Tarleton State featured on ESPN’s WAC basketball preview shows

BY GAVIN PATRICK/Multimedia Journalist

With “Midnight Madness” in the rearview, it’s time to start amping up for basketball season.

ESPN was ahead of the curve, on the former Tuesday and Wednesday, and previewed the entire Western Athletic Conference (WAC) -- men and women -- in two three-hour shows streamed on ESPN+.

Both Tarleton State University’s men’s and women’s teams are picked to finish sixth in the WAC (out of nine teams) in ESPN’s 2024-25 Preseason Coaches Poll. Grand Canyon University is picked to win the conference on the men’s and women’s side.

On the men’s side for the Texans, the team heads into the new season having to replace their top-four scorers from a season ago. Three of which were seniors, Jakorie Smith, Lue Williams and KiAndre Gaddy (who all landed professional contracts), and the other -- Devon Barnes --  transferred to the University of Texas El Paso.

The Texans do, however, get back Freddy Hicks, who played his first three collegiate seasons at Tarleton before spending last year at Arkansas State University. Listed as a hybrid guard/forward, Hicks will be a go-to player for the Texans in the backcourt and post. He was also voted onto the Preseason All-WAC team for the second time as a Texan.

Head coach Billy Gillispie raved about the impact Hicks has made on Texan Basketball, while joking about the disappointment he felt seeing him leave for a year.

“Well, Freddy had a lapse in smartness, and then we went off somewhere else,” Gillispie said. “And then he got his smartness back all of a sudden and decided this is where he needed to be.

“Freddy, I’ve been around him coaching for a little bit, and he’s one of the most fun guys I’ve ever coached. He does most things right almost every single day. As good a player as he is, he’s a better leader, better person. He really makes a difference in a basketball program.”

Hicks along with returning guard Bubu Benjamin were interviewed for the program, following Gillispie. Hicks said he loves “everything about Tarleton” and admitted that it was a “tough decision to leave” last year. Although, he may have second guessed his decision to transfer when asked how he would apply what he learned at Arkansas State to his senior season, taking a long pause before answering the question.

“I learned a lot [at Arkansas State],” Hicks said. “It was cool to be there, but… being there just really made me realize how much I needed to get back here and just go hard for my last year.”

The Texans could certainly use him, having to recoup the lost production from their top-four scorers.

Along with Hicks, the Texans added eight freshmen to the roster, and coupled with redshirt freshman Joseph Martinez, Tarleton has the second most freshmen of any NCAA Division I team.

Gillispie thinks the program had a “fantastic” recruiting cycle and that the team has more talent now than it ever had before. At the same time, from his perspective, he said having nine freshmen “makes you wanna pull your hair out every single day” in practice.

“I think the talent has been replaced, but the experience has not,” Gillispie said, again referencing the lost pieces. “So, that’s what will be the big question as we move forward in our season.”

On the women’s side, the script is flipped in many ways.

Head coach Bill Brock enters his second season at the helm with an abundance of continuity. The team returns their top-five scorers from a year ago, Jakoriah Long, Faith Acker, Elise Turrubiates, Miannah Little and Tyler Jackson -- which, in the era of the transfer portal, is a rare feat.

The Texans also run back their entire coaching staff, the first time the program has done so in the Division I era.

In his appearance on the program, Brock expressed that while the team does have a lot of returning pieces, it will be vital for the veterans to incorporate the newcomers “into their circle” in order to build team chemistry.

So far through the preseason, Brock is liking what he sees.

“Our players have just been outstanding in that regard,” Brock said. “We have some good chemistry on the court, off the court. And our kids like each other, they come to work everyday, and that’s a big thing for us.

“We’ve been able to keep players on the floor during the preseason so we can get reps together. And that’s one of the big differences from last year to this year. And I just think the more times you can get on the court together, the more familiar you are with each other, you’re gonna be much better early during the season.”

Long, the team’s leading scorer last season, said she’s noticed a difference from last year to this year in the intensity of practices. She referenced returners coming in “with chips on their shoulders” wanting to continue what they started late last season.

Seven of the team’s 11 wins last season came from January 25 on, and that energy carrying over has been apparent throughout the preseason.

“Practice has been amazing,” Long said. “You know it's a winning team. You can really tell by the things that we talk about in practice, or just the way that we start off practice, or how we kinda get into things towards the end of practice and just learning plays. This is a team that wants to work, and that’s something that we kinda lacked last year.”

Karyn Sanford, who sat alongside Long in the interview, added that the team also lacked leadership last year. This year, she said returners, especially, are trying to pick up that slack, and it's shown in the way the team encourages each other and competes.

Long also shouted out how the coaching staff did a good job bringing in players, freshmen and transfers, who came from winning teams or had played at big schools. This has helped fill the team with players who are used to hard coaching, making it easier for the returners to get through to them.

“We have these transfers coming in [who are] also taking a step up and leading the team as well,” Long said. “And then these freshmen are just here and they’re just ready to learn. And they’re competing every day, too. It’s a great thing to have on the team.”

Brock said the team has “three big words” this year: availability, reliability and dependability. All three may have very similar meanings, but nonetheless, they’ve gotten through to the players.

Players have gone through situations this preseason, according to Brock, where they’ve had to walk the line between being injured and being hurt. In other words, if you’re injured, you can’t play; but if you’re hurt, there’s a way to fight through.

Brock mentioned how staying on the court was an issue for the team last year. But this year, they’ve been able to keep players on the floor, partly because they’ve made themselves more available.

“I think we have a tough-minded group this year,” Brock said. “I think they’re doing [an] outstanding job on the floor, and they have shown up every day to practice.

“We have attempted to change a culture, and I think we’ve pretty much done that.”

In all, there was a lot of talking on both the men’s and women’s preview shows, but in just a few weeks, fans will have answers.

Both teams will be tested early, too.

Coming off a D1-best 25-10 record, the men’s team opens the regular season on the road against Southern Methodist University on November 4 before opening their home slate against Sam Houston State University on November 9.

It doesn’t get any easier from there, with six more games against FBS opponents -- Florida State (Nov. 12), Baylor (Nov. 17), Michigan (Nov. 21), UCF (Dec. 8), UTEP (Dec. 16) and Oklahoma State (Dec. 18).

It’s the same story for the women, as they also open the regular season with two FBS opponents -- at UTEP on November 4 and at the University of Arizona on November 7.

Just like the men, their out-of-conference schedule is loaded, also facing six more games against FBS teams -- Texas (Nov. 20), Delaware (Nov. 29), Texas State (Dec. 4), Nebraska (Dec. 11), New Mexico State (Dec. 16) and Arkansas State (Dec. 19).