents Tennessee State University (TSU) in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. The school's team currently competes in the NCAA Division I's Ohio Valley Conference. They play their home games at the Gentry Complex and are led by first-year head coach Nolan Smith.
While they were a member of the NAIA, they were three time national champions (1957, 1958, 1959). TSU was the first team to win three consecutive basketball national championships at any level of college basketball – a feat only repeated by UCLA (seven straight championships from 1967–1973) and Kentucky State (1970, 1971, 1972). The 1957 championship made TSU the first historically black college to win a national championship. The team was coached by Harold Hunter from 1960 to 1968. Hunter still holds the record as the second-winningest men's basketball coach in Tennessee State's history. Hunter had succeeded outgoing coach John McLendon, who left in 1959.
The Tigers joined NCAA Division I for the 1977–78 season and joined the OVC for the 1986–87 season. Since joining Division I, Tennessee State has appeared three times in the NCAA Tournament, most recently in 2026.
Seventeen former Tennessee State Tigers have played in the NBA; the best known are Ben Warley, Robert Covington, Dick Barnett, John Barnhill, Truck Robinson, Anthony Mason and Carlos Rogers.