Tulsa will play an 18-game regular season home schedule along with two home exhibition contests. |
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Tulsa Basketball to Play 18 Regular Season Home Games
Sept. 6, 2006
Tulsa, Oklahoma - The University of Tulsa men's basketball team will play a 29-game schedule in 2006-07, including 18 regular season games at the Donald W. Reynolds Center, as it was announced today by Tulsa Head Basketball Coach Doug Wojcik.
The schedule features 10 games against post-season tournament teams from a year ago, including NCAA Tournament teams Arkansas, Memphis, Oklahoma, Oral Roberts and UAB.
Tulsa opens the regular season against St. Gregory's (Okla.) on November 15, the first of five regular season home contests in the month of November. Arkansas-Little Rock visits Tulsa three days later on Nov. 18.
"I think our schedule really sets up nice this season. With the two exhibition games we have 20 home games, which is a big difference from a year ago when we had to go on the road more often than playing at home," said Wojcik.
The Hurricane travels to play North Texas on Nov. 21 in Denton, Texas. TU leads the series against the Mean Green, 37-12. Tulsa returns home to close out November with games against Cal State Northridge (Nov. 25) and Oral Roberts (Nov. 28).
The ORU Golden Eagles won the Mid-Continent Championship, had an overall 21-12 record and made the NCAA Tournament a year ago. Tulsa leads the overall series against ORU by a 27-15 margin.
Tulsa will play six games in the month of December with all of those contests keeping the Hurricane in the state of Oklahoma. Five of those games will be played at the Reynolds Center, and the sixth will be played at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City.
The first of Tulsa's five December home games comes on the first day of the month against the Lamar Cardinals (Dec. 1). The Hurricane will plays its next three games -- Jackson State (Dec. 4), Southern Arkansas (Dec. 10) and Prairie View A&M (Dec. 16) -- at home before traveling to Oklahoma City.
Tulsa will play the Oklahoma Sooners on Dec. 21 at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City. This game marks the fourth consecutive season that the Hurricane and the Sooners have matched up on the basketball court. OU is under the direction of first-year coach Jeff Capel this season.
Last year, Oklahoma finished the season with a 20-9 record and a trip to the NCAA Tournament.
Tulsa will close out the 2006 part of the season with its ninth home game of the campaign on Dec. 23 against Eastern Michigan.
Tulsa will travel east across the border to face the Arkansas Razorbacks, another NCAA participant of a year ago, to tip-off the New Year on January 2. The Hogs of the SEC posted an overall 22-10 mark and finished in second place in the SEC West Division last season.
A visit by Texas-Pan American on Jan. 6 closes out the non-conference season for the Hurricane.
"Arkansas-Little Rock will be an experienced and athletic team and will be a good test early on. Oral Roberts will be a very good team and that will be a very tough and competitive game for us," said Wojcik. "The fact that we play our three away non-conference games - North Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas -- all within driving distance from Tulsa is exciting for our fan base. I'm really excited to be able to play Oklahoma on a neutral site and on ESPN, and then playing at Arkansas."
The Hurricane will play 16 Conference USA contests with two games against UTEP, Marshall, Memphis, SMU and UCF and one contest against the six other C-USA teams.
"The Conference USA schedule is a good one for us as well. We play every Saturday in January at home that hopefully can lead to some momentum for February and March,' said Wojcik. "Besides SMU, Memphis and UTEP, we have two new playing partners -- UCF and UTEP -- in which we play home-and-home. Those are competitive games for us.
"Last year, we played the four top teams in the league on the road, and this year we get all four of those teams at home. In addition, to UTEP and Memphis, UAB and Houston will now play in Tulsa and that will be exciting for our fans."
Tulsa will begin its C-USA schedule with two home games, as East Carolina visits the Reynolds Center (Jan. 10) followed by the UTEP Miners (Jan. 13).
UTEP posted a 21-10 record and third-place C-USA mark of 11-3, and went on to play in its third straight post-season tournament with an appearance in the NIT. The Hurricane holds a 20-10 lead in the overall series with the Miners.
Tulsa goes to the home state of its head coach Doug Wojcik for its first league road contest against the Marshall Thundering Herd in Huntington, West Virginia, on Jan. 17. Tulsa won the only game last season between the two teams with a 66-57 victory at the Reynolds Center.
Tulsa returns home to face the Houston Cougars on Jan. 20, before going on the road to face the league's defending champion, Memphis Tigers (Jan. 24).
Houston was an NIT participant last year while finishing with a 21-10 record. Memphis posted an overall 33-4 record and a 13-1 mark in conference action. The Tigers won the C-USA post-season tournament and advanced to the NCAA Tournament's Final Eight before losing to UCLA.
Tulsa trails the Houston series by one game 17-16, but leads the Memphis series by a count of 12-10.
Three days later, Tulsa returns home to play the SMU Mustangs on Jan. 27. Last year, Tulsa won both contests against the Mustangs with a 55-51 win on the road and a 73-58 victory at home to increases its lead in the series to 19-11.
Tulsa closes out the month of January with a game at Tulane (Jan. 31), as the Hurricane lead that series 3-1.
UCF will host the Hurricane on Feb. 3, the first of two meetings between the schools this year. Marshall makes a return trip to Tulsa (Feb. 7) for the second meeting of the season between the two teams.
Tulsa goes on the road to Southern Miss (Feb. 10), before returning home to host the Memphis Tigers (Feb. 14) in the second meeting of the year between these two schools. Then, Tulsa returns the trip to UTEP three days later on Feb. 17.
Tulsa will close out its home season with back-to-back games against UAB (Feb. 21) and UCF (Feb. 24).
The Hurricane travels to Texas for two straight road contests to finish the regular season. Tulsa plays at SMU on Feb. 28 and at Rice on March 3. TU holds a 14-6 series lead over the Rice Owls.
"Hopefully, we'll have a chance to improve on our sixth-place finish in Conference USA from last season and move into the upper echelon of the conference," added Wojcik.
The Conference USA Tournament will be played, March 7-10 at the FedEx Center in Memphis, Tennessee.
Tulsa will play two exhibition games, giving the Hurricane a total of 20 games played at the Reynolds Center in 2006-07. Cameron University visits TU on Nov. 2, followed by Tulsa's second exhibition contest against East Central on Nov. 8.
2006-07 Tulsa Men's Basketball ScheduleDate Day Opponent Time NOVEMBER 2 Thurs. CAMERON (Exhibition) 7:05 pm 8 Wed. EAST CENTRAL (Exh.) 7:05 pm 15 Wed. ST. GREGORY'S 7:05 pm 18 Sat. ARKANSAS-LITTLE ROCK 7:05 pm 21 Tues. at North Texas 7:00 pm 25 Sat. CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE 7:05 pm 28 Tues. ORAL ROBERTS 7:05 pm
DECEMBER 1 Fri. LAMAR 7:05 pm 4 Mon. JACKSON STATE 7:05 pm 10 Sun. SOUTHERN ARKANSAS 2:05 pm 16 Sat. PRAIRIE VIEW A&M 6:05 pm 21 Thurs. Oklahoma @ OKC (ESPN2) 3:30 pm 23 Sat. EASTERN MICHIGAN 1:05 pm
JANUARY 2 Tues. at Arkansas TBA 6 Sat. TEXAS-PAN AMERICAN 7:05 pm 10 Wed. EAST CAROLINA* 7:05 pm 13 Sat. UTEP* 7:05 pm 17 Wed. at Marshall* TBA 20 Sat. HOUSTON* 7:05 pm 24 Wed. at Memphis* TBA 27 Sat. SMU* 7:05 pm 31 Wed. at Tulane* TBA
FEBRUARY 3 Sat. at UCF* TBA 7 Wed. MARSHALL* 7:05 pm 10 Sat. at Southern Miss* TBA 14 Wed. MEMPHIS* 7:05 pm 17 Sat. at UTEP* TBA 21 Wed. UAB* 7:05 pm 24 Sat. UCF* 7:05 pm 28 Wed. at SMU* TBA
MARCH 3 Sat. at Rice* TBA 7-10 Wed-Sat.at C-USA Tournament TBA
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