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Press Conferences and Banquets Continued
3/14/2008
Press Conferences and Banquets Continued
After the opening Fort Hays-Central Oklahoma press conferences, the final six coaches followed. A few highlights:
No. 7 St. Edward’s head coach Ryan Marks on No. 2 Northwest Missouri State’s defense that ranks No. 3 in the country and is on pace to set a school record: “When I watched them on tape, no one seems to catch a pass in the front court.”
Tappmeyer on his defense: “I don’t know if it is the best (in my 20 years). It’s been different than past years. We have been able to recover better when we have screwed up. … and our offense has helped our defense.”
No. 5 Southwest Baptist head coach Jeff Guiot on recruiting center Matt Rogers, a unanimous first-team all-MIAA pick and the Defensive Player of the Year: “Matt is kind of a unique kid. He is a good Christian boy and his dad wanted him to go to a Christian school.”
Rogers was recruited by several Div. I schools, including Iowa, but went to Southwest Baptist. Rogers, a 6-foot-10 center, averaged 15.8 points per game, eight rebounds and led the MIAA with 127 blocks, second in the nation.
No. 4 seed West Texas A&M coach Rick Cooper coaches his son, 6-foot-4 senior forward Tyler Cooper. The younger Cooper was an all-Lone Star South team player and averages seven points and six rebounds per game.
No. 8 St. Mary’s Jim Zeleznak, has enjoyable as any coach , wants an “ugly” first round game with No. 1 Tarleton State University. The two teams are expected to play a physical contest and rank in the top 23 in Div. II for rebounding margin.
“It’s all about who gets hot over the next three days.”
-Tarleton State head coach Lonn Reisman on hosting the tournament.
The banquet was very short- less than 45 minutes- and featured dinner and a short speech by Tarleton president Dr. Dennis McCabe. The banquet, though, featured a full buffet, including salad, meat, bread, corn and pie in a banquet hall at the Tarleton State student union. It was very well done by the Tarleton people.
Back to the hotel by 9- and 15 hours until tipoff.
| Scoreboard | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Sport | Date | Opponent | Score |
| BB | 5/04 | Pittsburg State | W 17-5 |
| BB | 5/04 | Pittsburg State | L 4-3 |
| BB | 5/03 | Pittsburg State | L 15-7 |
| BB | 5/03 | Pittsburg State | L 5-4 |
| SB | 5/02 | Central Missouri | L 3-1 |
| SB | 5/02 | Missouri Western | W 3-2 |
| SB | 5/01 | Pittsburg State | W 6-0 |
| SB | 5/01 | Emporia State | L 11-0 |
| BB | 4/30 | Kansas Wesleyan | W 14-1 |
| BB | 4/30 | Kansas Wesleyan | W 12-2 |
