United Athletic Conference

PLAYER OF THE WEEK Fresno State center Melvin Ely, a senior from Harvey, Ill. (Thornton Township), set a career-high with 31 points and posted eight rebounds in just 24 minutes as the Bulldogs defeated Rice, 87-61. He made 8-of-12 field goal attempts, connected on all seven free throws and added four blocks, three steals and an assist. In Fresno States 86-85 win over Tulsa, Ely surpassed his previous career-high with 35 points. He added 16 rebounds for his sixth double-double this season and also posted nine blocks, breaking his own school record.

Other nominations Other player of the week nominations included:
Predrag Savovic, Sr., G, Hawaii - averaged 25.5 points and 5.5 rebounds in a pair of road victories last week. He scored a season-high 29 points on 9-of-16 shooting at UTEP and added 22 points and eight rebounds at Boise State. In both games, he hit a pair of free throws with 10.4 seconds remaining to seal the victories.
Gerrod Henderson, Sr., G, Louisiana Tech - scored 28 points and had five assists in the game against SMU.
Kirk Snyder, Fr., F, Nevada - averaged 17.0 points and 5.0 rebounds in a split of two games last week. He scored a career-high 20 points in a victory against Rice and shot .565 from the field for the week.
Michael Harris, Fr., F, Rice - came off the bench in two games to average 12.5 points and 7.5 rebounds. He also blocked a total of five shots and shot .625 from the field.
Marion Thurmond, Sr., C, San Jose State - scored 13 points against both Boise State and UTEP and shot 11-of-16 (.688) from the field.
Patrick Simpson, Fr., F, SMU - recorded a double-double with 16 points and a career-high 12 rebounds against Louisiana Tech.
Greg Harrington, Sr., G, Tulsa - averaged 18.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.5 assists in a split of two road games last week. He had a team-high 25 points at Fresno State.

ELY NAMED NATIONAL PLAYER OF THE WEEK Fresno State senior center Melvin Ely was also named the ESPN.com National Player of the Week for his performances against Rice and Tulsa. In the three games upon his return from suspension, Ely has established career highs in scoring in each game. Over those games, Ely is averaging 31.7 points, 11.3 rebounds, 5.7 blocked shots and is shooting .633 from the floor. His current three-game total of 95 points is second only to Courtney Alexanders 98 points for the most points scored in three consecutive games in school history. Ely has scored 22 points or more in six consecutive games.

HAWAII AND SMU REMAIN UNDEFEATED After the second weekend of conference play, two WAC teams remain undefeated. Hawaii beat both UTEP and Boise State by two points on the road to jump out to a 4-0 start while SMU played Louisiana Tech in Ruston and defeated the Bulldogs, 74-71, to improve to 3-0. Hawaii and SMU meet on Saturday night in Honolulu.

CLOSE GAMES ON SATURDAY Four of the five games played on Saturday came down to the final seconds. Hawaii beat Boise State, 64-62, behind Predrag Savovics two free throws with 10.4 seconds left. In Fresno States one-point victory against Tulsa, Chris Jefferies converted a three-point play with 10 seconds left. Against San Jose State, UTEPs Roy Smallwood tipped in a miss with one tenth of a second left for a one-point victory. And finally, SMUs Quinton Ross hit a three-point basket as the buzzer sounded to give the Mustangs a 74-71 victory at Louisiana Tech.

TULSA TOPS IN SHOOTING Tulsa continues to lead the WAC in all three shooting categories. The Golden Hurricane is shooting 46.5 percent from the field, 79.5 percent from the free throw line and 39.8 percent from three-point range. Tulsas 79.5 percent success rate from the charity stripe is currently the best in the nation.

NATIONAL RANKINGS No teams in the WAC are ranked in the top 25 of the AP and USA Today-ESPN polls, but Hawaii and Fresno State are receiving votes in both. In the Sagarin ratings, Tulsa is 29th followed by Fresno State (43rd), Hawaii (71st) and SMU (89th). In CollegeRPI.com, Fresno State is 30th, Hawaii is 52nd, Tulsa is 59th and SMU is 72nd. Collegiate Basketball News has Fresno State 30th, Hawaii 52nd, Tulsa 63rd and SMU 73rd. As a conference, the WAC is ranked 10th by Sagarin, CollegeRPI.com and Collegiate Basketball News.

NON-CONFERENCE MARK The WAC is 65-41 (.613) in non-conference games this season, including a 55-39 (.585) mark against Division I teams. There are four more non-conference games scheduled during the regular season (Alcorn State at UTEP-1/28, Louisiana Tech at Centenary-1/30, Oklahoma State at Fresno State-2/10 and New Mexico State at UTEP-2/20). 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 770-192 (.800), the third best winning percentage of any active coach and sixth best of all time. The 770 wins are tied for third most among active coaches and tied for fifth 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 - when the Broncos play Tulsa on Saturday it will be their first ever meeting ... senior forward Abe Jackson (Boise, Idaho) has 1,354 career points and is fifth on the schools all-time list ... Jackson is second in the WAC in three-point field goals made with 2.79 per game and is second in the conference in scoring with 17.9 points per game ... for the first time since the opening game of the year, Boise State lost a game in which Jackson scored more than 20 points when he had 27 versus Hawaii ... BSU is 6-2 when Jackson scores 20 or more points in a game ... BSU is second in the WAC in scoring defense (60.4 points per game) and has held four opponents to under 50 points this season.

Fresno State - Melvin Ely would rank sixth in the nation in scoring (23.4 ppg) and third nationally in blocked shots (4.3 bpg) if he had enough games to qualify ... Ely has played in 10 of the Bulldogs 16 games and needs to have competed in 75 percent of the teams games to qualify for the NCAAs statistics ... Ely had nine blocks against Tulsa, tying him for the sixth most in the nation this year ... the Bulldogs were 3-3 without Melvin Ely in the lineup ... Fresno State has the WACs longest home winning streak at 24 games ... the Bulldogs are 46-5 (.902) in WAC home games under head coach Jerry Tarkanian ... Chris Sandy had a double-double against Tulsa with 11 points and 10 assists ... Fresno State is the only team in the WAC to not lose a game at home (8-0).

Hawaii - UHs seven-game winning streak is its longest since it won 10 in a row in 1989 ... Hawaii beat UTEP and Boise State on the road marking the Rainbow Warriors first WAC road sweep since the 1997-98 season and fifth ever ... UH is 4-0 in WAC play for the first time since the 1993-94 season ... Hawaii has not been 5-0 since the 1981-82 season and has never started 6-0 in WAC play ... the Rainbow Warriors have held seven of their first 15 opponents to under 60 points, the most times UH has held its opponents to under 60 points in a season under head coach Riley Wallace ... Hawaii leads the WAC and is eighth nationally in scoring defense (58.9 points per game) ... Hawaii has won 16 of its last 17 home games.

Louisiana Tech - head coach Keith Richard will coach his 100th game on Saturday night against San Jose State ... with his 28 points against SMU, Gerrod Henderson moved into 12th place on the schools all-time scoring list with 1,452 career points ... Techs six-game home winning streak came to end on Saturday against SMU ... Tech is averaging 43.1 rebounds per game, the most since the 1974-75 season ... Louisiana Tech leads the WAC in rebounding margin (+10.8) ... it would be the highest mark by a WAC team since Wyoming in 1980-81 (+11.1).

Nevada - the Wolf Pack have won three road games this year, as many as they did over the last two seasons ... Nevada is one win away from tying its total of 10 from all of last year and one WAC win from tying its conference total of three last year ... Nevada lost its first home game of the year against Tulsa on Thursday night ... the Wolf Pack are outscoring its home opponents by an average margin of 17.6 points ... Nevada is one of two schools in the WAC to make more free throws (308) than its opponents have attempted (293) ... senior F Corey Jackson is the only WAC player to average double figures in rebounds (10.4) ... Jackson has six double-doubles on the season, tied with Melvin Ely for the most in the WAC ... freshman Kirk Snyder, who became eligible four games ago, is averaging 12.8 points and 5.2 rebounds per game.

Rice - Rice is 5-1 at home and host Boise State and UTEP this week ... Rice is 0-2 in conference play for the third time in six years ... the Owls have an 11-game regular season road losing streak ... Rice has never beaten Fresno State and is now 0-10 against the Bulldogs ... two of Rices top three scorers are true freshmen (Jason McKrieth-14.8 ppg and Michael Harris-11.9 ppg) ... Harris is second in the WAC in rebounding (7.8).

San Jose State - senior center Marion Thurmond has scored more points in 16 games (164) than he did during the entire 2000-01 season (156) ... SJSU will face a team from Louisiana for the first time ever this Saturday when it hosts Louisiana Tech ... after scoring 70 or more points in four consecutive games, the Spartans have scored less than 70 points in the last three games ... SJSU has made just 52.5 percent of its free throws in those three games.

SMU - SMUs win at Louisiana Tech was just the third by a visitor in the last 39 games at the Thomas Assembly Center in Ruston ... Quinton Ross three-pointer at the buzzer to beat Tech was his 100th career three-point basket ... senior guard Damon Hancock leads the WAC in scoring with 20.2 points per game ... SMU is 3-0 in the WAC for the second straight year and has never started out 4-0 ... Hancock has scored in double figures in the last 15 games he has played in, the longest such streak in the WAC ... Hancock is the only player in the WAC to lead his school in points (20.2) and assists (3.7) ... SMU is one of two schools in the WAC to make more free throws (219) than its opponents have attempted (212).

UTEP - the Miners are 0-5 on the road this year and have lost eight in a row dating back to last season ... UTEP travels to Tulsa and Rice this week ... the Miners have lost seven in a row against Tulsa ... UTEP has not won at Tulsa since 1967 ... in UTEPs one-point win over San Jose State last Saturday, the Miners led 53-36 with 9:43 to go ... after registering eight wins when trailing at the half last year, the Miners are 1-8 when behind at the break this season ... senior guard Chris Neal is the only UTEP player with a higher scoring average on the road (9.4 ppg) than at home (8.3).

Tulsa - Tulsa returns home for the first time in 36 days when it takes on UTEP Thursday night ... its the longest time Tulsa has gone without a home game in school history ... the Golden Hurricane lead the WAC in scoring (85.2), scoring margin (+14.4), assists (17.6) and steals (8.9) ... guard Greg Harrington is the teams lone senior and has 450 assists, seven shy of tying Byron Boudreaux (1983-87) for the schools all-time mark ... Harrington leads the WAC in free throw percentage (.922) and assists (5.8) ... the WAC record for best free throw percentage in a season is .935 (101-108) set by New Mexicos Rob Robbins during the 1989-90 season ... guard Dante Swanson leads the WAC in field goal percentage (.562) and three-point field goal percentage (.536) ... the WAC record for three-point field goal percentage in a season is .563 (76-135) set by Colorado States Joel Tribelhorn during the 1988-89 season ... Swanson is shooting 64 percent from the field on the road including a 63 percent mark from three-point range.

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. .583 Melvin Ely, Fresno State (638-1095), 1999-02
19. .553 Kevin Johnson, Tulsa (273-494), 2000-02

3-Point Field Goal Percentage
1. .480 Trent Shippen, Colorado State (94-196), 1988-89
9. .436 Dante Swanson, Tulsa (125-287), 2000-02

3-Point Field Goals Made
1. 285 Raymond Dudley, Air Force, 1986-90
285 Clayton Shields, New Mexico, 1995-98
23. 144 Greg Harrington, Tulsa, 1999-02

Assists
1. 778 Jeff Jonas, Utah, 1973-77
20. 450 Greg Harrington, Tulsa, 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. 318 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.