Men's Basketball | 3/4/2016 1:50:00 AM

Game Notes

TULSA, Okla. St. Edward's Men's Basketball Head Coach Andre Cook has his team in the Heartland Conference Tournament a second straight year for the first time in his career, and they are looking to win it all. However, the road to a tournament title starts on Friday in the quarterfinals against Texas A&M-International.

The Hilltoppers play the final game of the day at 7:30 p.m. inside the Union Multipurpose Activities Center. Coach Cook and his team enter the contest seeded fifth, while the Dustdevils enter seeded fourth. A live broadcast of the game and live stats will be available through links at GoHilltoppers.com. Below is a brief preview of the team with a link to full, in-depth notes on the team.

BEST IN THE NATION: St. Edward's enters the Heartland Conference Tournament with the best turnover margin in all of NCAA Division II...FRANKIE MGBOLU finished the season ranked second in the league in steals, and JOHN GRAMLICH finished 11th...Mgbolu is the Hilltoppers' all-time leader in career steals.

BACK-TO-BACK:  The Hilltoppers are appearing in their first back-to-back Heartland Conference Tournaments since 2009-10...this is the first back-to-back appearances for head coach Andre Cook...last season St. Edward's advanced to the finals before falling to St. Mary's.

IMPROVING EVERY YEAR: Since taking over as head coach in 2009-10, Andre Cook's teams have increased their conference-win totals each year...from 2010-2012, the Hilltoppers won six total games in the Heartland....in 2012-13 and 2013-14 they won 14 total league games...over the last two seasons, coach Cook has led his team to 23 conference wins. 

UP IN THE AIR:  Only two games seperated the top five teams in the Heartland Conference this season...a total of seven games seperate the top seven teams...over the last four years only one No. 1 seed has won the tournament...2015-16 marks the first year that there have been eight teams in the tournament field. 

CLASSROOM SUCCESS: In the fall, St. Edward's Athletics named a school-record 178 student-athletes to the Heartland Conference Honor Rolls...A total of 10 men's basketball players were included in the list...out of the 10, six were named to the President's Honor Roll which requires a grade-point average of 3.5 or better.

SHOOTING FOR 100: A win for coach Cook against TAMU-International gives him 100 career wins at St. Edward's...this season the Skidmore College graduate moved his Hilltopper record over .500...he is now ranked fourth on the all-time wins list...just three more wins will move Cook into a tie for third place on St. Edward's wins list.