It’s time for the final Oklahoma road trip of the 2025-26 Arkansas Tech University basketball season. The search for the end of that long white line that Sturgill Simpson sings about is almost complete for another year.
And yet, with a mere four games remaining in the regular season, every major goal the Arkansas Tech Golden Suns could have dreamed about back in November — a Great American Conference regular season championship, a GAC Tournament berth and title and a bid to the NCAA Division II Tournament — is still very much within their reach.
The chase continues this week with games at Southeastern Oklahoma State University on Thursday, Feb. 19, and at East Central University on Saturday, Feb. 21.
Doubleheaders begin in Durant at 5:30 p.m. Thursday and in Ada at 1 p.m. Saturday. Live coverage will be provided by KCJC 102.3 FM, the River Country KCJC website and www.arkansastechsports.com.
The Golden Suns (18-4 overall, 14-4 GAC) shot a season-low 28 percent from the field in a 72-50 loss at nationally 11th-ranked Harding University on Thursday, only to bounce back with their best shooting performance of the season little more than 36 hours later. Arkansas Tech made 58 percent of its field goal attempts in a 93-86 win at Ouachita Baptist University on Saturday.
That has been the personality of this group of Golden Suns all season long. It’s why they have yet to lose back-to-back games, and it’s why they are just one game out of first place in the GAC standings entering the final two weeks of the regular season.
“We need the whole team coming down the stretch because it sure isn’t going to be easy,” said Dave Wilbers, ATU head women’s basketball coach. “We have a bunch of good character girls. They take losses hard, but it seems like the next day when they walk into the gym, they forget about it. It says a lot about them to do that. I have faith in these guys that they can bounce back anytime. We’re just trying to improve our team going into this next road trip, which will be difficult.”
Thursday’s game between the Golden Suns and Southeastern Oklahoma State will feature two of the top three freshman scorers in all of NCAA Division II women’s basketball. ATU’s Logan Young is averaging 17.5 points per game, while Southeastern’s Tori Kilburn entered the week averaging 19.4 points per contest.
As for the Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys (8-16, 6-12), it might seem that all hope is lost for this season. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The reality is that four teams (coincidentally, the league’s four private schools, Ouachita Baptist University, Oklahoma Baptist University, Harding University and Southern Nazarene University) have separated themselves at the top of the GAC men’s basketball standings. None of the eight state-assisted GAC members are above .500 in men’s league play this season.
That means that all eight of those teams — including Arkansas Tech — are still very much alive in the hunt for the last four berths in the GAC Tournament March 5-8 in Fort Smith.
The Wonder Boys’ hopes are enhanced by the fact that Arkansas Tech does not have any remaining games against the top four teams in the league standings.
“We just have to keep getting better,” said Mark Downey, ATU head men’s basketball coach. “Just compete and do what we ask…that’s it. That’s what we want. I swear, if we do that, we’re pretty good. We’ve put ourselves in a hole, but we’ve got to figure it out. We have to grow up a little bit and be mature. We need better play out of some guys down the stretch.”
Talk to you on the radio.
Tech Tidbits is a column written by Sam Strasner, ATU director of university relations and radio play-by-play voice for ATU football and basketball.
