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Lone Star to Move Tourney Next Year (Tulsa World Article) - July 09, 2007

Bartlesville built it, and the Lone Star Conference is coming.
The Lone Star men's and women's postseason basketball tournaments will embark on a three-year run at the new Bartlesville High School Field House beginning next March, an agreement scheduled to be announced Thursday at 10:30am.
"I think it's terrific," said Tony Robinson, men's coach at Southeastern Oklahoma State, one of 16 schools in the NCAA Division II conference. "It's a great facility in a great city. When I coached high school basketball in Norman, we played Bartlesville two or three times, and they packed the house every time."
That was in Bartlesville's old field house. Now, the hope is they'll pack the new 2,300-seat version, a $5.5 million arena which as dedicated Dec. 3.
"One, I'm excited that they want it. I think we all want to go somewhere where the community will embrace us," Southwestern Oklahoma State men's coach Todd Thurman said. "Bartlesville put it out there that they really wanted to host."
The Lone Star received and reviewed tournament bids from interested cities through last April. Officials toured facilities and selected Bartlesville over Lubbock and Wichita Falls, Texas.
In the past, higher-seeded teams hosted first-round games. The semi-finals and championship rounds then shifted to the area of the highest-seeded remaining team from the North Division one year, and the South Division the next.
Last spring, league coaches recommended that the conference explore neutral-site options.