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Weekly Notes.pdf
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New Page 1PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Louisiana Tech guard Darrian Brown, a junior from West Memphis, Ark. (Mississippi), averaged 16.0 points and 10.0 rebounds in two games last week. In a 67-66 win at Auburn, Brown scored a team-high 17 points, pulled down eight rebounds and had two steals. He followed that up with 15 points and a career-high 12 rebounds in a 71-67 overtime loss at Oklahoma. For the week, he shot 45.8 percent from the field (11-24) and was 3-of-7 from three-point range.Other nominations
Other player of the week nominations included:
Corey Jackson, Sr., F, Nevada - pulled down a career-high 18 rebounds in a win over Cal State Northridge and averaged 9.5 points and 14.5 rebounds in two games last week. The 18 boards are a WAC season-high.
Christian Kollik, So., F, Rice - led the Owls in scoring with 14 points in just 15 minutes against Middle Tennessee State. He was 5-of-9 from the field, including 3-of-7 from three-point range.
Andre Valentine, Sr., F, San Jose State - averaged 13.0 points and 9.0 rebounds in two games last week. Against Saint Marys, he recorded his first double-double with 10 points and a team-high 10 rebounds.
Damon Hancock, Sr., G, SMU - averaged 22.5 points and shot 5-of-10 from three-point range in two games. Hancock scored a career-high 30 points on 9-of-15 shooting against North Texas and added 15 points and five rebounds versus Tennessee. The 30 points are the most scored in the WAC this year.
Roy Smallwood, Jr., F, UTEP - began the week with a double-double against Washington with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Smallwood then scored 17 points and had three steals against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. He averaged 16.0 points and 7.0 rebounds and was 14-of-29 (.483) from the field in the two victories.
Greg Harrington, Sr., G, Tulsa - in two wins last week, he averaged 16.5 points and 4.0 assists. Harrington was a perfect 12-of-12 from the free throw line in the two games. He scored a season-high 21 points versus Wichita State.FRESNO STATES ELY SITTING OUT
Fresno State senior center Melvin Ely (last years WAC Player of the Year) has sat out three of the last five games because of an NCAA inquiry into allegations he received improper benefits. His status for this week is uncertain. Ely has averaged 19.9 points and 9.3 rebounds in six games this year.NCAA REINSTATES SAVOVIC
The NCAA notified the University of Hawaii that all-WAC guard Predrag Savovic must sit out a total of seven games due to an NCAA amateurism investigation. Savovic will play in the Rainbow Warriors next game against San Diego State on Friday night. Savovic averaged 17.6 points, 4.7 rebounds and 3.5 assists last year. The NCAA also reinstated junior forward Luc-Arthur Vebobe last week. The junior college transfer made his UH debut last night against Alcorn State and had 10 points and five rebounds in 21 minutes of action.NATIONAL STATISTICS
The NCAA will be releasing its first set of national statistics this week.NATIONAL RANKINGS
No teams in the WAC are ranked in the top 25 of the AP and USA Today-ESPN polls, but Fresno State is receiving votes in both. In the Sagarin ratings Fresno State is 48th followed by Tulsa (50th) and Louisiana Tech (75th). In CollegeRPI.com, Fresno State is 64th and Louisiana Tech is 84th.NON-CONFERENCE MARK
The WAC is 44-31 (.587) in non-conference games this season, including a 38-30 (.559) mark against Division I teams. Last year, WAC teams were 88-32 (.733) in non-conference games with a 77-32 (.706) record against Division I teams. The WACs best record ever against non-conference opponents came during the 1974-75 season when it was 73-22 (.768).
WAC LEGEND
Fresno States Jerry Tarkanian is in his 31st season as a head coach and has a record of 766-190 (.801), the best winning percentage of any active coach and fourth best of all time. The 766 wins are tied for third most among active coaches and tied for sixth all-time. His teams have won at least 20 games in 29 of his 30 years, one shy of the all-time record, and as head coach of UNLV in 1990, Tarkanian led the Runnin Rebels to a national championship by defeating Duke, 103-73.
TEAM NOTES
Information on the mens basketball teams in the WAC:
Boise State - head coach Rod Jensen needs one more win to reach 100 for his career ... the Broncos play two teams this week that made it to last years postseason: Wyoming (NIT) and Southern Utah (NCAA) ... senior forward Abe Jackson has 1,219 career points and is sixth on the schools all-time list ... Jackson has 176 three-point field goals and needs just nine more to become the all-time leader at Boise State ... point guard Joe Skiffer will miss the remainder of the season due to torn ligaments in his right shoulder.
Fresno State - after playing California tonight, the Bulldogs are off for eight days before returning home to play Savannah State on Dec. 20 ... California and Fresno State have met in two of the last three postseasons with the Bears beating Fresno State, 79-71, in the 1999 NIT and Fresno State winning in the first round of last years NCAA tournament, 82-70 ... junior forward Hiram Fuller has started the three games Melvin Ely has missed and has averaged 10.0 points and 7.0 rebounds ... Fresno State has the WACs longest home winning streak at 21 games ... Fresno State has not lost three games in a row since the 1997-98 season ... Chris Jefferies scored a career-high 27 points against San Diego State.
Hawaii - the Rainbow Warriors have held four of their first seven opponents to under 60 points ... under head coach Riley Wallace, the most times UH has held its opponents to under 60 points in a season is six (1989-90 and 1991-92 seasons) ... Hawaii has won 11 home games in a row ... Carl English is the only UH player to score in double figures in all seven games.
Louisiana Tech - with his 61st win last week against Auburn, coach Keith Richard became the sixth winningest coach in school history ... after playing three straight games on the road, Louisiana Tech now plays five of their next six at home ... the Bulldogs are averaging 80.8 points per game this season after only averging 68.3 last year ... Louisiana Tech leads the WAC in rebounding margin (+11.3) by a 5.8 margin over second place SMU ... junior center Joe Sykes will miss the remainder of the season because of a stress fracture in his foot.
Nevada - the Wolf Pack have won two road games this year, one more than all of last season ... Nevada is 5-2 for the second straight year ... sophomore Andre Hazel tied his career-high with 22 points against Cal State Northridge ... the Wolf Pack has made 56 more free throws (168-112) and attempted 84 more free throws (244-160) than its opponents this season ... junior guard Jerry Petty made his first appearance of the season last week against Montana after sitting out while awaiting clearance from the NCAA ... Petty scored nine points in the game.
Rice - all three wins have been at home and all four losses have been on the road ... Rice has a six-game home winning streak but a 10-game regular season road losing streak ... Rice lost to Athletes First in an exhibition game last Saturday night, 100-91 ... the team was without true freshman starter Jason McKrieth who returned to New York to be with his family after the death of his mother, Terry Jones.
San Jose State - junior guard Gary Black was held scoreless against Saint Marys but responded with a team-high 17 points versus Pacific ... SJSU has lost four of its last five games ... the Spartans have been held under 60 points in five of its six losses ... San Jose State is off until Dec. 18 when it plays College of Notre Dame.
SMU - head coach Mike Dement picked up his 100th win at SMU with a 74-66 victory against North Texas ... senior guard Damon Hancock leads the WAC in scoring with 21.1 points per game ... the Tennessee game marked the fifth contest for the Mustangs in 10 days ... SMU was 2-3 in those games.
UTEP - the victory against Washington on Dec. 6 snapped a four-game losing streak for the Miners ... UTEP has won 10 in a row at home, its longest streak since winning 11 in a row during the 1994-95 season ... the Miners are 19-2 in their last 21 home contests ... over the last two seasons, UTEP is 14-1 when committing an equal or less number of turnovers than its opponents and 12-12 when committing more turnovers than its opponents.
Tulsa - guard Greg Harrington is the teams lone senior and has 405 assists, 52 shy of becoming the schools all-time leader ... Harrington has made 16 free throws in a row and Jack Ingram has made 10 straight ... Tulsas bench averaged 36.5 points in its two victories last week.
2002 TOURNAMENT
The 2002 Williams WAC Tournament will be held March 5-9 at the Donald W. Reynolds Center in Tulsa, Okla. Both the men and women compete during the same week. On the mens side, the seven, eight, nine and ten seeded teams will play on Tuesday, March 5. The remaining eight teams will all play in the quarterfinals on Thursday, March 7 with the top seed competing versus the winner of the Tuesday eight-nine game, the No. 2 seed vs. the winner of the seven-10 game, the No. 3 seed vs. No. 6 and No 4 vs. No. 5. The winners will play in the semifinals on Friday and the championship game will be Saturday night. The site for the 2003 WAC Tournament has not been determined at this time.CAREER LEADERS
A few WAC players are moving their way up some of the WACs career records lists:
Field Goal Percentage
1. .622 George Scott, New Mexico (280-450), 1982-85
9. .580 Melvin Ely, Fresno State (580-1004), 1999-02
19. .559 Kevin Johnson, Tulsa (241-431), 2000-02
3-Point Field Goal Percentage
1. .480 Trent Shippen, Colorado State (94-196), 1988-89
15. .415 Greg Harrington, Tulsa (137-330), 1999-02
Blocked Shots
1. 425 Theo Ratliff, Wyoming, 1992-95
2. 336 David Van Dyke, UTEP, 1989-92
336 Luc Longley, UNM, 1988-91
4. 301 Melvin Ely, FS, 1999-02
FOX SPORTS SOUTHWEST SCHEDULE
This year, Fox Sports Southwest will telecast five mens games and four womens games including the womens WAC tournament finals on March 9. On the mens side, all five teams from the east region of the WAC will be featured. The schedule begins Feb. 2, 2002, when WAC newcomer Louisiana Tech travels to SMU for a 3:00 p.m. (CST) contest. A week later, UTEP hosts Tulsa at 8:00 p.m. On Feb. 14, SMU is at Tulsa for a 7:00 p.m. game and two nights later, Rice will host SMU at 3:00. Rice will again be featured at home when it takes on Tulsa on Feb. 28 at 7:00 p.m. in the final mens game of the schedule. Fox Sports Net Southwest reaches over 6.8 million cable and satellite subscribers in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and parts of New Mexico.