Men's Basketball

West Texas A&M University

P.O. Box 60907 - Canyon, TX - 79016
Team Office: Tel: (806) 651-2697 Fax: 806-651-2688
Team website: gobuffsgo.collegesports.com/

West Texas A&M was established in 1910 as a teacher's college and was formerly known as West Texas State. It now offers over 50 Bachelor degree programs and over 30 Master's with a primary liberal arts focus. The school prides itself in the fields of Education, Music and Dance, Agriculture, Business and Nursing. Other majors offered include Fire Fighting, Music Therapy, and Commercial and Advertising Art. US News 2008 report on America's Best Colleges ranked West Texas A&M in the third tier among universities in the West offering a Master's degree.

West Texas A&M is located in the panhandle in the rural town of Canyon (pop. 13k) about 12 miles south of Amarillo (pop. 160k).

School website
www.wtamu.edu

College Profile

Type:

Public, co-ed

Religious Affiliation:

None

Enrollment:

6,700

Getting In:

Moderately Difficult. ACT 25/75: 18-23

Tuition + Room & Board:

In-state: ~$10,000
Out-of-State: ~$18,000

Most Popular Majors

Multi Disciplinary- Business - Liberal Arts

Misc. Information

Head coach Rick Cooper completed his 15th season at West Texas A&M in 2007-08. Prior to arriving in 1993-94, Cooper led his alma mater, the perennial NAIA powerhouse Wayland Baptist, to three tournament berths in six years while compiling a 152-48 record. Cooper, who inherited a program that had achieved national recognition and sports an all time 1336-863 won-loss record, has kept the winning tradition alive. Over the last 15 years, he has averaged 20 wins per year, never had a losing season, and made seven NCAA appearances. In 2007-08, the Buffaloes finished with an overall record of 21-8 but lost in the first round of the NCAA tourney to Southwest Baptist.

Team Name	Buffaloes
Colors	Maroon and White
Division	NCAA Division II
All-Time Record	1336-863 (.608)

Recent Record (Last 8 Years)

	Last Yr	Last Yr - 1	Last Yr - 2	Previous 5 Years
Overall	21-8	18-11	23-8	94-51 (.648)
Conference	11-1	9-3	9-3	40-21 (.656)
Conf. Finish	1	1	2	4, 4, 2, 5, 2
Post Appear.	1st Rnd	1st Rnd	1st Rnd	NCAA 1x
Final 25 Rank	NR	NR	NR	0x

Coaches

Head Coach	Rick Cooper
	Birthday: 0000-00-00
Started at West Texas A&M	1993-94
Contract Expires	?
Record as Head Coach	447-188 (.704)
Record at West Texas A&M	295-140 (.678)
Coaching Awards	Lone Star COTY 3x, NABC Regional COTY, NAIA Distri

Asst. Coaches	Justin Ashley, Jason Campbell, Vinay Patel

Recruiting Coordinator

Justin Ashley, (806) 651-2699, jashley@mail.wtamu.edu

Conference and Schedule

West Texas plays in the Lone Star Conference (www.lonestarconference.org). The conference is comprised of 14 teams spread over three states (Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma) and is split into two divisions, north and south. West Texas plays in the south. The LSC is among the most respected D2 conferences. Currently, conference play can start in early December and generally includes teams from the north division. However, cross divisional games do not count in the conference standings. West Texas will play each team twice in its own division beginning in January with league games typically played on Thursday and Saturday evenings. The farthest conference away game is at Texas A&M-Kingsville some 600 miles from campus. The season concludes with the LSC tourney which takes the top four teams in each division with the eventual winner receiving an NCAA bid.

Conference Opponents

South: Angelo State, Texas A&M-Commerce, Mid-Western State, Texas A&M-Kingsville, Eastern New Mexico, Abilene Christian. North: Northeastern State, Tarleton State, Central Oklahoma, East Central, Southwestern Oklahoma, Cameron, and Southeastern Oklahoma

Facilities

Event Center
Capacity 4,800, Average attendance: 1,000

Style/Stats

Style of play is up-tempo offense and tough man-to-man defense.