June 18, 2012
SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas - The Illinois State men's basketball team will join a solid field that includes Northwestern, Alabama-Birmingham and Texas Christian at the eighth annual South Padre Island Invitational, one of college basketball's elite Thanksgiving tournaments.
The field of eight teams also includes Prairie View, Fairleigh Dickinson, Delaware State and the United States Naval Academy. Each team will play four games, with the first two held at campus sites, and the final two rounds played at the South Padre Island Convention Center on beautiful South Padre Island, Texas, November 23-24.
Illinois State returns four starters and nine letterwinners from a team that finished 21-14 overall and advanced to the second round of the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) in 2012. Led by first-year head coach Dan Muller, who returns to his alma mater, the Redbirds will look to build on the momentum of their overtime loss to nationally-ranked Creighton in the 2012 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament championship game and the team's overtime defeat in the second round of the NIT at Stanford, the eventual champions of the post-season event.
The Redbirds could face in-state foe Northwestern, which returns four starters and a trio of redshirts from last year's team, which went 19-14 overall and 8-10 in Big Ten Conference play. The Wildcats advanced to postseason play for a school-record fourth-consecutive season a year ago before falling to Washington in the second round of the NIT. Senior guard/forward Drew Crawford headlines the list of returners for head coach Bill Carmody, who is in his 13th season at the helm in Evanston.
TCU enters a new era in 2012 that features not only a new head coach in Trent Johnson, but also a new league in the Big 12 Conference. Last year's Horned Frog squad posted an 18-15 overall record and advanced to the quarterfinals of the CBI tournament for the program's first postseason berth since 2005. Highlighting next season's roster are three Frogs who averaged at least 8.3 points per game last season. Senior guard/forward Garlon Green is the team's top returning-scorer (9.9 ppg), while junior forward Amric Fields (9.6 ppg) and sophomore guard Kyan Anderson (8.3 ppg) also are back.
The UAB men's basketball team returns eight letterwinners and four starters off last season's squad. Last season, the Blazers finished the campaign with wins in eight of their final 11 contests to close the year 15-16 overall and 9-7 in league play. With its late-season surge, UAB claimed fifth place in the Conference USA regular-season standings. UAB will be under the leadership of first-year head coach Jerod Haase, who spent the past nine seasons at North Carolina as an assistant coach under Roy Williams. While there, Haase helped lead the Tar Heels to a pair of national championships.
Tournament passes are limited and can be purchased through the Illinois State Athletics Ticket Office at (309) 438-8000 or through the South Padre Island Convention Center Box Office by calling (888) 774-8587. Fans can purchase a single-day pass for $55, which includes admission to all four games played that day.
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