United Athletic Conference

PLAYER OF THE WEEK Hawaii guard Carl English, a junior from Patricks Cove, Newfoundland (Fatima Academy), averaged 22.0 points and 9.5 rebounds (both WAC highs for the week) as Hawaii extended its home winning streak to 21 games with victories over SMU and Louisiana Tech. He scored a team-high 19 points versus SMU and added 25 points and 12 rebounds against Louisiana Tech. He scored 21 points against the Bulldogs in the second half and was 10-of-13 from the free throw line in that game. It was Englishs second ever WAC player of the week award and first for a Hawai'i player this season.

Other nominations Other player of the week nominations included:
Terry Pettis, Fr., G, Fresno State - started both wins against Boise State and UTEP and averaged 13.0 points, 6.0 assists and 3.5 rebounds. He scored a career-high 20 points against Boise State and added a career-high seven assists versus UTEP.
Antonio Meeking, Sr., F, Louisiana Tech - averaged 14.5 points in a split of two road games. Against Hawaii he recorded a double-double with 23 points and 12 rebounds.
Garry Hill-Thomas, Jr., G, Nevada - averaged 14.5 points in a sweep of UTEP and Boise State. Against UTEP, he scored a team-high 16 points and pulled down a team-high seven rebounds. He then scored 13 points and grabbed a career-high nine rebounds against Boise State.
Omar-Seli Mance, Sr., G, Rice - averaged a team-best 17.0 points in a split of two games. He scored 19 points at Texas-Pan American and added 15 against Tulsa. Mance was 8-of-17 from three-point range for the week.
Quinton Ross, Sr., G/F, SMU - averaged 18.0 points, 9.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists last week. He tied a career-high with 13 rebounds at San Jose State.
Marqus Ledoux, Sr., F, Tulsa - came off the bench and scored a career-high 16 points in a win at Rice. He shot 67 percent (6-9) from the field and also added two assists and two rebounds.

HAWAII WINS BATTLE FOR FIRST Hawaii guards Michael Kuebler and Carl English combined for 59 points in an 88-77 win over Fresno State last night, snapping the Bulldogs five-game winning streak. The victory improved the Rainbow Warriors to 4-1 in the WAC while Fresno State dropped its first conference game (4-1). English scored 30 points, tied for the third most by a WAC player this season, while Kuebler added 29 after hitting all six of his three-point attempts in the first half.

FSN TO SHOW TULSA-UTEP CONTEST Fox Sports Net will televise Thursday nights game between Tulsa and UTEP. The game will tip-off at 6:00 p.m. (MT) and will be shown on Fox Sports Southwest and Fox Sports Bay Area. Bill Land will handle the play-by-play duties while Jim Haller will provide color commentary. The game features two head coaches that were assistants together at Tulsa. Both John Phillips (Tulsa) and Billy Gillispie (UTEP) were on Bill Selfs staff from 1997-2000.

DOUBLE LEADERS Half of the WAC schools feature players that lead their teams in at least two of three categories (points, rebounds and assists). Nevada sophomore forward Kirk Snyder is the only player to lead his team in all three categories with 15.9 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game. The other four are:
Bryan Defares, Jr., G, Boise State (14.0 ppg, 3.3 apg)
Antonio Meeking, Sr., F, Louisiana Tech (16.8 ppg, 8.5 rpg)
Brandon Hawkins, Sr., G, San Jose State (11.6 ppg, 2.9 apg)
Kevin Johnson, Sr., F, Tulsa (17.2 ppg, 7.4 rpg)

HOME SWEET HOME The WACs 10 teams are a combined 56-17 (.767) at home so far this season. On the road, its a completely different story as the WAC is 13-40 (.245). In neutral site games, the WAC is 3-0 as Tulsa won both its games back in November and SMU picked up a win in December. Last week, the WAC played 11 games and road teams were 4-7.

UNDEFEATED HOME TEAMS The WAC has four teams that are still undefeated at home this season. Hawaii and Fresno State are 10-0 while Louisiana Tech and SMU are 4-0 in their friendly confines.

HAWAII OWNS LONGEST HOME STREAK Hawaii has the WACs longest home winning streak at 22 in a row, the seventh longest in the nation. The WACs second longest current home winning streak is 11 games by Louisiana Tech, tied for the 16th longest in the country while Fresno State has won 10 in a row at home, tied for the 20th longest in the nation.

ROAD WARRIORS With Tulsas 94-77 win at Rice last Saturday, the Golden Hurricane improved to 3-1 on the road. Tulsa is the only WAC team with a winning road record this season.

TULSA SECOND BEST OVER LAST FOUR SEASONS Since the start of the 1999-2000 season, Tulsa has won 94 games, tied with Cincinnati and Gonzaga for the second most in the nation behind Dukes 106 victories.

1,000-POINT SCORERS The WAC has six players that have scored more than 1,000 points in their collegiate careers: Quinton Ross, G, SMU (1,405); Terrance Green, G, Nevada (1,377); Kevin Johnson, F, Tulsa (1,283); Antonio Meeking, F, Louisiana Tech (1,225); Roy Smallwood, F, UTEP (1,119); and Dante Swanson, G, Tulsa (1,096).

NATIONAL RANKINGS No WAC teams are ranked in the top 25, but Tulsa and Fresno State are receiving votes in both the ESPN/USA Today and AP polls while Hawaii also earned consideration in the coaches poll.

NON-CONFERENCE MARK The WAC is 53-38 (.582) in non-conference games this season, including a 44-38 (.537) mark against Division I teams. Last year, WAC teams were 71-46 (.607) in non-conference games with a 61-44 (.581) mark 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).

2003 WILLIAMS WAC TOURNAMENT The 2003 Williams WAC Tournament will be held March 11-15 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 11. The remaining eight teams will all play in the quarterfinals on Thursday, March 13 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 (ESPN2).

WILLIAMS IS TOURNAMENT SPONSOR For the third year in a row, Williams will be the WACs tournament sponsor. Williams, through its subsidiaries, connects businesses to energy, delivering innovative, reliable products and services. Williams information is available at www.williams.com.

FRESNO STATE, NEVADA TO HOST FUTURE WAC TOURNAMENTS Earlier last fall, Fresno State was selected to host the 2004 WAC Tournament while Nevada will host the tournament in 2005. In 2004, the tournament will be played in the brand new Save Mart Center on the Fresno State campus. The following year, it will be held in Nevadas Lawlor Events Center.

ESPN/FOX SPORTS NET SCHEDULE The WAC has a multi-year contract with ESPN for coverage of football and basketball. Four games were scheduled for ESPN/ESPN2 (including the mens tournament championship game) while Fox Sports Net will telecast six mens games and four womens games including the womens WAC tournament final.

BRACKET BUSTER SATURDAY The WAC and four of its teams have partnered with ESPN and several other top college basketball conferences for Bracket Buster Saturday, a new one-day, nine-game mens basketball event matching potential NCAA tournament hopefuls against each other. Bracket Buster Saturday will be played annually beginning with the inaugural event February 22, 2003. ESPN and ESPN2 will present five live games highlighted by the only predetermined game for 2003 featuring two teams that have reached the Elite Eight in recent years: Tulsa (2000) at Gonzaga (1999). In addition to those five, there will be four games produced and distributed in the markets of the competing teams. The 18-team field will feature four teams from the WAC (Fresno State, Hawaii, Louisiana Tech and Tulsa), Mid-American Conference and Missouri Valley Conference and three from the Horizon League, plus UC Santa Barbara from the Big West Conference, Western Kentucky from the Sun Belt Conference and Gonzaga from the West Coast Conference. The match-ups for Bracket Buster Saturday will be determined by ESPN in conjunction with the conferences on Monday, Feb. 3, 2003.

TEAM NOTES Information on the mens basketball teams in the WAC:

Boise State - the Broncos trailed by 17 in the first half against Nevada, took the lead in the second half, but eventually lost, 71-61 ... Boise State is averaging only 59.5 points in four conference games, the lowest in the WAC ... Boise State has not scored 100 points since beating U.S. International, 106-82, during the 1985-86 season (483 games).

Fresno State - the Bulldogs continue its road trip at SMU on Thursday and at Louisiana Tech on Saturday, a trip (including last nights game at Hawaii) that spans 8,465 miles ... Fresno State is 10-0 at home for the fourth time since moving into Selland Arena (1967-68) ... the Bulldogs lead the WAC in scoring defense (64.4 points/game) ... 80.5 percent (66-of-82) of Travis DeManbys field goal attempts have come from behind the three-point line, the highest percentage of any regular starter in the WAC ... the Bulldogs lead the WAC in free throw percentage (.725) ... Fresno State is 112-20 (.848) at Selland Arena since the 1995-96 season ... this is the final season at Selland Arena for Fresno State as the Bulldogs will play in the Save Mart Center next year.

Hawaii - junior Carl English leads the WAC in scoring (20.5 ppg) and three-pointers made per game (2.85) ... in five conference games, English has averaged 22.2 points per game ... English has scored in double figures in 13 straight games ... Mark Campbell leads the WAC in assists with 6.15 per game ... Hawaii is 10-0 when leading at the half this season ... UH has won 32 of its last 38 games (.842) ... Hawaii has won 22 straight home games and 33 of its last 34 in Honolulu ... the streak is four wins shy of tying the school record ... in addition, UH has won 19 straight WAC home games dating back to 2000-01, the longest current streak in the conference.

Louisiana Tech - Antonio Meeking posted his 20th career double-double last week with 23 points and 12 rebounds against Hawaii ... Meeking is shooting 65.8 percent from the free throw line after shooting 54.0 percent his first three seasons ... freshman Eric Woods made his first start last week against San Jose State and scored 13 points ... Louisiana Tech is 17-0 at home against non-conference opponents under head coach Keith Richard ... Tech has won 13 of its last 15 conference games.

Nevada - after a 2-5 start, Nevada has won five of its last seven ... Kirk Snyder has scored in double figures in 14 straight games, tied with Tulsas Kevin Johnson for the longest current streak in the WAC ... Snyder leads the WAC with five double-doubles on the season ... junior G Todd Okeson leads the WAC and is second in the nation in three-point field goal percentage (.545; 30-55) ... Okeson has hit 14 of his last 17 treys ... the Wolf Pack have been outrebounded only once this season (Santa Clara) ... in WAC games only, Nevada leads the league in free throw shooting (.830) ... Nevada is the only team in the WAC to not win a game when trailing at the half (0-5) ... six of the Packs seven losses have come by five or less points ... Nevada is 1-6 in games decided by five points or less.

Rice - sophomore Michael Harris is seventh in the nation in field goal percentage (.642) ... Rice had its seven-game home winning streak broken last Saturday against Tulsa ... Omar-Seli Mance had his streak of scoring at least 17 points snapped at six after scoring 15 against Tulsa last Saturday ... Rashid Smith missed the Tulsa game due to a sore back, snapping a string of 29 consecutive starts ... Rice leads the WAC in scoring (76.0 ppg), three-point field goal percentage (.393), three-point field goals made (6.77/game) and steals (8.77/game) ... junior Yamar Diene has 72 career blocks, 10 shy of tying the school record ... freshman guard Alex Spotts has withdrawn from school for personal reasons ... Spotts had played in six games this season.

San Jose State - the Spartans have an eight-game losing streak, the longest in the WAC this season ... the last time San Jose State lost more then eight in a row was when it lost 18 straight during the 1997-98 season ... Antonio Lawrence leads the WAC in steals with 2.55 per game ... Oudie Baker quit the team last week ... Baker was the teams leading scorer (16.4 ppg) and rebounder (6.3 rpg) ... San Jose State is last in the WAC in free throw percentage (.596) ... SJSU has not scored 100 points in a game since beating Utah State, 101-85, on Jan. 25, 1979 (671 games).

SMU - the Mustangs were 0-7 on the road before picking up its first win at San Jose State last Saturday, 79-72 ... SMU shot 53 percent from the field in the win at SJSU, improving to 29-6 under Mike Dement when shooting 50 percent or better ... after averaging 4.8 points in his first five contests, freshman Bryan Hopkins is averaging 20.8 points over his last five games.

UTEP - Justino Victoriano leads the WAC in rebounding with 9.6 per game ... the last Miner to average double-digit rebounds in a season was Terry White in 1981-82 (10.2 rpg) ... the Miners have lost 19 road games in a row dating back to Feb. 24, 2001, when it won at Rice, 59-52 ... UTEP was the only WAC team to not win a road game last year ... senior F Roy Smallwood is out for the season after tearing the ACL in his left knee on Dec. 18.

Tulsa - after averaging 62.7 points per game on the road in its first three games, Tulsa scored 94 at Rice last week ... six players scored in double figures at Rice, a first for the Hurricane this season ... TU is 3-1 on the road, the only WAC team with a winning road record ... MTV has been granted access to the team and will produce a documentary that will be shown later this year ... Kevin Johnson has scored in double figures in 14 straight games, tied with Nevadas Kirk Snyder for the longest current streak in the WAC ... Johnson leads the WAC in blocks with 2.0 per game ... Johnson has three double-doubles this year, one more than all of last season ... Jason Parker leads the WAC in free throw percentage (.887) ... the current five-member senior class has a record of 94-26 (.783) ... Tulsa has sold out 32 of its 64 games at the Reynolds Center where it has gone 54-10 (.844), the best winning percentage at home of any WAC team in its current arena ... every season that Tulsa has won 20 games, it has either played in the NCAA Tournament or won the NIT Championship.