BOWLING GREEN, Ky. -- WKU will host Xavier University (La.) in its only exhibition game of 2009-10 on Tuesday evening at 7:00 PM.  It is the first meeting between the programs.  The Hilltoppers will officially open up their 91st season of college basketball on November 16 against Wisconsin-Milwaukee in Baton Rouge, La.  Below are game notes for the contest (with a link to the full, downloadable version in PDF format).

EXHIBITION:
WKU (0-0) vs. Xavier (La.) (0-0)
Tuesday, November 10, 2009 7:00 PM CT
E.A. Diddle Arena (7,326) • Bowling Green, Ky.

►TOPPER TIP-OFF: WKU will host Xavier University (La.) in its only exhibition game of 2009-10 on Tuesday evening at 7:00 PM.  It is the first meeting between the programs.  The Hilltoppers will officially open up their 91st season of college basketball on November 16 against Wisconsin-Milwaukee in Baton Rouge, La. 

►SIZING UP THE GOLD RUSH: Xaiver (La.) is an NAIA program competing in the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference.  The Gold Rush finished 2008-09 at 19-12 overall including an 11-7 mark in league play, tying for fourth.  Xavier is picked eighth out of 10 teams in the 2009-10 GCAC Preseason Coaches Poll. 

►STILL UNBEATEN: WKU is 7-0 all-time in exhibition games against four-year colleges in the United States.

►LAST EXHIBITION: The Toppers final tune-up of 2008-09, WKU rallied from a nine-point second-half deficit to hold-off an upset-minded Bellarmine 70-65 at Diddle Arena.  Orlando Mendez-Valdez came off the bench to score 11 of his game-high 18 in the second half.  Jeremy Evans added 14 points and 13 rebounds.

►WKU IN THE PRESEASON: WKU is 43-4 all-time in preseason exhibition games.  The Tops have won 12-straight dating back to a 2002-02 loss to the Harlem Globetrotters.

►PRESEASON NIT: WKU will open the 2009-10 season in the 25th Dick's Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-Off.  The Toppers are the number five seed nationally and will compete in the Baton Rouge Regional.  WKU will face Wisconsin-Milwaukee while LSU hosts Indiana State. 

►BEEN THERE BEFORE: This marks the fourth appearance in the Preseason NIT for WKU, the last coming in 1997 when the Toppers fell at #2 Kansas 75-62.  In 1993, Ralph Willard's squad lost 101-87 to top-ranked North Carolina before going on to win the Sun Belt Tournament and face Texas in the NCAA Tournament.  In the program's first appearance in the Preseason NIT, the Hilltoppers won at Notre Dame 80-63, ousted TCU 96-90, and then beat Memphis 68-67 in Madison Square Garden, setting up a showdown with UNLV for the championship, only to suffer a heartbreaking 96-95 2OT loss.

►GAINING NATIONAL ATTENTION: WKU is gaining naitonal attention by receiving votes in the preseason release of the Associated Press Top 25 poll.  The Hilltoppers are tied for 48th with a pair of Top 25 votes.  WKU concluded the 2008-09 season receiving votes in the ESPN/USA Today Top 25 Coaches Poll, ranking 34th with 11 total points.

►NATIONAL RANKING NOTHING NEW: Being in the national rankings is nothing new for the tradition-rich Hilltopper program.  Since the AP poll debuted in 1948, WKU has spend 112 weeks in the Top 25, including 60 weeks inside the Top 10.  The Toppers were last ranked inside the Top 25 when they finished 2007-08 at 22nd. 

►SUN BELT FAVORITES: The Sun Belt Conference coaches selected WKU as the overwhelming favorite to win the East Division in 2009-10.  If the prediction holds, it will be the program's third-straight and seventh crown in the last 10 seasons.  The Hilltoppers garnered 12 of a possible 13 first-place votes. 

►SLAUGHTER PRESEASON PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Senior guard AJ Slaughter has been selected as the Sun Belt Preseason Player of the Year by the league's head coaches.  The Shelbyville, Ky. native led the team in scoring at 16.0 ppg last season and is trying to become the third-straight Topper to become Player of the Year (Courtney Lee and Orlando Mendez-Valdez).

►FOUR NAMED PRESEASON ALL-CONFERENCE: AJ Slaughter, Sergio Kerusch, Steffphon Pettigrew, and Jeremy Evans have been selected to the Sun Belt Preseason All-Conference team.  Slaughter was a First-Team selection, and Player of the Year, while Kerusch and Pettigrew were placed on the Second-Team and Evans the Third-Team. 

►BLUE RIBBON TABS TOPS: Blue Ribbon magazine has forecasted WKU to win the Sun Belt Conference East Division while selecting senior guard AJ Slaughter as the Player of the Year.

►WKU RANKED 44th ALL-TIME: With a history and tradition that ranks third all-time in conference championships (41), sixth in 20-win seasons (39), eighth in all-time winning percentage (.673), and 14th in wins (1,606), Western Kentucky University is rated 44th out of 330 Division I men's basketball programs in the ESPN/Sagarin All-Time Rankings released in October.  In the 1,200-page book, the authors stated, "Western Kentucky has a tradition and fan base that almost any other team in the country would envy."

►WELLMAN ADDED TO STAFF: WKU head coach Ken McDonald announced the addition of Kip Wellman as graduate assistant to the staff on September 15.  A 2005 graduate of Transylvania University, Wellman served four seasons at Syracuse as a graduate assistant manager.