No. 24 TEXAS (0-0, 0-0 Big 12) vs. Trinity (0-0, 0-0) [Exhibition game]
Thursday, Nov. 1, 2007 · 7 p.m. Central
Frank Erwin Center (16,755) · Austin, Texas
FREE ADMISSION AND OPEN SEATING !
GAME DAY QUICK FACTS
TELEVISION: None
RADIO: None
TEXAS BASKETBALL TICKET INFORMATION
Season tickets and single game tickets: Available for purchase via TexasBoxOffice.com; at the Bellmont Hall Athletics Ticket Office (Monday-Friday, 9 a.m-4 p.m.) and the Frank Erwin Center Box Office (Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; on gameday one hour prior to tipoff); at Austin-area H-E-B stores; and by calling the UT Athletics Ticket Office Phone (512-471-3333 or 800-982-BEVO) or Texas Box Office charge-by-phone (512-477-6060).
Texas Basketball Mini-Plans: Two five-game mini plan ticket packages also are available ($60 per package), with arena-level seating. The "Orange Package" consists of games against Iowa State (Jan. 16), Oklahoma State (Jan. 23), Oklahoma (Feb. 3), Baylor (Feb. 13) and Texas A&M (Feb. 24), while the "Weekend White Package" consists of games with Louisiana-Lafayette (Dec. 16), Kansas State (Jan. 13), Missouri (Jan. 26), Oklahoma (Feb. 3) and Texas A&M (Feb. 24).
Mini Plans are ONLY available for purchase by calling the UT Athletics Events, Sales and Services office at 512-232-3865. These packages are not available for purchase any other way.
Tonight's Teams
The Longhorns will face Trinity University, a Division III program from San Antonio, in the first of UT's two exhibition games to start the 2007-08 campaign ... Tonight's game is FREE TO THE PUBLIC, as will be UT's second and last exhibition game - against the club team Houston Jaguars on Tuesday, Nov. 6 at 7 p.m. in the Erwin Center ... Last year, Texas met both these squads in exhibition play, defeating both Trinity (78-29, Nov. 7) and the Houston Jaguars (72-31 on Nov. 2).
New Longhorn Era Starts Tonight
First-year Longhorns head coach Gail Goestenkors welcomes a roster of 13 player as the 2007-08 season commences tonight with UT's first of two exhibition games ... Goestenkors came to UT this past April from Duke to replace the retired Jody Conradt ... Spending 15 years at Duke, Goestenkors built the Blue Devils program into a national championship contender ... Her Blue Devil squads made 13 NCAA Tournament appearances which culminated in four Final Four showings in the last nine seasons (1999, 2002, 2003, 2006) ... Conradt (900-307) had spent 31 years on the Longhorns sidelines, beginning with the 1976-77 season ... Goestenkors comes to UT with a 396-99 record - a winning percentage of 80 percent which ranks No. 3 among all active Division I coaches.
Texas Ranked No. 24 in Preseason USA Today/ESPN Poll
The USA Today/ESPN Top 25 Preseason Poll was released on Halloween, with the Longhorns standing No. 24 ... Texas is one of four teams ranked in the preseason who were not ranked at the conclusion of the 2006-07 campaign ... The USA Today/ESPN poll is conducted by the coaches ... The Associated Press (media) preseason poll will be released on November 3... UT is one of four Big 12 schools receiving a USA Today/ESPN preseason ranking, joining Oklahoma (6th), Texas A&M (11th) and Baylor (15th).
Who Is Back for the Longhorns
Ten letterwinners return from last year's 18-14 team, including four players who saw significant starting time ... Although All-America post Tiffany Jackson took her team-highs of 16.9 points and 9.0 rebounds per game to the WNBA, UT returns 70 percent of its' points, 67 percent of the rebounds, 80 percent of the assists and 69 percent of the steals from a year ago ... Named co-captains for the 2007-08 team are a duo of second-year players - 6-1 redshirt sophomore forward Earnesia Williams and 6-0 sophomore guard Brittainey Raven ... Top returnees for Goestenkors include Williams, last year's MVP (9.5 ppg, 4.3 rpg a year ago); Raven (7.9 ppg, 26 minutes per game); 5-9 senior guard Erneisha Bailey (7.5 ppg, 5.3 rpg); and 5-7 redshirt sophomore point guard Carla Cortijo (7.4 ppg, team-high 4.9 apg)... Last year, Cortijo was named to the Big 12 All-Rookie Team and Bailey was selected to the inaugural five-player Big 12 All-Defensive Team.
A Look at Trinity University
Trinity hails from San Antonio and plays an NCAA Division III schedule ... The Tigers are coached by third-year head coach Amie Smith-Bradley, a former Texas forward who competed from 1993-97 while earning All-Conference honors twice ... Smith ranks No. 6 in UT career rebounding (940) and also notched 1,228 points (10.4 ppg career average) ... Last year, the Tigers went 17-8 overall, 10-4 in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference ... Top returnees include All-SCAC Krista Prato Matthews, a 6-0 junior forward who led the squad in scoring (12.4 ppg) and rebounding (9.1 rpg) last year; All-Conference 5-9 senior forward Meghan Scholbe (11.8 ppg, 7.0 rpg); and 5-8 senior guard Tierney Hughes (8.6 ppg).
The Big 12 Preseason Poll
In the 2007-08 Big 12 Conference Preseason Poll, released on Oct. 12, Texas was picked to finish fourth by the league coaches... Texas A&M (117 points) and Oklahoma (115), last year's co-champions, were picked one-two in the preseason voting ... Following them were Baylor (97), Texas (86), Oklahoma State (66), Iowa State (64) to round out the top six teams ... The rest of the rankings: Nebraska (56), Kansas State and Texas Tech (tied for eighth, 54 points apiece), Kansas (43), Colorado (29) and Missouri (11).
Next Up
Following the Nov. 6 exhibition with the Houston Jaguars, Texas will officially open the season with a home contest against Missouri State on Sunday, Nov. 11 ... Tip is at 2 p.m. for that Frank Erwin Center game ... Following that, Texas hosts Lamar University (Thursday, Nov. 15, 7 p.m.) before heading to Knoxville, Tennessee to meet the top-ranked and defending NCAA champion Tennessee Lady Vols ... The Texas-Tennessee game, an annual rivalry, takes place on Sunday, Nov. 18 (2 p.m. Central) and will be broadcast on ESPN2 ... All Texas games, beginning with the Houston Jaguars exhibition, will be broadcast over the airwaves via KVET Radio/1300 AM throughout Central Texas and via the internet (at subscription-based Yahoo! Sports) ... The Texas-Trinity University game is broadcast via the internet only.
