World Vision Challenge starts tonight

The Cowboys host the World Vision Challenge tournament this weekend so get ready for three days of Men's Hoops.

Wyoming should have a pretty good chance of winning the tournament if you take a look at records of the other teams. Here is a breakdown of each matchup:

Friday - 7:30PM versus Monmouth Hawks

Monmouth is 1-3 on the season and losers of three straight. Managed only 34 points in a loss to St. Peters. F Travis Taylor leads the Hawks in points and rebounds with a 17/7 average. I love this matchup since I went to Monmouth College in IL and people would always confuse it with Monmouth University in NJ.

Saturday - 7:30PM versus Hampton Pirates

The Pirates are sitting at 0-4 this season but could easily be 2-2. Close losses to LaSalle and William and Mary by a combined four points have put the team behind the eight ball. G Darrion Pellum is the top scoring threat for the Pirates.

Sunday - 3:00PM versus Pepperdine Waves

The Waves are currently 1-3 and feature a very young team. In their last game they were down by 5 at halftime to UCLA before the Bruins pulled away. Seems like this team is pretty a one man show: Sophomore G Keion Bell lead the team with 20 points 6 rebounds and nearly 4 assists a game. No other player has even averages double digit points.

Interesting note on the naming of the tournament. Here is clipping from the Wyoming team page:

The naming rights to the tournament were donated to World Vision by
Basketball Travelers, Inc. As a Christian humanitarian organization, World
Vision aims to contribute to a 75 percent reduction in malaria cases, with the
end goal of nearly zero preventable malaria deaths by 2015. World Vision works
in 62 malaria-endemic countries, 23 of which are in sub-Saharan Africa.

"Malaria is one of the leading causes of death for children under five
in the developing world, resulting in approximately 750,000 child deaths per
year--or one every 40 seconds," said Craig Jaggers, World Vision's policy
advisor for malaria. "Basketball nets and bed nets are a great way of bringing
together college students with vulnerable children around the world." More
information is available at www.endmalaria.org.