Oct. 30, 2002

RICHARDSON, Texas - Defending American Southwest Conference East Division and conference tournament champion Mississippi College and West Division challenger Howard Payne University have been selected by league coaches and media/sports information directors panels to win their respective 2002-03 ASC men's basketball division titles.

First-year Mississippi College head coach Don Lofton inherits a squad that won the East Division and ASC Tournament titles before ending the season with a second-round loss in the NCAA Div. III Championships (22-3, ASC 11-1). The Choctaws garnered six of the seven first-place votes (48 points) in balloting by the coaches and 11 of the 12 first-place votes (73 points) from the media panel.

Howard Payne, coached by Charles Pattillo, returns two starters and seven letterwinners from a team that averaged 83 points a game and finished tied for fourth-place in the West (13-12, ASC 8-6). The Yellow Jackets received four first-place votes in the coaches poll (55 points) and three of the 13 first-place votes (85 points) in media balloting.

After picking Mississippi College to repeat as East Division champions, the coaches predicted University of the Ozarks (37 pts.), UT Dallas (34), East Texas Baptist (30), Austin College (22), LeTourneau (13) and Louisiana College (12). The media matched the coaches at the top of the division--Mississippi College (80 pts.) and Ozarks (57)--then picked East Texas Baptist (50), Austin College (47), UT Dallas (43), Louisiana College (34) and LeTourneau (29).

Coaches and media predicted identical finishes in the West Division. After selecting Howard Payne (55 coaches/85 media pts.) to win the division, the two picked defending divisional champ McMurry (49/82), Mary Hardin-Baylor (47/81) and Sul Ross State (44/67) in the upper division. Texas Lutheran (35/52), Concordia-Austin (27/48), Schreiner (16/27) and Hardin-Simmons (15/26) completed the division predictions.

A pair of high-scoring guards were named by both the coaches and the media as division preseason players of the year. Ryan Vines (Negreet, La.) of Louisiana College was selected East Division Preseason Player of the Year while Benny West (Dallas, Texas) of Howard Payne was selected West Division Preseason Player of the Year.

Vines earned All-Conference and All-East Division honors last season while averaging 21.8 points a game. He led the ASC with 85 three-point field goals. West was named ASC West Defensive Player of the Year and All-West Division First-Team a year ago after averaging 18.9 points, 8.7 rebounds and 3.12 steals.