TYLER, TEXAS – The University of Texas at Tyler men's basketball team will return home to the Herrington Patriot Center for two games against Lone Star Conference foes marked as non-conference play on Thursday night against UAFS and Saturday afternoon against Oklahoma Christian.
 
The Patriots enter the weekend in the midst of the best start in program history with a 7-0 record, and entered a national top 25 poll for the first time this week at no. 25 in the week five edition of the D2SIDA Men's Basketball National Media Poll. UT Tyler began their 2021-22 campaign with three straight convincing home wins over Southwestern Adventist, Fort Valley State and Dallas Christian back in late November, and have since rattled off four straight wins over solid competition leading up to the return to their home court this weekend.
 
The UT Tyler Police Department will be hosting a toy drive on Thursday night's games benefitting The Children's Advocacy Center of Smith County. Each new unwrapped toy for donation will equal one free entry into that night's contests. Only new and unwrapped toys will be accepted.
 
LAST TIME OUT  
 
UT Tyler returned to action following a two-week layoff in between games to collect a pair of wins in notoriously difficult arenas with 77-60 and 75-63 wins against DBU and Midwestern State. The pair of road victories got a stretch of four straight contests started against LSC foes marked as non-conference games, a stretch which will conclude with this weekend's tilts against UAFS and Midwestern State.
 
The Patriots led for 38 minutes of the game in the Saturday afternoon win over DBU, padding a double-digit advantage for the entirety of the second half of action. Senior Da'Zhon Wyche led all scorers with 19 points, while junior Milan Szabo led a dominant rebounding effort with nine boards.
 
UT Tyler notched 17 total offensive rebounds in the contest and turned those second-chances on the offensive end into 21 points.
 
The Patriots then overcame a halftime deficit thanks to 43 second-half points, including 18 from graduate student Eysan Wiley, to establish the best start in program history with a 7-0 record after a 75-63 win over Midwestern State. Wiley led the charge back beginning at the 12:48 mark of the second half and changed the momentum of the contest with 11 straight points to put UT Tyler ahead 57-46 with 10:28 left on the clock.
 
UT Tyler used 14 free-throw makes and a steady offensive approach to maintain that advantage down the stretch, leading by as many as 13 on three different occasions in the final 10 minutes of play. Wiley totaled 22 points for the contest while Szabo added 14 points and nine rebounds to the effort.
 
PATRIOTS IN THE POLLS
 
The torrid start to the 2021-22 season has put UT Tyler on the national scene just five weeks into the campaign, and earned the Patriots their first national top 25 ranking with 30 votes in the latest D2SIDA Men's Basketball National Media Poll. #25 UT Tyler stands as one of three LSC schools alongside a pair of top-five ranked squads in Lubbock Christian (no. 1) and West Texas A&M (no. 4) in the poll.
 
Lubbock Christian and West Texas A&M also stand as the lone two LSC teams ranked above UT Tyler in the latest D2SIDA South Central Region rankings as the Patriots jumped up five spots into the no. 3 spot in the latest edition of the rankings.
 
SZABO IS STICKING OUT
 
Junior Milan Szabo presented a match-up nightmare for both DBU and Midwestern State in the Patriots first two looks at LSC competition last weekend, a theme that coach Wilson and the Patriots hopes to continue into the final games of non-conference play this weekend. Szabo went 10-of-14 (71.4 percent) from the floor between the two wins, totaling nine and 14 points, respectively.
 
His efficient shooting from the floor was combined with a dominating rebounding effort as the 6-10 native of Levice, Slovakia hauled in nine rebounds in both games, including seven on the offensive end of the floor. Szabo leads UT Tyler with 7.0 rebounds a contest so far in 2021-22, sixth best in the Lone Star Conference.
 
A LOOK AT THE NUMBERS
 
UT Tyler enters the weekend with the LSC's best scoring offense (85.4 ppg), and third best scoring defense, allowing just 59.0 points per game to their opposition. That scoring defense ranks fifth in all of Division II basketball, while the Patriots have forced the eighth most turnovers in the country, and the most in the LSC with an average of 18.86 a game.
 
The Patriots have posted a 10.3 rebounding margin so far in 2021-22, best in the LSC and eighth best in Division II basketball, and have the third best scoring margin in the nation at 10.3 for the year. UT Tyler has out-rebounded six of their seven opponents thus far.
 
UT Tyler ranks second in both field goal percentage (50.9 percent) and field goal percentage defense (38.1 percent) in the LSC, and average the most total rebounds per contest (40.43) in the league.
 
PATRIOTS LEADERS
 
Eysan Wiley (12.9), Micah Fuller (12.1) and Da'Zhon Wyche (11.3) have all averaged double-digit scoring figures so far in 2021-22, while Fuller has notched 10 or more points in six of his first seven outings this season. Wiley leads the LSC and ranks sixth nationally with a 70.0 field goal percentage for the year.
 
Wiley has also added to the rebounding totals on a nightly basis alongside Szabo, chipping in an average of 5.6 rebounds a game. Fuller, Wyche and Zaire Mateen have all averaged at least 1.0 steal a game, while Wyche leads the team with 3.9 assists a contest.
 
CONFERENCE PLAY ON THE HORIZON
 
This weekend's meetings with UAFS and Oklahoma Christian will preclude the Lone Star Conference season officially getting underway following the mandatory NCAA holiday break on Dec. 31 and Jan. 2^nd. The conference openers will also take place inside the HPC against DBU and Midwestern State.
 
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 AND HISTORY WITH UAFS
 
UAFS enters Thursday night's meeting with UT Tyler with a 5-4 overall record and will be coming off a narrow 63-62 loss at the hands of Midwestern State on Dec. 10 on their home floor. The bread-and-butter for the Lions will once again be their defensive pressure as they have held opponents to the second-lowest scoring total in the LSC in 2021-22 with an average of 60.3 points a game.
 
The Lions have the fourth-best turnover margin in the LSC (3.78), and have the second-best assist-to-turnover ratio (1.56). UAFS also features the leading scorer so far in the Lone Star Conference in Matthew Wilson, who enters the weekend with an average of 21.3 points a game.
 
The majority of Wilson's damage comes from beyond the three-point line as he leads the LSC with 35 made three-point buckets and has gone for 25, 27 and 19 point totals in his last three outings.
 
UAFS won the first two meeting between the two teams in the 2019-20 season and UT Tyler got the better of the Lions in the two meetings last season by 79-71 and 96-91 totals. The 96-91 win back on Feb. 12 was a double overtime thriller as the Patriots trailed by more than five points with less than a minute to go in both regulation and overtime before coming back to win.
 
SCOUTING AND HISTORY WITH OKLAHOMA CHRISTIAN
 
Oklahoma Christian is 2-6 on the year, but holds a 72-64 win over Midwestern State and a most-recent 65-63 loss at the hands of Texas A&M-Commerce as arguably their best performances to date. The Eagles will take on York (Neb.) on Thursday night prior to the trip to UT Tyler on Saturday afternoon.
 
Drew Tennial (13.3) and Karlyn Kenner (11.5) lead the Eagles in scoring on the year while Tennial has gone for 10 or more points in all but one game this season. Oklahoma Christian ranks 13^th in the league in scoring offense (71.0) and 11^th in the LSC in scoring defense (72.0).
 
The two programs split the inaugural two meetings in the series in 2019-20, with UT Tyler defending their home court with a 59-50 win back on Jan. 16^th and then falling on the road by a 65-59 final in Oklahoma City.