CANYON, Texas – Coming off its first NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearance since 1997-98, the No. 21-ranked West Texas A&M men's basketball team opens the 2017-18 season Friday at 7 p.m. at the First United Bank Center against Adams State and will host Western State Saturday at 6 p.m.  WT has won its last 21 games at home heading into the 2017-18 season.
 
Fans can access live stats, audio/video streaming links for the games at www.gobuffsgo.com on the men's basketball schedule page.  James Hadnot and Angelo Pontello will handle play-by-play duties on the webstream of the games.  The games also will be broadcast throughout the Texas Panhandle on Lonestar FM 98.7 with Kent Johnson and Lucas Kinsey on the broadcast.
 
WT is coming off a 26-9 season in 2016-17 under head coach Tom Brown.  The Buffs went 12-6 in Lone Star Conference play en route to their first NCAA postseason appearance since 2011-12 and 14^th as a program.  In the NCAA Tournament, the Buffs defeated two familiar foes in Texas A&M-Commerce (97-86) and Texas A&M-Kingsville (76-64) to reach the Sweet Sixteen.  In the regional final, the Buffs dropped an 88-63 decision to host Colorado Mines to end the season.
 
Despite the loss, the Buffs' 26 wins tied for fourth-most in program history as Brown has guided the Buffs to back-to-back 20-plus win seasons in his three years at WT.  Brown is 61-34 overall as head coach entering his fourth season and is 28-18 in Lone Star Conference play. 
 
Friday marks the first time WT has opened the season at home since the 2001-02 season in an 89-64 win over Oklahoma Panhandle State.
 
Prior to Friday's game, fans are encouraged to come out and watch the Alumni Game at 5 p.m. at the First United Bank Center as part of Alumni Weekend for the Buffs.  The Alumni game, the first under Brown, has an outstanding group of former players returning, along with the 20^th anniversary of the 1997-98 Elite Eight team, coached for former head coach Rick Cooper.  Cooper's 1997-98 team will be honored at halftime of the game Friday night as a majority of the 97-98 team is expected to return.  It is the only Elite Eight team in WT men's basketball history as a Division II institution.
 
WT enters the 2017-18 season with 21-straight home wins dating back to Jan. 6, 2016, tying the school-record for consecutive home victories set 1927-29.  A win on Friday against Adams State would be a school-record 22^nd consecutive home win.  WT won its final five home games of the 2015-16 season and went 15-0 at home last season.
 
The Buffs are ranked 21^st nationally in the preseason National Association of Basketball Coaches and are 24^th in the D2SIDA Top 25 Men's Basketball Preseason Poll.  The Buffs were picked runner-up in the preseason Lone Star Conference poll voted on by league coaches, sports information directors and select media representatives. 
 
WT senior David Chavlovich was named to two preseason all-America publications this season as he was named to the Basketball Times Preseason All-America team and was a second team preseason honoree according to Street & Smith's Magazine. 
 
Chavlovich put together one of the best single-seasons in WT basketball history last season as he earned first team all-conference honors, helping WT to its first NCAA Sweet Sixteen since 1997-98 as the team went 26-9.  Chavlovich set new single-season school-records in points (655), while holding the WT career mark for points (1,762), field goal attempts (1,367), 3-point field goals made (297) and 3-point field goal attempts (802).  He broke the school all-time scoring record at UT Permian Basin on Feb. 4, 2017 and earned NABC Division II South Central Region All-District honors.

As a sophomore, he was named the Lone Star Conference Player of the Year and finished his second year at WT with 634 career points ranking him then-second all-time in school history behind Damien Lolar with 650 points in 2006-07.  Following the season, he was named a NABC All-American, joining Lolar (2007) and Robert Lee (2008) as Buffs who earned the prestigious honor.

Chavlovich made an immediate impact his first season at WT as he was named Lone Star Conference Freshman of the Year and led the team in scoring and ranked second in the league at 16.5 points per game.  He earned second team all-conference honors as a freshman.
 
Along with Chavlovich, the Buffs return a total of four seniors who all had significant impacts over their careers.  Senior Jordan Evans, a native of Houston, Texas, earned second team all-conference honors in his second year as a Buff in 2016-17.  Evans averaged 13.1 points per game and had a .425 shooting percentage, while draining 86 triples.  He was named honorable mention all-conference as a sophomore in 2015-16.  He has played in 66 games with 50 starts, scoring 890 points and averaging 13.5 points per game.  Evans is 175 of 453 from beyond the arc (.386) and 281 of 645 from the field (.436).  He has 294 rebounds (4.5) with 41 steals. 
 
Also returning as a senior is Tommy Gove, a native of Waconia, Minn.  He has played in 92 games with 31 starts, averaging 21.8 minutes, while draining 81 field goals with 59 triples and 170 assists for his three-year career.  Gove was a staple for the Buffs last season and not only excelled on the court, but in the classroom as he was named to the NABC Honor's Court.   Along with Gove, senior Rylan Gerber (Dumas, Texas) also returns for 2017-18 providing core senior leadership for the Buffs.
 
Junior Ryan Quaid returns after a breakout sophomore season as he earned South Central Region All-Tournament Team honors and continued to improve as the season went along.  The Fort Collins, Colo., native, shot .533 from the field, averaged 6.5 rebounds per game and 9.4 points per game.  As a freshman, Quaid saw action in 31 games with 16 starts and shot over 50 percent from the field (90-174) and averaged 4.3 rebounds per game.
 
Sophomores Drew Evans (Chicago, Ill.) and Jordan Collins (Houston, Texas) also return for the Buffs, while the team added seven new faces for 2017-18, including four freshmen, one sophomore and two juniors for the season.
 
Adams State enters the season picked tenth in the preseason Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference poll.  Senior Brandon Sly earned a spot on the Preseason All-RMAC team as he averaged 16.8 points and 4.4 assists last season, leading both the team in both categories.  He also led ASU in three pointers made (61), 3-point percentage (.433), free throws made (118), field goals made (154) and minutes played (976).  Sly led the team in steals with 41. Last season, the Grizzlies went 13-16 and 10-12 in the RMAC as ASU has nine upperclassmen for 2017-18.
 
The Buffs lead the all-time series with Adams State, 9-5.  ASU won the last meeting between the two teams, in a 61-59 game on Jan. 8, 2009, in Canyon.  ASU has won three of four in the series after WT began the series with seven-straight wins and eight of 10.  WT leads the series 6-2 in Canyon, while the teams are tied 2-2 in Alamosa, Colo., as the teams also are tied 1-1 in neutral floor meetings.  Friday marks the third time third time the teams have opened a season playing each other as they did on a neutral floor in 1999 (ASU, 75-72) and in 2008 in Alamosa with a 74-66 win by the Buffs.
 
WT and Adams State will meet once again next week at the Al-Kaly Shrine Classic in Pueblo, Colo., on Fri., Nov. 17 at 4 p.m. CT at Colorado State-Pueblo. 
 
The Grizziles won their exhibition contest against Johnson & Wales last week 98-76 in Alamosa.  In the game, six players were in double figures led by Shane Johnson with 16 points on 5 of 8 from the field, with one triple and 5 of 5 from the line.  ASU shot .567 from the field on 38 of 67, while going 6 of 17 from beyond the arc (.353) and 16 of 19 from the line.  The Grizzlies held Johnson & Wales to a .353 clip from the field, two made triples, but J&W went 26 of 29 from the line as ASU committed 23 fouls in the game.  The Grizzlies pulled down 45 rebounds as Mike Thomas had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.  ASU had 18 turnovers, but recorded nine rejections with six steals and held J&W to 31 rebounds for the game.
 
Western State plays at No. 11 UT Permian Basin Friday night, before heading to Canyon for Saturday evening's game.  The Mountaineers are coming off a 6-20 record in 2016-17 and a 5-17 mark in the RMAC.  The Mountaineers return preseason all-RMAC selection Ben Beauchamp for the 2017-18 season as he had 31 points in an 88-74 exhibition loss at Division I Weber State earlier this month. 
 
Beauchamp earned second team all-conference honors last season as a junior as he scored 488 points averaging 18.8 per game which was good for third in the league.  He made 69 triples and drained 125 free throws.  Beauchamp was fourth on the team in rebounds with 102 and third in assists (68), while leading the team with 31 steals.  He enters 2017-18 just 181 points away from 1,000.
 
WT leads the all-time series with Western State 3-1 as the Mountaineers won the previous meeting 97-88 on Nov. 15, 2014, in Brown's second game as head coach of the Buffs in Pueblo, Colo.  WT is 2-0 in Canyon against the Mountaineers and 1-1 in neutral site matchups. 
 
In that game in 2014, former Buff, Antjuan Ball, who had 20 points and 18 rebounds, had a tip-in with five seconds left in regulation sending the game to overtime.  All five starters for WT scored in double figures in the game and nearly had a win in the first overtime, but Western State hit a triple with four seconds left in the extra session sending the game to a second overtime.  The Mountaineers built a seven-point advantage in the second overtime and settled for the nine-point win.  Not one player currently on Western State's roster was on the team in 2014-15. 
 
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