PROVO -- No. 24 BYU men’s basketball will host BYU-Hawaii on Friday in its final exhibition game before the start of the 2010-11 season.
The Seasiders compete at the NCAA Division II level and are members of the Pacific West Conference. BYU-Hawaii enters the 2010-11 season ranked No. 24 in the Division II Bulletin preseason poll. Last season the Seasiders finished 22-6 overall and 14-2 in conference play to tie for first. BYU-Hawaii advanced to the round of 16 in the NCAA Division II Tournament for the third-consecutive season.
Back to lead the Seasiders are first-team All-Pacific West Conference forward Marques Whippy and second-team All-PacWest guard Jet Chang. Last season Whippy posted 11.1 points and 8.3 boards per game and shot .575 from the field. Chang averaged 19.2 points and 3.3 rebounds while shooting .531 from the field. As a team, BYU-Hawaii averaged 85.2 points and shot .515 from the field.
Ken Wagner is entering his 21st season as head coach of the Seasiders where he is 392-180 (.685) and has led the program to the postseason 13 times (NAIA-four times, NCAA-nine times). Wagner is assisted by former Cougar assistant John Wardenburg, Paulo Peterson and Virgil Buensuceso. Wardenburg was a BYU assistant under Steve Cleveland starting in 2001 and remained on Dave Rose’s staff when he took over in 2005. Wardenburg helped the Cougars to a 127-40 record and four trips to the NCAA Tournament in the last five years.
BYU is coming off a 101-55 victory over Laval in its first exhibition game. Preseason All-America guard Jimmer Fredette led the Cougars with 16 points and four assists on 6-of-6 shooting. Senior guard Jackson Emery added 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting and freshman Kyle Collinsworth came off the bench to add seven points, six assists, five rebounds, two blocks and two steals.
Friday’s matchup vs. BYU-Hawaii is scheduled for a 7 p.m. tipoff and will be televised live on BYUtv and www.byutv.org. Greg Wrubell will call the action live online at KSL.com via the KSL X-Stream.
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