It will be good to see Tucker Coliseum on Thursday night.
After playing four consecutive road doubleheaders and eight of their first 12 Great American Conference doubleheaders away from home, the schedule turns in favor of the Arkansas Tech University basketball teams beginning this week.
ATU will play at Tucker Coliseum seven times over the final five weeks of the regular season.
For the Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys (8-10 overall, 5-7 GAC), all of those home games present an opportunity to earn one of eight berths in the 2025 GAC Tournament and defend the title they won last March.
“I don’t get a lot of joy out of winning,” said Mark Downey, ATU head men’s basketball coach. “The joy I get from this is seeing these guys succeed. I want them to be successful. It’s nice to be at home. We have to get hot at home. We have to win one game at a time, take care of our home court and see what happens. If we can just keep winning and sneaking up the standings, that’s all we need to do.”
Arkansas Tech will host Southwestern Oklahoma State University for a doubleheader at 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 30, and Northwestern Oklahoma State University for a 1 and 3 p.m. doubleheader on Saturday, Feb. 1.
Tickets are available at www.arkansastechsports.com/tickets.
The Arkansas Tech Golden Suns (3-13, 1-11) came within one defensive rebound of snapping their losing streak on Saturday, but a put-back basket by the University of Arkansas-Monticello’s Bailey Harris with 1.1 seconds remaining forced overtime and the Cotton Blossoms clipped the Suns 63-60. It was the 10th consecutive setback for ATU’s women.
“It’s kind of the way our season is going,” said Dave Wilbers, ATU head women’s basketball coach. “We shot the basketball a lot better today. We just have to finish plays. It was a tough loss. Nobody has quit on our team. They are fighting and working hard. We just haven’t had any luck. If the ball bounces two feet this way, we win the game. But that’s part of basketball, and we didn’t get it done.”
Live coverage of all four games this week will be provided by KCJC 102.3 FM, the EAB Media Group app and www.arkansastechsports.com.
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.
