The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs basketball program, nicknamed the Dunkin' Dogs, represents intercollegiate men's basketball at

Louisiana Tech University Louisiana Tech University (Louisiana Tech, La. Tech, or simply Tech) is a public university, public research university in Ruston, Louisiana, United States. It is part of the University of Louisiana System and Carnegie Classification of Institu ...

. The program competes in Conference USA in Division I of the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

(NCAA) and plays home games at the Thomas Assembly Center in Ruston, Louisiana. Talvin Hester is in his second season as the Bulldogs' head coach.

History

Conference affiliations

*1925–1939: Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association *1939–1948: Louisiana Intercollegiate Conference *1948–1971: Gulf States Conference *1971–1987:

Southland Conference The Southland Conference (SLC) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the South Central United States (specifically Texas and Louisiana). It participates in the NCAA's Division I for all sports; for football, it participates in ...

*1987–1991: American South Conference *1991–2001: Sun Belt Conference *2001–2013:

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 ...

*2013–present: Conference USA

Championships

Conference regular season championships

Conference tournament championships

Postseason

NCAA Division I Tournament results

The Bulldogs have appeared in the NCAA Division I tournament five times. Their combined record is 4–5.

NCAA Division II Tournament results

The Bulldogs have appeared in the NCAA Division II tournament two times. Their combined record is 2–2.

NIT results

Louisiana Tech has appeared in ten National Invitation Tournaments. Their combined record is 15–10.

Vegas 16 results

The Bulldogs have appeared in one

Vegas 16 The Vegas 16 tournament was a postseason men's college basketball tournament. The tournament was managed by Lexington, Kentucky-based sports marketing firm bd Global. CBS Sports Network was announced as the television partner for the quarterfinal ...

. Their record is 0–1.

CIT results

Louisiana Tech has appeared in one CollegeInsider.com Tournament. Their combined record is 1–1.

NAIA tournament results

The Bulldogs have appeared in the NAIA tournament four times. Their combined record is 1–4.

Home venues

Men's Gymnasium (1925-1952)

The Men's Gymnasium was located on Mayfield Avenue, directly north of the northwest corner of Hale Hall and across the street from the eventual site of Memorial Gymnasium. It was located north of the original Tech Stadium football field, and was demolished around 1984 to create more parking adjacent to Hale Hall.

Memorial Gymnasium (1952–1982)

In 1952, Memorial Gymnasium was a 4,800-seat gymnasium constructed on the

campus in Ruston to serve as the home of the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs basketball team. Today Memorial Gym serves as a practice facility for the basketball team.

Thomas Assembly Center (1982–present)

The Thomas Assembly Center is an 8,000-seat multi-purpose arena in Ruston, Louisiana. The arena, named for its benefactor and businessman Samuel M. Thomas, is home to the Division I NCAA Louisiana Tech University Bulldogs men's basketball team.

Traditions

Dunkin' Dogs

The Dunkin' Dogs nickname emerged during the 1982–83 season led by Karl Malone and Willie Simmons making highlight reel dunks. The tradition has continued through time as the current Dunkin' Dogs led by Raheem Appleby, Michale Kyser, and Alex Hamilton have made several dunks featured nationally on ESPN's SportsCenter Top Plays and Fox Sports Live's The 1.

Hoop Troop

Hoop Troop is the official basketball pep band at Louisiana Tech University. The ''Hoop Troop'' performs at most men's basketball home games and travels to select road basketball games. The band also usually travels to all post-season games played by the Bulldogs, and is known nationally as one of the best basketball bands in college basketball. In the 2005 post-season, the ''Hoop Troop'' was featured in a ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

's College Edition'' article, "65 Things We Want to See During March Madness" in which states, "30) The Louisiana Tech pep band, a.k.a. the Hoop Troop, the funniest band in the land." The ''Hoop Troop'' was the only basketball band to be listed.

Players

Basketball Hall of Fame

* Leon Barmore, 2003 * Karl Malone, 2010

Retired numbers

All-Americans

* Jackie Moreland – 1958, 1959, 1960 *Ray Germany – 1959, 1960 * Mike Green – 1971, 1972, 1973 * Mike McConathy – 1976 * Karl Malone – 1983, 1984, 1985 * Randy White – 1989

Conference Player of the Year

* Jackie Moreland – 1960 * Mike Green – 1973 * Mike McConathy – 1976 * Karl Malone – 1983 * Randy White – 1988, 1989 * Ron Ellis – 1992 * Gerrod Henderson – 2000 * Speedy Smith – 2015 * Alex Hamilton – 2016 Conference Freshman of the Year *Antonio Meeking - 2000 (Sun Belt) *Paul Millsap - 2004 (WAC) *Raheem Appleby - 2012 (WAC) * DaQuan Bracey - 2017 (C-USA) * Kenneth Lofton, Jr. - 2021 (C-USA)

Leading scorers

NBA draftees

The Bulldogs have had 14 players selected in the NBA draft, including 4 first round picks. Twice the Bulldogs have had multiple players taken in the same draft year (1985 and 1992).

Other Bulldogs in the NBA

* Erik McCree -

Utah Jazz The Utah Jazz are an American professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City. The Jazz compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference. Since the 1991–92 season, the ...

* Kenneth Lofton Jr. – Memphis Grizzlies

Other Bulldogs overseas

* Kyle Gibson (born 1987) - Hapoel Galil Elyon of the

Israeli Basketball Premier League Ligat HaAl (, lit., ''Supreme League or Premier League''), or the Israeli Basketball Premier League, is a professional basketball league in Israel and the highest level of basketball in the country. The league's name is abbreviated as either BSL ...

* Alex Hamilton (born 1993) - Hapoel Eilat in the

* Michale Kyser (born 1991) - Hapoel Holon in the

Coaches

Head coaches

Bulldogs in coaching

* Kyle Keller – Stephen F. Austin

References

External links

* {{Conference USA men's basketball navbox