While Talvin Hester has been the head coach of the Louisiana Tech men’s basketball team for four seasons already, he has never started a season quite like this one. Seven months after playing in the Conference USA title game, the Dunkin’ Dogs now find themselves in a new league, with only a single returning player, and a preseason pick of 12th out of 14 in the Sun Belt.
That’s the first time a Hester team has been picked anywhere below 6th in any preseason poll, in a conference not known for historically great basketball play.
“I could care less where everyone predicts us” was Hester’s quote at Sun Belt media day, also pointing out that nobody in this league really knows who Tech is yet.
But unfortunately, that “nobody in the league” also includes us Bulldog fans. So let’s find out what we can learn about this Tech basketball team that opens their season on Monday at the TAC.
Last Season
Shakespeare might have said “what’s past is prologue,” but I’ve never seen him try to recruit an entirely new roster in one offseason to keep that prologue relevant. Still though, it’s worth a quick trip through memory lane to see how Louisiana Tech ended up playing in that final game in Huntsville.
Tech went 20-14 on the season a year ago, and 11-9 in conference, in their Conference USA farewell. And while it was the third straight 20-win season, the Dogs accomplished that feat while never winning or losing more than two games in a row across their entire regular season schedule.
But that streak of “lack of streaks” ended in March, as the Bulldogs opened the tournament with a third straight win, topping Middle Tennessee 80-69. Then followed that up with a fourth straight win by beating Missouri State for a third time that season. It was the first four-game conference win streak in two years.
Sadly, the win streak ended there. In the tournament title game, the Bulldogs fell 71-60 to Kennesaw State, punching the Owls ticket to dance in March Madness. It hurt the same way it did falling to UAB in the C-USA championship game in 2022. And that hurt the same way the loss to Tulsa in Tech’s first ever C-USA season and championship game appearance did in 2014.
But what got the Bulldogs to that penultimate step last year was defense. Tech finished top 10 nationally in scoring defense (65 points per game) and field goal percentage defense (39.3%). They went 14-3 at the TAC, including 7-0 against non-conference opponents. One of which, Louisiana-Lafayette, has now become a conference opponent.
The team also came back from down 20 to beat Middle Tennessee 59-58 in January, and ended the regular season with an 81-38 victory at Delaware, the largest road win in recorded program history.
The Roster
Who's Gone
Before I throw some new names at you, let’s take a quick look at where everyone you might remember from last season ended up:
And that’s just who left to head to other Division I schools. Two bench players also left: Keegan Rowell to Howard Payne and A’Meir Williams to Northwestern Oklahoma State.
Plus there are departures due to graduation. Scooter Williams is now playing professionally in Lithuania, Will Allen in Albania, and Will Jeffress has become the Director of Student-Athlete Success at Mercyhurst.
But enough about names you can now fully wipe from your memory. Let’s talk this season.
Who's Here
The 2026-27 Louisiana Tech men’s basketball features one returner, nine transfers, and three freshmen. And of those transfers, all but one come from the junior college ranks or Division II. But before we talk about the new faces, let’s look at..
The Returner: Jaylen Fenner
Fenner’s 5.5 points per game last year truly undersells him. The 6’6 sophomore made his first career start in the home opener and posted 15 points and 4 steals. He finished the year solidly in that starting five, with 25 points against FIU on February 28th and a C-USA weekly award after the road sweep at Liberty and Delaware. At Liberty, he scored Tech’s last six points to close out the league leader.
By default or otherwise, Fenner enters a leadership role this season as the only Bulldog that fully understands Talvin Hester’s system and expectations.
The Transfers
Kyran Tilley
6-1 Guard | Central Missouri (D-II)
- 12.7 points per game
- Team-high 54 steals
- All-MIAA Defensive Team
Deven Bates
6-3 Guard | Pensacola State (JUCO)
- 20.3 points per game
- 7 rebounds per game
- #10 JUCO player per JucoRecruiting
Jay Tyler
6-0 Guard | Jones College (JUCO)
- 17.9 points per game
- 5.5 assists per game
- Region 23 tournament MVP
Ethan Blackmon
6-7 Forward | Northeastern State (D-II)
- 13.6 points per game
- 8 assists per game
- 1,063 career points
Linwood Rowe
6-7 Forward | Brunswick CC (JUCO)
- 13.6 points per game
- 5.9 rebounds per game
- 63% FG%
Trashaun Combs-Pierce
6-8 Forward | Independence CC (JUCO)
- 11.2 points per game
- 4.9 rebounds per game
- Injury cut season short
Iyran Francis Jr
6-7 Forward | Gulf Coast St (JUCO)
- 9 points per game
- #4 in offensive rebounds per game
- JUCO Final Four
Braylon Wenger
6-7 Forward | Trinity Valley CC (JUCO)
- 12.6 points per game
- 34% from 3
- NJCAA All-Tournament Team
Izuchukwu Emelife
6-7 Forward | Lamar
- Redshirted last year (as a Freshman)
- 26 double-doubles in high school
- Set 7 high school records
Champ
7-1 Mascot | AE Phillips
- More of an emergency sub
- Probably poor peripheral vision
- Good Boy of the century
Of this group Kylan Tilley is the headliner. The Sun Belt coaches put him on the preseason All-Sun Belt third team before he’s even played a minute of Division I ball. He was MIAA Freshman of the Year two years ago, and Hester credits him with “a strong blend of toughness and a winning pedigree.”
Deven Bates might be the most talented scorer on the roster. He scored in double figures in all 30 games at Pensacola State and averaged 23.1 as a freshman at Copiah-Lincoln. Hester calls him a guard who can play on or off the ball and rebound from the backcourt. Most importantly, though, his time at Pensacola State may come in handy for planning team dinners during the Sun Belt tournament.
Up front, Iyran Francis Jr is a name to remember. He shot almost 67% and grabbed 165 offensive rebounds in one JUCO season. Hester says his motor and rebounding are second to none.
The Freshmen
From Atascocita High School in Humble, Texas, Adam Boyd is a three-start recruit that Hester has already mentioned in the point guard mix.
Then rounding out this group are two more guards: James Sanderson out of New Hampshire and Bryce Dixon out of The Colony High School in Texas.
Four Big Questions
#1
Who runs the point?
Effectively the QB of a basketball team, a team’s point guard can really determine if a season sinks or swims.
At media day, Hester named four candidates who have looked good in scrimmages: Jay Tyler, Deven Bates, Kyran Tilley, and the freshman Adam Boyd. Somebody will need to emerge well before we get to conference play.
#2
Is there enough size?
Five forwards are listed at 6-7 and Combs-Pierce is the tallest player at 6-8. There’s no true center.
Hester often had 6-8 Avery Thomas playing the 5 last season, so this is nothing new. But not having a 6’10+ guy may hurt down the stretch.
#3
Does the defense survive the turnover?
Hester’s teams always guard well, but last years’ numbers came from a veteran group that knew the system. This one learned it over the summer. On paper, the pieces fit: Tilley made an all-defensive team, Hester has already shouted out Bates’s defensive improvements, and Francis and Combs-Pierce can protect the rim. But basketball isn’t played on paper.
#4
How fast does the JUCO jump happen?
Deven Bates and Jay Tyler scored 18 to 20 a game in junior college. That’s not the same as doing it at Arkansas State in February.
Some of these guys will hit right away and some will time. We have to hope more of those guys find their groove early.
The Schedule
Non-Conference
The Bulldogs open the season Monday night as they take on Kent State in the first game of the MAC-Sun Belt Challenge. The other game in that cross-conference challenge will be on February 6th, matching up teams based on NET rankings to try to boost the resume of a team that might be competing for an at-large bid.
This year’s non-D1 opponents both hail from the Natural State. The Arkansas Monticello Boll Weevils come to the TAC for Game #2 on November 5th, and the Arkansas Baptist Buffaloes play in Ruston on December 9th.
The highest ranked team Tech will face is on Game #3 at LSU on November 9th.
The rest of the non-conference slate includes home-and-aways with Jacksonville State and Texas State (where Hester used to be an assistant). A game in Thibodeux against Nicholls, but several more schools come to the TAC: Stephen F Austin, Tulane, Alcorn State, and Jackson State.
Sun Belt Conference Play
The Bulldogs will play 18 Sun Belt games: home and away against the other six West schools, then one game against six of the seven East schools. And if home-court advantage sticks around for another season in the Hester regime, Tech got a good draw of where those games against East schools will be played:
West Schools
#1 South Alabama
#3 Troy
#4 South Alabama
#6 Louisiana-Lafayette
#7 Southern Miss
#14 UL Monroe
East Home
#2 James Madison
#5 Marshall
#8 App State
East Away
#9 Georgia Southern
#11 Old Dominion
#13 Coastal Carolina
So the three best East teams (James Madison, Marshall, and App State) all come to Ruston. That is, of course, the preseason coaches poll is in any way accurate.
The Sun Belt Tournament
Two major things to note about the conference tournament in comparison to years in C-USA. First, it takes place a week earlier, so the Sun Belt will have crowned a champion before the first C-USA tip takes place in Huntsville. Second, it is not your typical bracket.
All 14 teams in the conference get in and there are no off days. But the better you seed, the later in the bracket you start. It’s a stepladder: the top two seeds skip straight to the semifinals while the bottom four have to win seven games in seven days to win the whole thing.
Wins Needed to Win the Tournament
Seed
1 & 2
2
Seed
3 & 4
3
Seed
5 & 6
4
Seed
7 & 8
5
Seed
9 & 10
6
Seed
11-14
7
Effectively, this makes the regular season matter that much more. C-USA had the top six seeds skip the first round, but #1 seeded Liberty and #6 seeded Tech had the same number of games they needed to win to take the title. In the Sun Belt, that seed difference matters more.
But it also makes tiebreakers more brutal. Last March, the Sun Belt saw six teams tied for 2nd place at 11-7. Marshall came out the tiebreakers as the 2 seed and needed two wins. Arkansas State, with the exact same record, landed 7th and needed five.
The championship ended up being #10 Georgia Southern (who won five straight to get the final) vs #1 Troy, who took the trophy back to, well, Troy.
The Bottom Line
With all of that being said, 12th still feels exceptionally low for this Bulldog team. But it’s too soon to say what this team will look like. Even with the MAC-Sun Belt challenge, it’s hard to imagine this conference getting two bids in March. So the out-of-conference play can contain tests and tune-ups as this team finds an identity.
Because the conference tournament format means that every Sun Belt basketball game will mean that much more.
