NATIONAL CHAMPS TO HOST FALL TOURNAMENT
August 24, 2006

FORT WORTH, TX:  The reigning NAIA Division I Men’s Basketball National Champion has announced the schedule and participants for their Thanksgiving tournament.  Texas Wesleyan University will host the Texas Shootout on November 24th and 25th.

The tournament features three NAIA Division I teams and one Division II team as well as three national tournament qualifiers from last season.  The Westmont College Warriors are members of the Golden State Athletic Conference (GSAC) in California.  Meanwhile the University of Sioux Falls Cougars won their first Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) championship last season and earned a birth as the 12th seed in the NAIA Division II National Tournament.  A familiar opponent in Red River Athletic Conference (RRAC) foe Southwestern Assemblies of God University rounds out the field.  The Lions made their first appearance in the national tournament, losing a hard-fought game to top ranked Mountain State, last season after finishing second in the conference tournament.

The tournament will mark the first ever meeting between Texas Wesleyan and both Westmont and Sioux Falls.  Westmont went 18-13 last season and 11-9 in the GSAC.  Sioux Falls finished at 22-9 overall and 15-3 in the GPAC.

Texas Wesleyan is coming off a remarkable season that saw the Rams go 25-9 overall and 16-4 in the RRAC.  They posted a 10 game winning streak and a 76-69 win over defending Southland Conference champion Southeastern Louisiana.  After being upset in the conference tournament the Rams regrouped and rattled off five wins over higher ranked teams in a span of six days to capture the school’s first national title in basketball.

Head coach Terry Waldrop was excited about the caliber of team in the thanksgiving classic.  “Westmont is an outstanding program from California.  There is no doubt that they are a team worthy of a Kansas City bid and a high seeding would not surprise me at all.  Sioux Falls has returned much of a conference championship team.  They were successful at the national level last year, and this could be their year to really do some damage in the national tournament.  Southwestern represented very well in Kansas City last year.  They had a very strong recruiting year, and they will provide a great test to anyone they play.”

“We believe in testing our guys early and often,” Waldrop continued.  “Certainly by playing such nationally strong teams as Westmont and Sioux Falls, this fits well into that philosophy.”

The Texas Shootout should be one of the strongest holiday classic fields in the country.  NAIA basketball fans should look forward to some very entertaining games.

The Texas Shootout

Friday, November 24:

6:00 p.m. – Westmont College (CA) vs. Southwestern Assemblies of God (TX)

8:00 p.m. – University of Sioux Falls (SD) vs. Texas Wesleyan University

Saturday, November 25:

2:30 p.m. – Southwestern Assemblies of God vs. University of Sioux Falls

4:30 p.m. – Texas Wesleyan University vs. Westmont College