Tuesday, June 8, 1999

Fresno State
and Tulsa will
host tournaments

The WAC presidents select
the two sites for its basketball
championships in 2000 and 2001

By Pat Bigold
Star-Bulletin

Fresno State and Tulsa yesterday were awarded the next two Western Athletic Conference men's and women's basketball tournaments at the conference's annual meeting in Napa, Calif.

The 10,220-seat Selland Arena, which sold out 16 of 17 Bulldogs games last season, will host next year's tournaments while the 8,310-seat Donald W. Reynolds Center in Tulsa will host the 2001 tournaments.

"Fresno State provides an exciting venue with a large fan base that will bring plenty of excitement to the WAC tournaments," WAC commissioner Karl Benson said.

Hawaii was eliminated some time ago in its bid to host the tournaments.

Other schools that submitted bids were Dallas-Ft. Worth and El Paso.

Hawaii men's coach Riley Wallace had hoped the Rainbows would win the bid, but said last night he is satisfied with the ultimate choice.

"It's the closest site to us and they've been in our division all along," said Wallace.

"So we'll be more familiar with playing there."

Hawaii women's coach Vince Goo said Fresno was his second choice, too.

But he expressed a concern.

"If that's the decision of the school presidents, fine," said Goo. "But I certainly hope they (Fresno) can provide airfare and hotel expenses for us, because that's we had proposed in our bid."

The tournaments will be composed of all eight men's and women's teams and will be played over a four-day period in early March.