Match Info	Opponent Info
Dallas Christian College vs. UT Tyler DCC: 1-10, 0-0 NCCAA | UTT: 5-0, 2-0 LSC Saturday, Dec. 10th | 4:00 P.M. Herrington Patriot Center | Tyler, Texas		ROSTER	SCHEDULE	STATS

AN UNBLEMISHED START TO LONE STAR CONFERENCE PLAY

UT Tyler finished the opening week of Lone Star Conference play with wins over Cameron and Midwestern State to extend their win streak to five straight to open up the 2022-23 season. Senior Rashun Williams went for 25 points and the Patriots limited a Cameron team that entered Wednesday night's meeting as the best offensive field goal percentage unit in the Lone Star Conference to just a 34.4 percent (22-for-64) effort from the field. Redshirt junior Jordan Hairston chipped in 10 points to the scoring effort as the Patriots led for over 38 minutes of the contest, and relinquished the lead for just 28 seconds in the second half in the 69-57 victory. The Patriots followed up that win on Friday night with a convincing 76-56 win over Midwestern State in which they led by as many as 26 and maintained a double-digit lead for over 22 minutes of game action. Williams went for 20 points to record his third straight effort with 20-plus points inside the Herrington Patriot Center and nearly reached double-double figures with a team-high nine rebounds. The rest of the Patriot offense complimented Williams with efficient scoring as guards Terrell Wilson and Barnell Davis each notched 11 points on a night in which UT Tyler went 41-for-68 (45.6 percent) from the floor.

WHAT COACH WILSON IS SAYING

On his team's impressive opening showings in Lone Star Conference play last week... "We got better and we definitely played better basketball, more consistent basketball on Friday then we played on Wednesday. We've played five games and we've won five games, but sometimes winning can be a deodorant, just because it smells good doesn't mean it is good, it doesn't mean your clean. So what we have to do is be careful and look deep, and figure out the things that we need to improve on. I thought overall taking care of the basketball was alot better, I think our defensive effort was really good and we held serve which is really important to do in a league like this, you better win those home games. But overall five games, five wins, we'll take it."

On what his team will do to prepare for a two week road trip following Saturday's meeting with Dallas Christian College... "Well the most significant thing going on in our lives right now are finals. So the no. 1 object is to make sure we finish this semester academically in a really good way. So academics is our no. 1 focus, but we have Dallas Christian on Saturday, and we don't focus on what division a team plays in, whether they're good, they're bad, we can't do anything about that. Our focus is to make sure as Mariano Duncan of the '96 Yankees used to say, "We play today, we win today." As far as the road trip that follows, we've done that, that was what the trip to Arkansas Tech and Northeastern State was about, to give us the opportunity to play a road weekend and see what that felt like. So hopefully that experience will translate when we go on the road to close out before the Christmas break."

On what receiving a national ranking says about the emergence of the program on a national level... "In "coach speak" you say, well we don't worry about those things because we just take care of our business and what people think about us good or bad it doesn't matter. But in reality, it's always good when you are nationally ranked and the guys are recognized for their efforts. When you have 13 new basketball players and you're off to an unblemished start in the first five games, I could sit here and nitpick us to death, but as I told them in the locker room, sometimes you just have to give kids credit. So good for our kids, you're being nationally recognized, you're doing a good job thus far. The next game is what's important - coach speak. We're happy with where we're at."

BRING A TOY, GET IN FREE

The UT Tyler athletic department will be offering free admission to anyone that makes a donation to the UT Tyler Police Department Toy Drive on Saturday afternoon. The UT Tyler Police Department is asking that attendees please bring a new, unwrapped toy for the donation benefitting the Children's Advocacy Center of Smith County. Each donated toy will equal one free entry into the afternoon's contest. Only new and unwrapped toys will be accepted. The toy drive will continue through Dec. 15^th and those wishing to donate are asked to deliver their toys to 3410 Varsity Dr., Tyler, Texas.

THE FIRST RANKING IN THE NABC NATIONAL POLL

UT Tyler cracked the NABC Division II Men's Basketball National Top 25 poll for the first time in program history on Tuesday afternoon, coming in at no. 22. The Patriots are the highest ranked Lone Star Conference team in the third edition of the national poll in 2022-23 after beginning the year with a 5-0 record, and stand as the lone remaining undefeated team in the LSC. UT Tyler received their inaugural national ranking in a national poll last season, earning the no. 25 spot of the D2SIDA Men's Basketball National Media Poll back on Dec. 15^th, 2021. West Texas A&M stands as the lone other LSC representative to receive a top 25 ranking in this week's edition of the poll in the no. 24 spot, while Angelo State and St. Edward's both received votes. UT Tyler has started each of the last two seasons with five consecutive victories, and will be looking to better their 7-0 start to the 2020-21 season in the coming weeks to rewrite the best start to a season in program history. 
 

NABC Division II National Top 25 Poll (Week #3)

RANK	SCHOOL	RECORD	POINTS	PREVIOUS
1	Northwest Missouri State (14)	8-0	397	1
2	Indiana (PA)	7-0	380	3
3	Nova Southeastern (1)	7-0	367	4
4	West Liberty	7-0	345	5
5	Black Hills State (1)	8-0	344	6
6	Central Oklahoma	5-0	317	7
7	Hillsdale	9-0	300	9
8	Colorado School of Mines	8-0	290	10
9	Minnesota State	9-0	256	16
10	Lincoln Memorial	8-1	225	11
11	Missouri-St. Louis	8-0	224	18
12	Fort Lewis	8-0	212	19
13	Augusta	5-1	205	2
14	Virginia Union	7-1	178	20
15	Cal State San Bernardino	6-1	172	15
16	Emporia State	7-0	144	23
17	UNC Pembroke	8-1	124	8
18	Florida Southern	7-1	113	14
19	Fairmont State	5-1	104	12
20	Bentley	6-1	95	22
21	West Virginia State	7-0	90	NR
22	Texas-Tyler	5-0	72	NR
23	Dominican	8-1	45	NR
24	West Texas A&M	4-2	30	25
25	St. Thomas Aquinas	7-1	26	NR

NO. 5 IN THE REGION

The Patriots continued to rise in the D2SIDA South Central Region rankings on Monday afternoon into the no. 5 spot of the poll. UT Tyler moved up three spots to no. 5 after receiving 32 votes in the fourth edition of the poll voted upon by Sports Information Directors from the South Central Region. The Patriots appeared in 10 straight editions of the D2SIDA South Central Regional Rankings last season, and rose to as high as no. 3 back on Dec. 13^th, 2021. UT Tyler appeared at no. 8 and no. 9 in the first two editions of the 2021-22 NCAA South Central Regional Rankings at season's end as well. UT Tyler has elevated their positioning in the weekly poll in two straight weeks after debuting in the second edition of the rankings. The Patriots are the second highest ranked team from the LSC in this week's D2SIDA South Central Region rankings behind West Texas A&M (no. 3).
 

Rank	School (First-Place Votes)	W-L	Points	Prev.
1	Black Hills State (6)	8-0	60	1
2	Colorado School of Mines	8-0	54	2
3	West Texas A&M	4-2	46	3
4	Fort Lewis	8-0	43	T4
5	UT Tyler	5-0	32	8
6	UC Colorado Springs	7-2	30	7
T7	Angelo State	5-1	21	RV
T7	St. Edward's	7-1	21	9
T9	Lubbock Christian	4-2	9	RV
T9	Dallas Baptist	6-3	9	RV
RV: Colorado Mesa 4, Texas A&M International 1

AN ELITE DEFENSIVE EFFORT

UT Tyler has provided one of the best defensive efforts in the Lone Star Conference so far in 2022-23, and enters Saturday's contest against Dallas Christian with the best field goal percentage defense (38.4 percent) in the league. That metric ranks 22nd in all of Division II basketball, and has allowed the Patriots to surrender the second-least points per game in the league at an average of just 60.4 per contest. Coach Wilson's unit allowed the least amount of points in conference play last week as the entirety of the LSC kicked off league action, and also hauled in the most rebounds per game with an averaged of 42.5 between the two wins. The Patriots lead the league in total rebounds per contest for the season with 40.6 per game, and have the third best season rebounding margin at +8.0. 

SCORING AT AN ELITE LEVEL

Senior Rashun Williams has burst onto the scene through five outings in 2022-23, and ranks second in the Lone Star Conference entering this weekend with an average of 20.2 points per game. Williams has gone for scoring totals of 35, 25 and 20 on his three efforts inside the Herrington Patriot Center, and has matched output with efficiently so far this season. The Radford transfer ranks eighth in the LSC with a field goal percentage of 45.5 percent (35-for-77) for the season, and has shot 40.0 percent (14-for-35) from beyond the three-point line, third best in the conference.

ANOTHER FAST START

UT Tyler is 5-0 for the second consecutive season after beginning the 2021-22 season with seven straight victories, the best start to a season in program history. The 2022-23 Patriots will be looking to match, if not improve on that record start over the next few weeks heading into the turn of the calendar year. Two straight weekends on the road will follow this week's meeting with Dallas Christian College, making for a difficult start to the conference schedule for the Patriots.

COACH WILSON

Head coach Louis Wilson is in his fourth season at the helm of the UT Tyler men's basketball program in 2022-23, and eighth season overall as a head coach at the Division II level. The 2022-23 season will mark the 31st year of collegiate basketball coaching experience for Wilson, as he accumulated 23 years of experience at the Division I level as an associate or assistant head coach prior to his time in Tyler. He spent five years as head coach at Division II foe Adams State of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) from 2010-15, totaling a 95-46 record as head coach of the Grizzlies, and led the program to three consecutive appearances in the NCAA Division II National Tournament from 2010-13. Coach Wilson enters Monday night with a record of 41-39 in his three years as head coach of the Patriots.