TYLER, TEXAS – The University of Texas at Tyler men's basketball team will return from a two-week break for Saturday and Monday action against DBU and Midwestern State.
 
Both contests will take place on the road to kick off a stretch of four games against Lone Star Conference competition marked as non-conference games. The first of those two games against DBU and Midwestern State will preclude a pair of home games on Dec. 16^th and 18^th for the Patriots against UAFS and Oklahoma Christian.
 
UT Tyler enters the games 5-0 on the year and will be coming off of a pair of wins against Ouachita Baptist and Mississippi College at the Lion Hoopsgiving back on Nov. 26-27 in Commerce, Texas. The Patriots are one of 12 undefeated teams across the Division II landscape, and one of three LSC schools to complete the first few weeks of the 2021-22 season without a loss.
 
Saturday's contest in Dallas against DBU will get started at 2 p.m. and Monday's meeting with Midwestern State is slated for a 7 p.m. start in Wichita Falls, Texas.

A WEEK OF FIRSTS
 
The Patriots hot start to the 2021-22 season, which has featured the first 5-0 start to a campaign since the 2017-18 season for the program, led to a few different instances of "firsts" for the program since the last time the Patriots hit the court on Nov. 27^th. Most recently, UT Tyler received votes for the first time ever in the National Association Basketball Coaches (NABC) Division II Top 25 Poll.
 
UT Tyler joined ranked LSC opponents Lubbock Christian (no. 1), West Texas A&M (no. 4) and Angelo State (no. 18), and stand as one of three LSC teams with an undefeated record alongside Lubbock Christian (8-0) and Texas A&M-Commerce (5-0).
 
The Patriots also appeared in the D2SIDA South Central Regional Rankings for the first time on Nov. 29^th in the no. 7 spot, and have since slid back a spot to no. 8 in this week's edition of the poll after not competing during each of the last two weeks.
 
EYE-OPENING NUMBERS
 
Navigating five games without a hiccup is impressive enough in itself, but doing it with the level of dominance that the Patriots have imposed on their opposition makes the start to the season even more impressive for head coach Louis Wilson's squad. The 31.2 scoring margin the Patriots have produced in their first five wins to open up the year leads all of Division II basketball.
 
The Patriots have shot 52.5 percent from the floor for the year, 11^th best in the country, and have limited opponents to a 36.8 percent field goal percentage, fifth best in Division II basketball.
 
UT Tyler leads the Lone Star Conference in a multitude of categories, including; field goal percentage (52.5 percent), scoring offense (89.2 ppg), rebound margin (10.2), assists per game (19.2), three-point field goal percentage (41.9 percent) and scoring margin (31.2).
 
LAST TIME OUT
 
The Patriots were solid from start to finish at the Lion Hoopsgiving back on Nov. 26-27 in the last action for the team. Micah Fuller, Eysan Wiley and Milan Szabo all reached double-digit scoring figures to get the weekend started with a 74-62 win over Ouachita Baptist on Friday night.
 
UT Tyler led the majority of the contest, falling behind for just 6:50 total throughout the game and effectively pulled away in the second half thanks to a pair of scoring droughts for the Tigers. The latter of those two droughts came in the final 2:05 of the game as Ouachita Baptist was held without a basket after trailing by just seven, while UT Tyler scored eight points by way of the free-throw line to pad the 120point victory.
 
The Patriots forced 19 turnovers and turned those turnovers into 21 points. Fuller led the way with 16 points while Wiley and Szabo added 14 and 12, respectively.
 
Da'Zhon Wyche helped get the Patriots off to a fast start offensively in the first half of Saturday's 72-64 win over Mississippi College with five three-point makes in the opening 20 minutes of action. Wyche was 5-for-5 from behind the three-point line in that first half, and helped spur a 19-6 run that pushed UT Tyler ahead 27-14 and to an eventual 41-28 halftime margin.
 
Mississippi College eventually found a way to slow down Wyche in the second half as the Choctaws made it just a one-point game at 49-48 with 11:08 remaining in the game. That margin followed a 20-8 run for Mississippi College to open the second half, but proved to be irrelevant to the outcome as UT Tyler scored six straight points and then led by at least 10 on two different occasions throughout the final eight minutes.
 
The Patriots finished with a shooting percentage north of 50 percent for the fourth time in five games, hitting 26-of-51 (51.0 percent) from the field.
 
AND SO IT BEGINS
 
UT Tyler will now feature all Lone Star Conference competition for the remainder of the 2021-22 season, with the first four games of that stretch marked as non-conference affairs. Make no mistake about it, these four upcoming contests will be extremely important as the Patriots look to continue to build a resume impressive enough for a potential bid into their first ever NCAA Division II National Tournament.
 
The quest for qualification into their first-ever Lone Star Conference Postseason Tournament will be difficult enough, however, as 12 of the 17 LSC teams have completed the first few weeks of the season with records .500 or better. Traditional powers such as Lubbock Christian, West Texas A&M and Angelo State have established themselves as contenders at the top of the league once again, while up-and-comers such as UT Tyler, Texas A&M International and Western New Mexico have gotten off to notable starts that makes it clear the depth of the LSC in 2021-22 will be as good as any league in Division II basketball.
 
The Lone Star Conference has returned to a traditional single round-robin conference schedule for their 17 teams set to compete this season, with four or five additional games against conference opponents that will not count towards the league standings.
 
The LSC Basketball Championship has also returned to a 12-team field in 2022, with the championships taking place on March 1-3-4-5-6, 2022, with opening round games taking place on campus followed by quarterfinals, semifinals and a championship game at a final site to be announced at a later date.
 
COACH WILSON
 
Head coach Louis Wilson is in his third season at the helm of the Patriots, and seventh overall at the NCAA Division II level. The 2021-22 season will also mark the 30^th year of collegiate basketball coaching experience for Wilson after accumulating 23 years of experience at the Division I level as an associate or assistant coach prior to beginning his tenure as head coach of UT Tyler in 2019-20.
 
Wilson spent five seasons as head coach of RMAC foe Adams State from 2010-15, accumulating a 95-46 record as head coach of the Grizzlies, and made three NCAA Division II National Tournament appearances in the 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons.
 
He navigated the Division II transition period for the Patriots with an overall record of 20-29 through his first two seasons in Tyler, and holds a 12-27 record in Lone Star Conference play.
 
SCOUTING THE PATRIOTS
 
DBU will enter Friday night's meeting with UT Tyler with a 5-3 record on the season after being selected third in the 2021 LSC Men's Basketball Preseason Poll. The Patriots started their campaign off with three straight wins over Colorado Mesa, Colorado Christian and East Central, but have since suffered defeats against Southern Arkansas, Southern Nazarene and most recently Texas A&M-Commerce.
 
DBU has qualified for the NCAA Division II National Tournament in four consecutive seasons dating back to 2017-18, and posted three straight years of 20-plus wins from 2018-21. The Patriots were South Central Region Semifinalists last season after a record of 17-5 in an abbreviated 2020-21 season.
Similar to UT Tyler, DBU spreads the wealth offensively and enters the weekend with four scorers averaging double-digits. Carson Hughes (12.3), Ricky Lujan (11.8), William Heather (11.4), Cameron Kahn (11.0) and Austin Garner (10.1) have all been effective scorers throughout the first eight games of the season for the Patriots.
 
Kahn leads the Patriots with an average of 6.1 boards per game on a rebounding unit that has struggled so far in 2021-22, ranking last in the LSC with a -6.8 margin.
 
SCOUTING THE MUSTANGS
 
Midwestern State is one of the few teams in the LSC to appear on the conference standings list with a record below .500 in 2021-22, going 3-5 in their first eight games. The Mustangs have dropped three of four entering a Friday night road contest with UAFS prior to the meeting with UT Tyler slated for Monday evening.
 
The Mustangs three wins have come against CSU-Pueblo, Central Oklahoma and Cameron. Midwestern State ranks 15^th in the LSC in scoring defense (75.0 ppg), and has the lowest team field-goal percentage (39.5) in the league.
 
Jermane Carter has been the best offensive weapon for the Mustangs in the early stages of 2021-22, averaging 17.4 points a game and has gone for 20 or more in three games already for Midwestern State. Carter also leads the team in rebounding as well (6.0).
 
Terrell Wilson (11.0) and Pierre Sanders (10.5) are the other two Mustangs to average double digit figures for head coach Justin Leslie. Leslie is in the midst of his third season as Midwestern State after guiding Azusa Pacific for 12 seasons.