MARSHALL, Minn. – The Southwest Minnesota State University men’s basketball team opens its 2011-12 season on Sunday afternoon with an exhibition game versus the SMSU Alumni Team starting at 2 p.m. at the R/A Facility.  The game is part of the second annual “Andy Wiersma Day” at SMSU.

Tickets for the game are $5 for adults and $1 for age 12-and-under.  SMSU students will be admitted free with valid SMSU ID.  All proceeds from the game will go towards the Andy Wiersma “AW” Memorial Scholarship.

The SMSU Alumni team will consist of some of the best players in school history.  Players expected to play include Ryan Krome, DeAnthony Zanders, Undre Ellis, Andy Beilke, Travis Krenske, Jacob Fahl, Jon DeRock, Andrew Peschong, Kevin Andrews, Nick Dale,Jeremy VanKlompenburg, Scott Roehl, Chris Aggen and Chad Orum.

The SMSU Alumni defeated SMSU 66-62 in last year’s inaugural game.

SMSU third-year head coach Brad Bigler has 15 players on this year’s roster with nine returning letterwinners.  The Mustangs finished the 2010-11 season with a 12-14 overall record and finished tied for eighth in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference standings with a record of 9-13.

SMSU returns four of its top five scorers and five players who started at least 10 games from last year’s team.

Andy Wiersma passed away in an auto accident on July 27, 2008.  He was a four-year letterwinner at SMSU from 2002-06, playing in 112 career games with 36 starts.  He scored 418 points while grabbing 237 rebounds in his career.  He shot 42.6 percent from the field (135-of-317) including 37.7 percent from three-point range (69-of-183).

Following his playing career in 2006, the SMSU men’s basketball program honored Wiersma by renaming its “Mustang Award” the “Andy Wiersma Mustang Award”.  The award is given each year to an SMSU men’s basketball player who exemplifies the qualities of being a Mustang men’s basketball student-athlete.