The 2023–24 Tarleton State Texans men's basketball team represented

Tarleton State University Tarleton State University is a Public university, public research university in Stephenville, Texas, United States. It is a founding member of the Texas A&M University System and enrolled over 15,000 students in the fall of 2022. It is Carnegie C ...

in the

2023–24 NCAA Division I men's basketball season The 2023–24 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 6, 2023. The regular season ended on March 17, 2024, with the 2024 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament beginning with the First Four on March 19 and ending with th ...

. They were led by fourth-year head coach

Billy Gillispie Billy Clyde Gillispie ( ; born November 7, 1959), also known by his initials BCG and Billy Clyde, is an American college basketball and current men's basketball coach at Tarleton State. Gillispie had previously been head coach at UTEP, Texas ...

and played their games at the Wisdom Gym as members of the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the Western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, Texas, Utah and Washington (state), Washington. Due to ...

(WAC). They finished the season 25–10, 16–4 in WAC play, to finish in second place. As the No. 2 seed in the WAC tournament, they lost to

UT Arlington The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA or UT Arlington) is a public research university in Arlington, Texas, United States. It is the second oldest university in the University of Texas System and was founded in 1895. It was in the Texas A&M ...

in the semifinals. They received an invitation to the CIT, where they defeated

Texas Southern Texas Southern University (Texas Southern or TSU) is a public historically Black university in Houston. The university is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schoo ...

in the first round, and fellow WAC member Abilene Christian in the quarterfinals, before losing to Purdue Fort Wayne in the semifinals. This season marked Tarleton State's final year of a four-year transition period from Division II to Division I. As a result, the Texans were not eligible to play in the NCAA tournament, but were eligible to play in the WAC tournament. On November 14, just four games into the season, head coach Billy Gillispie took a medical leave of absence, leaving Joseph Jones as the acting head coach. Gillespie later signed a two-year contract extension on March 5, but announced he would remain in an advisory role for the remainder of the season in order to fully recover.

Previous season

The Texans finished the season 17–17, 9–9 in conference play, to finish in seventh place. In the WAC tournament, the team defeated

UT Rio Grande Valley The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) is a public research university with its main campus in Edinburg, Texas, and multiple other campuses throughout the Rio Grande Valley region of Texas. It is the southernmost member of the Unive ...

in their first-round game before falling to

Utah Valley Utah Valley is a valley in North Central Utah located in Utah County, Utah, Utah County, and is considered part of the Wasatch Front. It contains the cities of Provo, Utah, Provo, Orem, Utah, Orem, and their suburbs, including Alpine, Utah, A ...

in the quarterfinals. While not eligible to be invited to the NCAA tournament during their four-year transition from Division II to Division I, the Texans were invited to the

College Basketball Invitational The College Basketball Invitational (CBI) is a men's college basketball tournament created in 2007 by The Gazelle Group. The inaugural tournament occurred after the conclusion of the 2007–08 men's college basketball regular season. The CBI sel ...

. They were defeated by the Radford in the first round to end their season.

Roster

Schedule and results

, - !colspan=9 style=, Exhibition , - !colspan=9 style=, Regular season , - !colspan=9 style=, WAC tournament , - !colspan=12 style=, CIT , - Source:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2023-24 Tarleton State Texans men's basketball team Tarleton State Texans men's basketball seasons Tarleton State Tarleton State Tarleton State Tarleton State