THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE
November 10 (Wednesday)
Louisiana Tech at Texas, 7:00 p.m. CT
Television: ESPNU
November 12 (Friday)
San Jose State at Eastern Washington, 5:30 p.m. PT
^Montana State at Hawai‘i, 7:00 p.m. HT
Fresno State at Brigham Young, 7:00 p.m. MT
New Mexico State at Louisiana-Lafayette, 7:00 p.m. CT
November 13 (Saturday)
Montana at Nevada, 2:00 p.m. PT
Western State at Boise State, 5:00 p.m. MT
^Cal State Fullerton at Hawai‘i, 7:00 p.m. HT
Weber State at Utah State, 7:00 p.m. MT
Austin College at Louisiana Tech, 8:00 p.m. CT
Eastern Oregon at Idaho, 8:00 p.m. PT
^ Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic (Honolulu, Hawaii)
WAC NOTES
WAC TEAMS IMPRESSIVE IN EXHIBITION GAMES
WAC teams went 11-1 during this year’s exhibition season. During those 12 exhibition contests, teams from the WAC won by an average scoring margin of 23.9 points.
WAC TOURNAMENT HEADS TO LAS VEGAS
The 2011 WAC Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournament will be held March 9-12 at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas and will include the top eight teams in the regular-season standings. Ticket information will be available soon at www.wacsports.com.
ESPNU BRACKETBUSTERS
For the ninth year in a row, the WAC has partnered with ESPN and several other top college basketball conferences for ESPNU BracketBusters, a weekend men’s basketball event matching potential NCAA tournament hopefuls against each other. All nine WAC teams will be a part of this year’s pool of teams. The event will be held February 19. The match-ups for Bracket Buster Saturday will be determined by ESPN in conjunction with the conferences about three weeks before the event.
WAC ANNOUNCES TOURNAMENT FORMAT CHANGE
The WAC will change its postseason men’s and women’s basketball tournament format, effective for the 2011 tournament. The change was recommended by both the WAC men’s and women’s basketball coaches and approved by the WAC Board of Directors. The change will reward teams based on regular season success, giving the top two teams byes into the tournament semifinals. Under the format, the tournament will begin on Wednesday with two men’s and two women’s games featuring the No. 5 seed against the No. 8 seed and No. 6 versus No. 7. The winners then advance to Thursday’s quarterfinal matchups to play the No. 4 and No. 3 seeds. The winners of those games then advance to Friday’s semifinals against the top two seeds. The change also results in two men’s and two women’s games being played each day of the tournament except for Saturday, which will feature the men’s and women’s championship games.
TOURNAMENT OPPONENTS
WAC teams will play at least 21 non-conference games against opponents that played in last year’s NCAA Tournament. New Mexico State leads the conference with five games scheduled against last year’s NCAA Tournament opponents.
LETTERWINNER/STARTER CAPSULE
This season, only two WAC teams return at least three starters. Utah State returns four of its starters from last season, while New Mexico State returns three. Boise State, Fresno State, Hawai‘i, Idaho, Louisiana Tech and San Jose State each return two starters. Nevada returns one starter from last year’s squad. New Mexico State has the most number of returning letterwinners with nine.
WAC TEAM-BY-TEAM NOTES
Boise State Broncos (0-0, 0-0 WAC)
Leon Rice enters his first season as head coach at Boise State after 11 seasons as an assistant at Gonzaga ... senior guard La’Shard Anderson returns after leading the WAC in steals per game (11th in the nation) at 2.6 in 2010 ... senior forward Daequon Montreal finished last season strong, making 11 of his 14 starts during conference play and averaging 14.1 points in WAC games ... senior guard Robert Arnold averaged 11.8 points per game as a junior, and garnered WAC Player of the Week, Feb. 22-28 ... senior forward Paul Noonan returns as one of the top 3-point shooters in the WAC with a 37.1 percent career clip ... Noonan enters the season eighth on the Boise State career 3-pointers made list with 145 ... the Broncos return 62 percent of the points from the third-highest scoring team in the WAC in 2010.
Fresno State Bulldogs (0-0, 0-0 WAC)
Greg Smith, a sophomore center from Fresno Calif., became the second Bulldog to earn WAC Freshman of the Year honors last season when he averaged 11.5 points, 5.8 assists and 1.2 blocks per game ... Nedeljko Golubovic, a senior forward from Serbia, is the WAC’s only active two-time Academic All-District honoree and represents the third straight year the Bulldogs’ field only one senior ... Steve Cleveland has directed the nation’s largest Academic Progress Rate improvement since 2003-04 ... the ‘Dogs drew the second-highest number of fans among all Division I schools in the state of California and ranked fourth on the West Coast in average attendance during the 2009-10 season ... the Bulldogs welcome eight newcomers for the 2010-11 season including New Mexico transfer Jonathan Wills, a pair of junior college transfers, four freshmen and sophomore Givon Crump, who will redshirt the season.
Hawai‘i Rainbows (0-0, 0-0 WAC)
Gib Arnold begins his first season as the head coach of UH. Arnold, who has been an assistant in the Pac-10, SEC and WCC, spent the last five seasons as an assistant coach at USC ... UH returns three letterwinners and two starters from last season’s squad that finished 10-20 overall and 3-13 in the WAC ... senior point guard Hirmam Thompson is the only returning player who saw significant time last season. Two-year starter Bill Amis returns after missing the entire 2009-10 season with a foot injury. In 2008-09, Amis led the team in rebounding, field goal percentage and blocks ... after sitting out last year per NCAA rules, Zane Johnson will be eligible for the ‘Bows this year. Johnson was a member of two Arizona NCAA Tournament teams, including the 2009 Sweet 16 squad.
Idaho Vandals (0-0, 0-0 WAC)
Idaho’s 32 combined wins in Don Verlin’s first two seasons are the most by an Idaho team since the 1992-93 and 1993-94 teams earned a combined 42 wins ... Idaho must replace 73.5 percent of its scoring and 63.9 percent of its rebounding after graduating four starters and losing five total lettermen from 2009-10, including 2009 first team all-WAC honoree Mac Hopson and 2010 WAC All-Defensive honoree Marvin Jefferson ... Idaho technically returns two starters in 2010-11, as senior forward Brandon Wiley comes back to the Vandals after redshirting the 09-10 season with a back injury. He started 30 games for the 2008-09 Vandals and averaged 8.2 points and team-leading 5.2 rebounds ... junior Luiz Toledo is Idaho’s lone returning starter from the 2009-10 season ... the forward led the WAC last season with a .638 field goal percentage.
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (0-0, 0-0 WAC)
Nine newcomers, including eight new scholarship players will take the court for the Bulldogs this season ... junior forward Olu Ashaolu returns after recording 10 double-doubles last season including a 17-point, 21-rebound performance at Houston ... senior guard DeAndre Brown returns after earning a spot on last season’s WAC All-Newcomer Team. Brown recorded a career-high nine assists against Utah State, the most by a Tech player in four seasons ... sophomore guard Brandon Gibson returns from an injury that sidelined him for all of last season ... he averaged 2.5 points as a freshman in 2008-09 ... Derrick Jones joins the LA Tech staff as an assistant coach after spending the past two seasons in the same role at New Orleans.
Nevada Wolf Pack (0-0, 0-0 WAC)
Nevada returns one starter and a total of six lettermen from last year’s 21-13 team. Junior forward Dario Hunt, a member of the 2010 WAC All-Defensive Team, returns after starting 33 of 34 games last season ... the team will also feature three players who redshirted last year, including Indiana transfer and sophomore guard Malik Story, Duke transfer and sophomore forward Olek Czyz, redshirt freshman guard Jerry Evans Jr., and seven newcomers ... this year’s team will feature one senior, four juniors, five sophomores, one redshirt freshman and five true freshmen. The Wolf Pack’s seven newcomers include juniors Illiwa Baldwin and Derrell Conner and true freshmen Devonte Elliott, Jordan Finn, Jordan Burris, Deonte Burton and Kevin Panzer ... with its 21-13 record last year, the Wolf Pack turned in Nevada’s seventh-straight season with at least 20 wins.
New Mexico State Aggies (0-0, 0-0 WAC)
New Mexico State won the WAC Tournament Championship for the second time in school history in 2009-10 ... NM State made its 18th appearance in the NCAA Tournament in 2010 ... the Aggies recorded the 24th 20-win season in school history as the team went 22-12 in last season ... the Aggies return three starters from the 2009-10 season; senior forward Wendell McKines, junior guard Hernst Laroche and junior center Hamidu Rahman and seven other lettermen, including junior forward Troy Gillenwater and senior guard Gordo Castillo ... NM State has two seniors, four juniors, four sophomores and four freshmen on the 2010-11 roster ... the Aggies have three players returning who averaged double figures last season ... the team ranked first in the WAC and 14th nationally in three-point field goals per game (8.4).
San Jose Spartans (0-0, 0-0 WAC)
The Spartans seek their first season of .500 or better in 10 years. San Jose State’s last .500 or better record was in 2001 when the team was 14-14 ... San Jose State is coming off a 14-win season in 2010, its first season of 14 or more wins since 2001 ... San Jose State’s 40 wins in the last three seasons are the most since the 1999-2001 period when the Spartans won 41 games ... George Nessman enters his sixth season as San Jose State’s head coach. His tenure is the longest for a Spartans’ men’s basketball coach since Stan Morrison coached the Spartans during the 1990 through 1998 seasons ... Justin Graham enters the 2010-11 season fourth on the school’s list for career assists with 367. He is the school’s career steals leader with 136 ... in 2009-10, Adrian Oliver became the 13th player and first Spartan in 13 seasons to reach the 1,000-career point plateau.
Utah State Aggies (0-0, 0-0 WAC)
Utah State returns four players in 2010 who have garnered various all-WAC honors in senior forward Tai Wesley (2010 first team all-WAC); senior forward Nate Bendall (2010 WAC All-Newcomer Team); senior guard Brian Green (2010 WAC All-Newcomer Team); and senior guard Pooh Williams (2010 WAC All-Defensive Team) ... Utah State won its third-straight WAC regular-season title in 2010, including its second outright as it has posted back-to-back 14-2 league records ... prior to its current run, USU has never won more than two-straight league championships ... Stew Morrill was named the WAC Coach of the Year for the second-straight season in 2010 and for the fourth time in his 12 years at Utah State ... Utah State is one of just three teams in the nation to win at least 23 games in each of the last 11 seasons along with Gonzaga and Kansas.