United Athletic Conference

PLAYER OF THE WEEK Boise State forward Abe Jackson, a senior from Boise, Idaho (Bishop Kelly HS), averaged 27.0 points and 6.0 rebounds in a pair of victories over Wyoming and Southern Utah last week. Against Wyoming, he scored 27 points, grabbed six rebounds and dished out four assists. He was 6-of-9 from three-point range in 35 minutes of play. Versus Southern Utah, he again scored 27 points and had six rebounds. For the week, he shot 16-of-31 (.516) from the field, 11-of-22 (.500) from three-point range and 11-of-12 (.917) from the free throw line.

Other nominations Other player of the week nominations included:
Carl English, So., G/F, Hawaii - averaged 15.5 points and led the team in scoring in both games last week. English was 6-of-10 from the field in both games and also dished out seven combined assists.
Garry Hill-Thomas, So., G, Nevada - averaged 27.0 points and 7.5 rebounds in a pair of victories over Southern Oregon and Portland State. He scored a career-high 30 points versus Portland State and pulled down a career-high eight rebounds against Southern Oregon. He was 18-of-24 from the field and 17-of-21 from the free throw line for the week.
Eric Castro, Fr., F/C, SMU - had his first double-double with 16 points and 18 rebounds versus Oral Roberts. The 18 rebounds tied the WAC season-high. He was 6-of-8 from the field.
Kevin Johnson, Jr., F, Tulsa - scored 22 points on 9-of-12 shooting in a victory over Texas A&M. He also added five rebounds and four blocked shots.

FRESNO STATES ELY SITTING OUT Fresno State senior center Melvin Ely (last years WAC Player of the Year) has sat out four 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.

SAVOVIC MAKES FIRST APPEARANCE After sitting out a total of seven games, Predrag Savovic made his return last Friday night against San Diego State. A first-team all-WAC performer a year ago, Savovic scored 12 points but made just 2-of-13 field goals in the game.

NATIONAL RANKINGS No teams in the WAC are ranked in the top 25 of the AP and USA Today-ESPN polls, but Fresno State and Tulsa are receiving votes in both. In the Sagarin ratings, Tulsa is 37th followed by Louisiana Tech (53rd) and Fresno State (56th). In CollegeRPI.com, Fresno State is 63rd, Louisiana Tech is 67th and Tulsa is 81st.

NON-CONFERENCE MARK The WAC is 51-33 (.607) in non-conference games this season, including a 44-32 (.579) 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 766-191 (.800), the third best winning percentage of any active coach and sixth best of all time. The 766 wins are fourth most among active coaches and seventh 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 - the Broncos won twice last weekend to give head coach Rod Jensen his 100th and 101st career victories ... the Broncos beat two teams last week that made it to last years postseason: Wyoming (NIT) and Southern Utah (NCAA) ... senior forward Abe Jackson (Boise, Idaho) has 1,273 career points and is fifth on the schools all-time list ... Jackson has 187 three-point field goals and became the schools all-time leader last week ... he leads the WAC in three-point field goals made with 2.89 per game and is third in the conference in scoring with 18.9 points per game ... Jackson has played all nine games this year and has scored more than 20 points in six games and less than 10 points in the other three contests.

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 (600-1035), 1999-02
15. .564 Kevin Johnson, Tulsa (250-443), 2000-02

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.