STEPHENVILLE, Texas ­– The 2024-25 college basketball season is just around the corner as both the Tarleton State men's and women's basketball teams will welcome the new season this week with the WAC Preview Shows on Tuesday and Wednesday.
 
Both the men's and women's shows will be streamed on ESPN+ starting on Tuesday at 11 a.m. and Wednesday at 10 a.m.
 
The WAC will not be hosting an in-person conference media day, but instead will feature all nine men's and women's programs virtually as done in previous seasons. The men's preview show will be featured at 11:45 a.m. CT on Tuesday. Tarleton State men's basketball coach Billy Gillispie will be joined by returners Bubu Benjamin and Freddy Hicks. The women's squad will be live on-air at 10:45 a.m. the following day, Wednesday, October 16. Second-year head coach Bill Brock will be accompanied by Karyn Sanford and Jakoriah Long.
 
Men's basketball coach Billy Gillispie enters his fifth season at the helm of the program. Last season, coach Gillispie coached the first four games of the season before taking a step aside due to medical circumstances. Coach Gillispie received a two-year extension shortly after last season when his squad finished 25-10.
 
Coach Gillispie will be joined on the show by Freddy Hicks and Bubu Benjamin. Hicks returns to the Texans for his fourth total season in Stephenville. Hicks spent three seasons with the Texans where he was chosen WAC Freshman of the Year after the 2020-21 season and earned a second team All-WAC selection in 2022-23. During his time with the Texans, he leads the program in seven statistical categories in the Division I era. As the leader in points, he is just 66 points from being the first 1,000-point scorer in the Texans' D1 era. Hicks leads the program in free throws made (327), free throws attempted (437), total rebounds (410), defensive rebounds (297), rebounds per game (5.5) and points (934).
 
Bubu Benjamin returns for his sophomore season with the Texans. He posted a season-high 16 points on the road at Bradley. The Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada, native, was named to U18 and U19 Canadian National Team. As a prep star we was selected to the 2023 Grind Session All-Star, 2023 BioSteel All-Canadian All Star Game Participant posting 15 and 17 points in each game respectively.
 
After helping Baylor to three women's basketball national championships, Brock enters his second season leading Tarleton Women's Basketball. The Waco native guided the Texans to their first postseason conference tournament appearance at the NCAA Division I level. Brock and the Texans capped off the 2023-24 season with their first conference tournament victory in the Division I Era, defeating in-state rival Abilene Christian at the WAC Tournament in Las Vegas.
 
Long returns to the Texans after leading Tarleton State in scoring last season, averaging just over 11 points per game. The two-time NJCAA national tournament guard made an immediate impact for the Texans after spending her first two years at Blinn College. She capped off her first season at Tarleton State with 20 points to lift the Texans to its first WAC Tournament victory in program history.
 
After transferring from UAlbany, Sanford competed in 28 games in her first season with the Texans in 2023-24. The Norwegian competed at the national stage this past summer, leading Norway to the gold medal in the 2024 FIBA Women's European Championship for Small Countries. She averaged 10.2 points per game and 4.6 rebounds per game to help her country to gold.
 
The men's squad will start their 2024-25 campaign on October 28^th with a 7 p.m. exhibition against UT-Tyler at Wisdom Gym. Brock's women's team will open their campaign with an exhibition on October 30^th in Wisdom Gym against Howard Payne at 6 p.m.