Colorado State-Pueblo 11-14-14: (Live Stats / Live Video / Audio) Western State 11-15-14: (Live Stats)Tournament Central Buffalo Basketball Game Notes CANYON, Texas – The West Texas A&M men's basketball team begins the 2014-15 season with its third-consecutive appearance in the Al Kaly Shriner Classic, hosted by Colorado State-Pueblo in Pueblo, Colo. WT will begin the season on Friday night at 8 p.m. (CT) as it takes on the host ThunderWolves at Massari Arena. The following day, the Buffs will play a neutral site matchup with Western State, also of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC). Also featured in the tournament this year is Lone Star Conference rival Midwestern State.
LIVE COVERAGE: Live stats and video (pay-per-view) for both of WT's matchups at the Al Kaly tournament will be available and provided by Colorado State-Pueblo Athletics. Audio will also be provided for WT's matchup with the ThunderWolves on Friday night. Live scoring updates can also be found by following @wtathletics on Twitter. Links can be found at the top of the page or on
www.GoBuffsGo.com via the men's basketball schedule page.
FAMILIAR FACES: WT returns just four players, three of which saw playing time, from last year's squad that finished with a 10-17 overall record and last place in the LSC (2-12). Returning to the starting lineup are seniors
Antjuan Ball,
Miles Gatewood, and
Tez Dumars. Also back for WT is redshirt freshman
Rylan Gerber.
HEAD COACH TOM BROWN: WT welcomed in its 17th head coach in program history earlier this spring in
Tom Brown who comes to Canyon after an impressive career as the Associate Head Coach at Winona State, one of the most successful Division II men's basketball programs in recent history. Brown coached the Warriors to two National Championships and three appearances in the title game while at WSU. His accomplishments there also include four Elite Eight appearances, six conference championships, five conference tournament titles, 10-straight 20 win seasons, 10 All-Americans and three National Players of the Year.
Brown will be joined on the bench by first-year Associate Head Coach
Chris Gove and Assistant Coach
Quincy Henderson. Gove, like Brown, comes to WT after a 16-year stint as an assistant at WSU. After spending the previous two years on the coaching staff at Illinois Wesleyan and previously playing under Brown and Gove at WSU, Henderson begins his first season with the Buffs as well.
LSC PRESEASON POLL: Last week, the LSC announced the annual men's basketball preseason poll and awards. WT was picked eighth in the league heading into the 2014-15 season. Tarleton State topped the preseason rankings while Xavier Blackburn of Midwestern State was chosen as the Preseason Player of the Year.
TSU was picked in the top spot with 12 first-place votes and 156 points, closely edging MSU, who received five first-place nods and 155 points. Angelo State comes in at third with 134 points and one top vote, followed by Texas A&M-Commerce in fourth (117 points and three first-place votes), and Cameron in fifth (66 points). Texas A&M-Kingsville (59 points), Eastern New Mexico (57 points and one top vote) and WT (48 points) rounded out the poll.
CSU-PUEBLO AT A GLANCE: The ThunderWolves are coming off their third-consecutive winning season, posting a 15-12 overall record and 13-9 mark in RMAC competition. They are led by fourth-year head coach Ralph Turner and head into the 2014-15 season tabbed sixth in the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll. CSUP loses three starters from that team a year ago but returns three solid senior student-athletes who each got the starting nod on 10 or more occasions. Leading that group will be guard Julian Caldwell, who was a 2013-14 Second-Team All-RMAC selection after totaling 13.6 points, 5.8 boards, and 3.5 assists per game as a junior.
The Buffs lead the all-time series against CSU-Pueblo, 12-4. WT dropped the last meeting to CSUP, 71-55, on Nov. 15, 2013. Both teams will meet again in Canyon at the First United Bank Center (FUBC) on Saturday, Nov. 22, for the Buffs' home opener.
COACH BROWN ON CSU-PUEBLO: "They will really try and play an up-tempo game. We will really have to take care of the basketball and get a great shot every position as they have some very nice size at the 3, 4, and 5 positions along with a 6'-3" point guard. They also will utilize their bench as they are very deep and they can really shoot the ball from the perimeter. This will really cause a problem as we will most likely have to double their big man, Tyrone Marshall (#24, senior). Marshall has great size, can shoot it, and we expect him to be a handful. It will be their home opener and looking back last year, we got it handed to us up there."
WESTERN STATE AT A GLANCE: The Mountaineers went 3-23 last season overall, with all three of those wins coming in RMAC play for a 3-19 conference mark. They return three players who recorded at least 10 starts a year ago, including senior guard Mason Biddle who was the second-leading scorer on the squad at 13.8 points per game. New to the program is first-year head coach Bradd Schafer, who comes to WSU after spending the previous eight years, four as a head coach, at Black Hills State.
WT leads the all-time series against Western State, 3-0. The last meeting was a 85-55 WT victory on Nov. 23, 2007.
COACH BROWN ON WESTERN STATE: "We really do not know too much about Western State. We will get to see them on Friday as they will play Midwestern State at 4 p.m. (CT). We know that they played a very talented Weber State team tough just last week. Their starting five has some very good size which is always a concern for us as we are not that big."
