Nov. 12, 2009
RUSTON, La. -
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After a 91-54 exhibition win over Lincoln (Mo.), Louisiana Tech will officially take the court for the first time at Texas-Pan American on Saturday at 1 p.m.
Picked fifth in the preseason WAC poll by the media and sixth by the coaches, the Bulldogs are coming off of a sixth place finish last season. Tech will open its 86th season of men's basketball and will do so on the road for the ninth consecutive year.
Head coach Kerry Rupp enters his third season at Tech and fourth overall.
Last season, Tech improved by nine games and was 15-18 overall. They return 83 percent of points, 92 percent of rebounds and 79 percent of assists from last season including nine letterwinners from a year ago and four starters. Along with seniors Jamel Guyton, Magnum Rolle, Kyle Gibson and sophomore Olu Ashaolu, freshman DeAndre Brown is also expected to be in the starting lineup.
Gibson averaged 16.1 points per game last season and has earned 2009-10 preseason second-team all-WAC honors.
Texas Pan-American returns all but one starter from a team that went 10-17 last season including Nick Weiermiller who led the team in scoring with 10.7 points and also averaged 5.6 assists. Head coach Ryan Marks enters his first season at UTPA after five seasons at St. Edward's, an NCAA Division II school, and three seasons at NCAA Division III institution Southern Vermont College.
The Brocs opened their exhibition season with an 84-72 loss to St. Edward's on Nov. 7. They bounced back and beat Texas A&M-International 64-54 on Monday.
LA Tech leads the all-time series with UTPA 20-13 and won the last meeting 97-76 during the 1998-99 season.
The contest can be heard live throughout the LA Tech Sports Network, including KXKZ 107.5 (Ruston), KLKL 95.7 FM (Shreveport/Bossier City), KBYO 92.7 FM (Monroe/Farmerville), and KVCL 92.1 FM (Winnfield).
LA Tech fans can also access the game via the Internet by subscribing to LA Tech All-Access (log onto www.latechsports.com) as the audio will be streamed live.
Louisiana Tech - UT-Pan American Connection
The two schools have no connection, but Tech does have three players that hail from Texas. Jamel Guyton (Odessa/Odessa College), DeAndre Brown (Fort Worth/Navarro College) and Kaiser Stegall (Lancaster, Texas/Skyline HS) all played basketball a previous school in the Lone Star State.
Up Next
LA Tech will take part in the Basketball Travelers Tournament on Nov. 20-22 in Albuquerque, N.M. There they will play Miami University (Ohio) at 7 p.m. on Friday, New Mexico at 9:15 p.m. on Saturday and Nicholls State at 3 p.m. on Sunday.
